The INNOVATIVE Spider-Man 2 (2004) Movie Game - Retrospective Review

[Music] [Music] after the success of spider-man won the movie sony and the world were eager to jump right into a sequel set to release in 2004. alongside this movie would be another tie-in game published by activision and developed by treyarch the same people who created the spider-man 1 game the sequel game wouldn't feel derivative of what they did in the first game though because this time they had an ace up their sleeve that ace being their technical director jaime fristrom the creator of spider-man 2's innovative swinging system jaime helped develop the spider-man 1 game but felt underwhelmed by how spider-man was swinging in it stating to usgamer.net that it's practically flying except it draws some cosmetic webs in the sky and so it's like oh that doesn't feel like being spider-man that's not super cool and that's when i went off and sort of locked myself in my office at night and started prototyping what i thought would be cool this prototype formed the basis of what we know today where spider-man's webs would stick to buildings instead of clouds jaime actually had this new swinging prototype ready during the development of the spider-man 1 game but by the time the prototype was ready to show they were already too far into spider-man 1's development to implement it still everyone who saw jaime's prototype loved it and desperately wanted to use it and the decision was made to hold off on it until spider-man 2 the game when it was finally time to jump into spider-man 2 the team at treyarch were ready to dive deep into jaime's new swinging concept however they wanted to add some additional flair to the swinging besides just having webs attached to buildings their goal was to replicate the feeling you get from spider-man fully traversing the city the way he does in the movies in another quote from usgamer.net jaime further describes how the movie influenced their thoughts one thing i think the movie version did show us which was a pretty indispensable part of the spider-man 2 experience was sort of the running along the walls that he would do it wasn't just that he was a big pendulum going from wall to wall he was doing some other dramatic stuff sort of like it was an extreme sport for him and that definitely informed spider-man 2 a lot to accomplish this the team added extra traversal mechanics like web zipping wall running and even air tricks to really give you the feeling of being spider-man outside of creating this new and innovative traversal system though the team at treyarch also had the challenge of creating a fully open world for players to explore this was a relatively new idea influenced by grand theft auto 3. matt rhodes writer and designer at treyarch gave this quote regarding that challenge initially there was a lot of resistance to the idea of doing a streaming city it was tech we didn't have it's obviously very complicated to do that creating an open world was something not only had we never done it very few people had ever done it in another quote from jamie fristrom he further describes their open world compared to grand theft auto grand theft auto 3 at the time was pretty flat and because it was flat they could stream in districts as you arrived at them and you wouldn't really be able to tell that they weren't there before so that was our big technical challenge if you're on top of a skyscraper and you're looking across manhattan there should be something there you shouldn't just fog it out you can't just have nothing so we had two levels of detail we had these sort of hazy blocky buildings in the distance and then the detailed ones would load in up close with their new traversal system and fully explorable open world in place the team at triac had accomplished their goal of creating a sandbox in which you could finally feel like spider-man but what about the rest of the game as far as the story it primarily follows the same beats as the movie but intertwined with some original ideas from treyarch the game also features a recognizable voice cast with some of the actors from the film returning to voice their characters specifically toby maguire spider-man alfred molina as doctor octopus and kirsten dunst is mary jane there's also bruce campbell listed as tour guide you might remember him as the ring announcer in spider-man 1 and the theater bouncer in spider-man 2. he's a noteworthy name due to his time as the lead in the evil dead movies directed by sam raimi the director of the spider-man films we'll talk about their performances a bit later in the video but for now let's start digging into the game itself spider-man 2 released in 2004 to playstation 2 xbox pc gamecube gameboy advanced n-gage nintendo ds and psp for this video we'll be focusing on the console versions of the game and the gameplay you'll see on screen came from the gamecube version emulated on pc through the emulator dolphin which helped me to boost the graphics a bit i chose gamecube this time around since it seems to have the most stable emulation currently but the game itself is the same as the playstation and xbox copies if you're new to these retrospectives we'll discuss the game in various categories such as story gameplay and audio before concluding the video so with that said let's begin by walking through the story [Music] this is my story it's the usual thing boy meets girl boy loses girl boy meets another girl well but i'm getting ahead of myself don't think my life is all flowers and romance though i wish more and more my life is spent out here fighting some of the worst the city has to offer sometimes it's just a mugger sometimes it's a bigger problem this is the city i protect new york city it's my home my playground my responsibility [Music] and this is mary jane the girl next door the girl i love but love is a tricky thing when you live part of your life behind a mask fate handed me amazing powers and i made a promise to use those powers to help people with great power comes great responsibility no matter how much i might wish things were different there's only one spider-man at the beginning of the game we see how