THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: In-Depth Details About Spidey's Latest Return to Our Consoles

Last week I got the chance to sit down with the Dee Brown, the founder of Beenox, about the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man game due out this June. Well, I can just go ahead and tell everyone right now, you need to get this game when it comes out! But you may be wondering why I say that with such praise. Let’s dive right into it.

It’s been a good while since there has been a decent open world Spider-Man title available. Most people loved the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in game because of this. Even Spider-Man: Web of Shadows game made by Treyarch, was a somewhat decent, but it still had some limitations. But now Beenox has brought the Spider-Man genre back to where it needs to be, just you becoming our favorite neighborhood web-head himself.

Beenox has been around for 12 years, with the last 4 years heavily focused on Spider-Man games. You may remember Spider-Man: Shatter Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which were both great titles, but hardly open world capable. This time around they have innovated pretty much everything about how we view a Spidey game, from the web crawling an web swinging, to the camera and combat system.

They game focuses on four key points: 

Story 

The developer had major help from Marvel in creating this game. In fact Marvel even told them to include certain elements in the game, and in the end signed off on the official storyline of it. Many times when you base a game off a movie (think about the recent Iron Man, Thor, and Batman Begins games) you are very limited to what you can do, because you are constrained to trying to recreate what happened in that movie, but in video game form. Beenox wanted to take this in their own direction, to have freedom to create a great story that would only be an addition to the movie, not a retelling of it.

The game will take place after the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie. So yes, you will see Gwen Stacy and Dr. Curt Connors in the game (I guess that is kind of a spoiler, knowing that Dr. Connors aka Lizard will not die in the film). But it also picks up on how Spidey is living his life after the events of the movie. But just to clarify now, this story will not tie into the second The Amazing Spider-Man film that we all know will happen.

Becoming Spider-Man

The game was made in a way to give you the feel that YOU are Spider-Man himself. When you play as our hero, the cameras are much closer to the action. In prior games, you had more of an aerial view, almost feeling like a puppet master of sorts. With each hit, kick, or use of your web shooters, you will be right there up close as it happens. When I viewed how all of this works myself, I was quite surprised. Simply because the cameras work so fluidly going in for the close shots, and then going back for a wide shot when you’re done and just traveling around Manhattan. Other games should take note of this.

Web Rush/Combat System

Now you will have complete control of Spider-Man. No more just blindly shooting anywhere hoping that your webbing will catch hold to something. Beenox has implemented a new “Web Rush” system. Basically, with a tap and hold of a button, you will be able to see multiple scenarios to where Spider-Man can travel to in your field of view. Don’t worry, you are not only limited to those scenarios. You can also just simply quick tap the button, and Spidey will go wherever you crosshairs were located on the screen. This makes getting around the city insanely easy, and is much needed.

Going hand-in-hand with how you move around the environment, the web rush can also help you take down enemies. Let’s say you are in a room with 10 guys, once you tap on that web rush button you will have movement options as well as options to either directly take down a foe or stealthly do so. You may remember how Spider-Man Noir would get around in the shadows in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Well you can do the same here, stealthy drop down, knock a guy out, and stick him to wall or floor or ceiling…. wherever you want!

Manhattan/Open World

NYC is anything you want it to be in this game. Sometimes you will just find yourself not even trying to take down bad guys, but rather just swinging around the city. Beenox has done a great job of capturing every aspect of the city. The lighting, the graphics, even the way people interact with you in the city is fantastic. While checking out the demo, we even dropped Spidey in front of a cop car, where the female cop proceeds to almost flick us off to get out of the way of her car. Crazy right?

So let’s go through a couple of the other things revealed about the game during this demo:

• This is the most detailed Spider-Man character that Beenox has made. The suit gets damaged as you fight and you will see scratches, tears, and even blood at times.
• There will be many side missions throughout Manhattan that will keep you busy. From stopping bank robberies, car chases, or even helping police during a shootout.
• Peter will once again have his camera in this game. You will be able to take a picture of anything in the game and save it to a digital album. Taking pictures of certain objects, or even villains, will unlock special features. Peter will also have to use the camera on missions to prove that Oscorp or other villains are up to no good.
• You will be able to collect comic books scattered throughout the city, which will also unlock special features. Many of which came from Marvel themselves!
• The game has a pseudo-Twitter Feed that will show tweets about Spider-Man. As you progress through the game, these tweets can go from good to bad depending on your actions.
• Spider-Man’s mechanical web shooters will play a big role in the game (just like they will in the film). You won’t travel around the city finding random cartridges, but rather have to go back to your apartment and refill when you have run out of them on your belt. This will be the same place where you repair your suit.
• You will be able to upgrade your web rush as you progress through the game, getting new moves and abilities.
• Notice that lovely belt Spider-Man is wearing in the trailer and screenshots? Yeah, that was requested by Marvel. So that makes one think, will we see this same belt or even an upgraded suit revealed by the end of the movie?
• There is a very good chance that there will be some celebrity talent tied to the game as well. Will Andrew Garfield be voicing Spider-Man in the game as well? More news to come.
• The game will NOT feature The Avengers or Nick Fury, due to the licensing rights belonging to another studio. But there is a good chance we will see other heroes pop up throughout the game.

So there you have it! Could one be any more impressed with what Beenox has done this time around? It looks like they have truly learned on what works and does not work from their previous Spider-Man games, and have given us a true gem. The game will be available on June 26^th right before the movie hits theaters.

Are you ready to travel around the city as your favorite web-head?