What If… Comics Could Be Read Digitally?!

Each chapter is split into ‘issues’ which does a lot to add to the ovveriding atmosphere of the game being out of a comic book. A brightly coloured comic book occasionally narrated by Stan Lee. Levels are punctuated with various pickups such as comics that you can then view the covers of in the gallery later. Sadly the comics can’t actually be read at all, but if they could, there would be little reason to buy them after so many hours were sank into (spider) tracing their location.

A new feature for the time was the use of alternative costumes, which could be earned along the way, making ‘Spider-Man’ the first Spider-Man videogame (or any game ever) to actively acknowledge the various alternative universe spider-men. Most costumes had their own unique enhancement too, such as invisibility or enhanced strength, or the symbiote costume’s unlimited webbing. This ‘Spider-Men’ concept has since been spun into its own game, though Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions has yet to be released on the PC at the time of writing.

‘Spider-Man’ also embraced the idea of cheat codes whole heartedly, going as far as a ‘what if’ mode, where basically every level becomes a psychadelic mess. Not exactly true to form there, but amongst the ridiculousness there are some notable cameos, including Ghost Rider and The Watcher. Even absurd cheat modes reference the extended Marvel universe.

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Spider-Man games have a long history of being rather unweildy when it comes to web swinging, which made ‘Spider-Man’ rather refreshing as its system was relatively intuitive if tempremental. Swinging around the city was a high point of the game, but the system necessitated a surface to swing on, so there were times which came down to painstaking targeting of nearby ledges, or desperate leaps of faith in the hope of a usable building in range that wouldn’t end in a deadly plunge into bottomless smog. The camera also could be quite infuriating and disorienting depending on the activity. Its positioning of itself became notably awkward when crawling on the ceiling, when it generally pointed the opposite of where it was desired.

But the very fact that you could even crawl on the ceiling as you saw fit was a huge novelty as well as genuinely innovative, both in and outside of the franchise. The fast zip lining to points as well as the slow upside down descent from ceilings on webbing, just screamed SPIDER-MAN. Touches like that were a big part of what made ‘Spider-Man’ so endearing; it’s trying its very hardest to be a Spider-Man game and actually provide a definitive experience where the player will feel like they took part in a comic book adventure.

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The combat is a little limited, though it does work well, and provides the obvious punches, kicks and grapples and basic combinations thereof. More significantly was the webbing, which incorporated various trademark Spidey moves, such as web gauntlets, and the web dome, impact webbing, as well as the more conventional webbing wrap.

While all the controls work together smoothly, they at times, felt altogether too much; not so much that anything was overwhelming to use, but that it seemed like they were too many controls, even though every one of them felt essential. The camera and targeting mode are good examples of this, both necessary functions that wouldn’t be necessary as separate controlled features if each respective feature was more intuitive. ‘Kid mode’ simplified the controls for the younger set, though replica F-15 flight consoles worked

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well for those who wished to master the undiluted mechanism.

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The ‘Spider-Man’ PC game doesn’t particularly add anything unique to the port, other than crisper visuals. More levels or game modes would have been nice, but clearly that was a pipe dream that never would have come to pass. Sadly this unfulfilled craving led to the hardest affected buying replica Spider-Man costumes and suction pads in bulk. They will be missed.

Brought To You By The Creators Of ‘Indecipherable Gibberish Man’

Overall, the ‘Spider-Man’ PC game was ground breaking for its time; its frenetic, free form play style and constant slavish reverence to the source material completely redefined what could be expected from comic book games as well as set the template for the next decades worth of Spider-Man games that built on the example. It has its flaws, often the game is hampered by the rougher edges of the web swinging and camera, but ‘Spider-Man’ is packed with over the top sensibilities, and a bounding sense of adventure that borders on swash buckling (or it would if the ‘Spider-Man’ PC game featured buckles or swashes). Its happy go-lucky, to the point of nearly being intentionally self parodic.

From the catchy strains of the modernised theme tune appropriated from the 60s animation, to the various cameos of other Marvel characters to the admirable commitment to cram in as much Spider-Man related story content and characters (as well as providing something new for fans at the end), quite simply even now, ‘Spider-Man’ is charming, if a bit naive in comparison to later installments of digital web slinging. In some ways ‘Spider-Man’ is the 3D era’s gaming equivalent of the early 60/70s comics, only mercifully without all that weird lingo.

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That’s all there is to it daddios, so take a riddle down jive street where all the hip cats and swing shades do their true believing and lime stone sheathing.

Excelsior!

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Why will this dirt not wash off?

This post is part of the series: Learning to Sling: A Spider-Man PC Game Retrospective

Spider Man 2001 Game Pc

A retrospective article series that (wall) crawls along the history Spider-Man games on the PC, charting how well they work on the platform and how true they are to the wealth of Spider-Man stories from throughout the years.