peter is dealing with some of the side effects of being spider-man he made a promise to use his powers to protect others but the more he embraces being spider-man the more that peter parker's lifestyle is hindered most notably how it's cost him the love of his life mary jane who seems to be moving forward without peter peter's struggle with his double life as the main theme running throughout both the film and the game as we see him come to terms with what it means to be spider-man this takes us into the opening tutorial though and it's not often that you see tutorial sections steal the show but this one really does as our tutorial guide we have bruce campbell instructing us on how to play the game even though he gives us good hints he also comes off as incredibly annoyed by the player but in a humorous way moving right along let's talk jumping hold down the jump button and you'll charge your jump this yellow bar shows how strong your jump will be when you let go of the button you got it you sure you don't actually jump until you've let go of the jump button okay now go jump in a lake what's even more fun about this opening tutorial chapter is that there are secret lines from bruce campbell that you can trigger by doing stupid things for example i found a way to die during the tutorial well i'm not sure how you managed to die i mean seriously unless you're a professional game tester there's no reason for you to be dying yet oh and if you are a professional game tester good job keep up the good work of course there's also a segment where you have to jump off a building so he can teach you how to web swing however if you choose to plummet to your death instead he'll say this ouch i would work on that landing remember it isn't falling that hurts you it's the sudden stop at the end if you choose to die yet again he'll be even more annoyed you're obviously having some trouble you got to have a point to attach your webbing right make sure you're jumping near enough to a building that you'll have something to swing from okay otherwise we can't help you pal watching you splatter on the ground is only fun once or twice maybe three times okay it's always fun for me it's really awesome that these hidden details were included in the game and they're a lot of fun to uncover i wouldn't be surprised if there are a ton more hidden throughout the game as well that myself and other players never found but after successfully completing the button tutorial bruce will guide us through various parts of the city like the comic book shop where you can buy upgrades and an arcade where we can play some tutorial games we'll also learn the basics of exploring this open world new york city but we'll discuss all of that a little bit later on for now though we'll move on with the story another common theme in this game is how peter is late for pretty much everything he gets so caught up with being spider-man that he forgets most of his other obligations in this case he remembers last minute that he needs to attend dr connor's class we're ultimately late to his class again and he warns us that we're in serious danger of failing his class not only that but it's mentioned that peter has a paper due soon on dr otto octavius which will be important later on dr connors is pretty interesting himself though since he's a notable character from the comics in the comics dr connors runs experiments on lizards in hopes of replicating their ability to regrow missing limbs he experiments on himself but instead of just growing his arm back he ends up turning into a lizard himself and becoming one of spider-man's iconic villains we were actually meant to see this play out in the game but it was unfortunately one of many aspects that were cut towards the end of development initially the plan was to have a fully explorable underground sewer system based around the lizard in another quote from usgamer.net tomo morowaki describes the scale of this sewer system we had to throw away what might have been hundreds of man months of work in this colossal underground recreation of maybe almost like a third of the scope of the overland city we had this super quirky gigantic sewer system that was like a hamster maze of varying spaces that you could swing around in and crawl around in and some of the bosses were going to be down there and we had encounters down there it was completely insane and probably in the last four months of development it was clear that we had to cut it and that was a sad day even though it really sucks that we never got this sewer system in spider-man 2 these ideas were later used in the next game spider-man 3 so we'll get to explore that more in a later video however there is still a nod to these lizard levels in this game but we'll see that a bit later on for now though peter realizes that it's his birthday and he's late for a dinner with harry and mary jane peter you made it happy birthday hey buddy mj and i had a bet going on whether you would actually show up thanks harry hey mj i'm almost afraid to ask but i won the bet i did of course okay harry pay up all right all right are you sleeping all right pete you look beat just some late nights still palling around with that murdering bug harry i know you think spider-man killed your dad he did kill my dad someday i'll get him for it too tell him that next time you see him yeah uh well hey congratulations on those billboards mj oh thanks um it's so unexpected everything's happening at once the billboards the play which you have to come see by the way i'll get you a ticket for your birthday can you swing by later and pick it up huh oh swing by yeah thanks yeah i promise i'll go so uh what's up at oscorp lately i'm heading up special projects now we've been providing funding and tritium for one of your heroes dr octavius you want to meet him do i that would be great harry i'll set everything up then hey come on let's eat during that cut scene we learn a lot about where everyone is at in their lives and some pretty interesting details are brought up first off there's the plot line from the first movie where harry thinks that spider-man killed his father and still doesn't know