The Amazing Spider-Man Preview - E3 2012

The Spider-Man movie franchise is set for a reboot film this summer, and with it gamers are ready for their next Spidey fix with The Amazing Spider-Man video game. Developers Beenox, under a watchful eye of Activision, have been producing Spider-Man games for the past few years, but this is arguably their biggest effort to date. With the studio getting support from the film execs and one of the biggest publishers around, The Amazing Spider-Man has some expectations to meet. We had a chance to see and play the title at E3 this year, and the title has potential to break the mold of poor movie to game adaptations.

One of the aspects that the films have adapted from the comics is the more scientific approach to the lore of the superhero. The game adaptation will also follow this approach, and will mostly feature human-like villains from the comic books. Events take place after the movie, which has given the developers a lot of creative freedom. They had worked closely with the guys at Marvel and Sony Studios to ensure that the storyline fits with the conclusion of the movie, and also that any villains that they bring in don’t affect the future films, in order to keep the storyline consistent across all mediums.

There were four keys to developing the game. Narrative, as mentioned above, is one of them. Developers also had to consider how many gameplay and story elements they had to fit into the game in order to optimize between length of a video game and keep in touch with the movie and future storylines. The goal was to create a “15 to 30 hours experience” (which is quite a big range, likely depending on how many side missions and exploration the players will attempt).

A second key was to let players become Spider-Man. For this, the camera was brought closer to the character, akin to modern third-person shooters. Doing so not only adds details to the world and animations, but it also illustrates the quality of the character design. Indeed, playing through the game we saw great detail of Spidey’s costume – it is said that the exact character texture used in the film was brought into the game with perfect symmetry. Third design key is the Web Rush mechanic, which allows players to perform dynamic acrobatics with style but without requiring demanding user input. Fourth and final key was the fact that the game has returned to Manhattan, the main city of the series.

As the hands-on demo began, we jumped off a rooftop and entered a skydive, getting very close to the ground before deploying our web and swinging along the ground and between cars, akin to the movies. The developers hadn’t bothered themselves with making the web swinging look realistic – Spidey simply shoots his web into the air above and continues onwards – but with that, the gameplay freedom is benefitted. The world seemed large, and there were a number of random crimes happening, all hoping for a superhero to save them.

We got to check out a couple of missions – first was a simple combat scenario, where Spider-Man took on a bunch of thugs and dispatched them with style. The game’s combat mechanics are based on acrobatic moves and tons of web-based context. However, there isn’t any silly stuff like web-hammers, instead opting for a realistic approach and simply using your abilities to hamper the enemy attacks and movement. Combat flows well, and players will get to see quite a variety of moves and combos – something that works similarly to the counter-based system found in the recent Batman games.

In another mission, we were tasked with stopping bank robbers from escaping. Using the Web Rush mechanics we quickly caught up to the perps and jumped on their car. At this point, the game became a QTE event of sorts, as we continuously deployed spider webs on their windshield to obscure the view, while also dodging the gunfire from patrons inside. Eventually, the car lost control and we spectacularly swung it into the air and into a huge spider web that we’ve deployed, leaving it hanging there for the police to find. It was a cool outcome to an underwhelming scenario. Later in the game, players will get to fight anti-superhero robots and Hunter units, who need to be taken out before reinforcements are called. This is where we also saw some aerial combat, as we chased the robot through the open city until being able to grab on and destroy it with some QTEs.

Speaking of Web Rush, it promises to be a key feature in the game. Essentially, time slows down and the game presents various surfaces that Spidey can reach in one motion. Once you get there, once again time is slowed, allowing you to select another location to travel to. The developers note that the locations presented by the game are just suggestions, and players can manually select any place in the environment. Spider-Man certainly moves with grace during Web Rush, and it is said that all his movements around the city are dynamic – so if you select to travel from one building to the next, Spidey will use walls, swinging and lamp posts to get there. Whereas the path back to your starting point could be completely different. You can also utilize Web Rush without pausing, simply guiding the superhero in the direction you wish to go, and watch him travel with speed and precision.

As an added bonus, players will be able to collect pages of comic books in the game resulting in 10 complete digitized Marvel comic books. It was mentioned that 10 was the best number due to the limited physical media space, while also offering top quality of the digital editions. Due to time conflicts, the game won’t feature the actors from the movie, however Stan Lee has been made into an actual character with some unique content. From everything that we’ve seen and played, The Amazing Spider-Man looks to break the mold of movie adaptations with solid gameplay and a faithfully recreated world. The game ships in late June for consoles, and later in the summer for PC.