that his father was actually the green goblin then there's mary jane who is getting a taste of the high life with a successful play the billboard and her new relationship with john jameson who actually has a billboard of his own in the background john jameson is the son of j jonah jameson and is also an accomplished astronaut known for being the first person to play football on the moon in the comics john jameson has had some notable roles as well at one point turning into the character man-wolf he also had a what-if comic where he became spider-man instead of peter parker ironically jonah was actually very supportive of it we don't see much of jon in this game but his presence looms large for peter as the man mary jane is choosing to be with instead of him after dinner though we're tasked with patrolling the city until the next day at which point peter remembers that he had promised to meet mary jane this evening after rushing over to her we're still late and mary jane is understandably pretty upset about it during our conversation with her though peter notices some men attempting to rob a museum so he ditches mary jane and goes into spider-man mode after taking out all of the thieves we're introduced to a new character [Music] this may not be art but i like it who [Music] he got nice moves for a dork and tights are these yours please wait [Music] this of course is black cat and we're led into a gameplay section where we're meant to chase after her when we finally catch up to her though she jumps off the building and escapes for now at least in the meantime though we head to the daily bugle to see if we can get some work finally someone who hasn't been bamboozled by that media-grabbing glory seeker spider-man this quentin beck's a special effects guy from hollywood says he's got spider-man all figured out sounds like a media grabbing glory secret of me oh parker i don't pay you for your opinion parker i pay you for photos well like let me guess you don't have any pictures do you uh you're fired come back when you get me shots of that red and blue wacko even though jameson shot us down robbie luckily needs some photos of the city so we head out and take some pictures for the bugle after turning in our photos we hear explosions and people screaming this leads into our first boss fight of the game where we confront rhino rhino is a good introductory boss fight because he's relatively simple to beat but he's also incredibly strong he's basically testing your skills with your spider sense since the only way to damage him is to dodge his attacks until he lets his guard down or accidentally makes himself dizzy his health pool is pretty low as well so he's not too long of a boss fight once we beat rhino we web him up and leave him for the police another fun aspect about this game is that the enemies don't immediately despawn after being defeated so you can continue to wail on them if your heart desires the same goes for rhino and he'll even show annoyance if you continue beating on him you guys are such a nuisance but after taking our aggression out on rhino it's time to go meet harry for our introduction to auto octavius wow harry it's good to see you again otto your guests are here all right otto rose let me introduce my good friend peter parker it's a huge honor to meet parker hmm my friend dr connors told me about a brilliant student of his named parker who can't seem to stay awake in class i'm sure kurt has beaten him up enough already otto you're right of course this is my wife rosie without whom i would be lost she is my assistant and inspiration come and take a look at my masterpiece there it is sustained fusion has never been possible before why once the reaction reaches a certain point it becomes impossible to contain and control it exactly until now using tritium in the core provided exclusively by oscorp yes of course as i was saying tritium in the core lends the reaction more stability and these arms are the key amazing how do they work well you see peter we don't want to keep otto from his work in that case peter won't you join us for dinner next time you visit i'm sure otto would be happy to explain more then i would love to thanks see you then it's only a brief meeting so we spend the rest of the day patrolling the city later that evening we investigate the sound of alarms going off only to find black cat at the scene we chase after her once again and this time she actually stays to chat for a while bad i actually had to push myself this time hand over those jewels you took [Applause] jewels i saw you leaving that jewelry store you know the one with the alarm blasting i don't have any jewels [Music] wait what's your name me i'm black cat and i just crossed your path and now if you'll excuse me [Music] whoa uh mary jane who am i right peter believe it or not this is actually the toned-down version of black cat originally black cat was intended to be much sexier but activision requested treyarch dial it back a bit this is briefly described in a quote from james zachary chief animator at treyarch we made black cat really sexy and we planned on that and i remember them coming back and saying she's too sexy so we had to go in and fill her out a little more and then we had a lot of cut scenes and moves that sold that sexiness of her so we had to go in and lift cameras and change some poses so that she wasn't swinging her hips so much try not to have her feel so flirty towards spider-man black cat's sex appeal feels pretty elevated compared to everyone else in the game so i think they still managed to get that point across still it's interesting to think how different black cat could have been had activision not requested changes moving on though the next day we head to the daily bugle again to see if jameson has any work this time for once peter has good timing because jameson needs him asap for a big event that's about to start apparently famous visual effects artist quinton beck has challenged spider-man to compete against him in an arena of his own design with the goal of proving to the world that spider-man is actually a fraud with no powers we of course accept that challenge if his name sounds familiar quentin beck is the alter ego of the villain mysterio and his outfit here is reminiscent of his classic comic appearance which i think was a nice touch quentin's first challenge for us here is to round up more criminals than him and place them in these containment centers located in the ground we'll be rounding up actual inmates for this challenge one of which is herman schultz aka the shocker a villain that spider-man apprehended in the first game he'll be important later but for now it's time to show up quentin beck this challenge was actually pretty fun too and beating quinton wasn't a walk in the park he can grab multiple criminals at once and i always felt like his score was pretty close to mine throughout the challenge still we managed to collect more criminals than him and move on to the next challenge this one focuses more on traversal as spider-man must navigate through these moving platforms without being spotted by beck if you're caught out in the open beck will blast you with an electric cannon if you get hit three times you lose this one wasn't too tricky but it was a fun little challenge especially with the wall crawling sections where you have to accurately time the movements of the platforms to avoid falling by the way is it just me or do these flipping platforms sound like some guy grunting [Music] nevertheless we make it across all the platforms and embarrass quentin beck once again and as for you beck stick with the movies it's obvious reality is way too much for you to handle ah how could he it isn't fair he doesn't deserve the spotlight it just isn't fair oh he can't win he won't win that's smug bug let's see how he likes it when i turn this cannon to maximum power [Laughter] what the laser is overheating oh stupid machine work work come on work problems with your laser back i hear there are pills for that now while quentin is having his pity party we decide to head over to see dr otto octavius and his wife rosie for dinner once there peter and octavius nerd out over his fusion reactor and like in the movie peter expresses concerns over otto's ability to control the reaction we never get to hear otto's response to these concerns in the game but in the movie he arrogantly just brushes off peter's concerns so i'm assuming he has the same mindset here but after dinner peter realizes he was supposed to go see mary jane's play tonight so we rush over to try and catch it in time on our way we come across a robbery in progress unfortunately handling that robbery delayed us just enough to miss mary jane's play which i think is meant to symbolize the strife that being spider-man has placed on peter's personal life to pour salt in the wound we catch up to mary just in time to witness her being all lovey-dovey with john jameson john jameson what are you doing here well there's this beautiful girl in the cast did she say jameson someone shoot me now stalking girls now well that's pretty pathetic don't you think or is she on your naughty list too not exactly what do you care anyway no reason just dropping by to say hi by the way remember those guys you beat up the other day in the art gallery i remember well it turns out there's a whole ring of them i just happened to find their hideout the other day i could show you if you could take a break from the peeping tom routine that is uh sure i really wasn't spying you know if you haven't seen the movie black cat doesn't appear there and was an original choice for the game i actually really love the idea to include her here though because i think she does a good job at further showcasing the divide between peter's two lives as well as his potential futures depending on the version of himself that he ultimately chooses to be mary jane is the life he could have if he fully embraces being peter parker where black cat resembles a life focused on spider-man having a love interest on each side evened things out so i think black cat's inclusion in the game is very effective at displaying peter's split lives it also helped me to further sympathize with peter feeling like he's being pulled in two separate directions as well as the dilemma of having to choose one life over the other when both sound equally favorable she's also just a really fun character to have pop up and black hat always brings a lot of fun and energy to her scenes but as promised black cat leads us to the thieves loading up some stolen artwork unbeknownst to spider-man though there's a sculpture that's caught her eye black cat will fight alongside us for a while but while we're distracted she sneaks off and takes the statue leaving peter feeling like a sucker so we brush it off and patrol the city the next day we swing by the daily bugle to try and scrounge up some work it just so happens that quentin beck has decided to hold a news conference and jameson needs peter there to take some photos all is not as it seems though what do you think beck's got this time who knows he's a little loopy right hollywood types people of new york i am mysterio i have determined that your planet is [Music] mysterio now i've seen [Music] everything you need your fate is sealed [Music] one detail i like during this cutscene is that the theater curtain has these two eye shapes on it reminiscent of the eye pendants on mysterio's classic costume but anyway it seems that beck has fully embraced his persona as mysterio as a way to steal the spotlight back from spider-man as mysterio he's giving the illusion that he's an alien from space set to take over the world this could be a reference to mysterio's origin in the comics specifically peter parker the spectacular spider-man number 51 which retconned amazing spider-man number two to reveal that spider-man unknowingly first fought quentin beck while he was pretending to be an alien for the tinkerer in that issue tinkerer's plan was to bug various high-end officials to get dirt on them and sell that info to the highest bidder quentin beck's role was to make it seem like aliens were responsible for these schemes to prevent any further investigations by authorities spider-man thwarted tinker's plan but beck managed to escape years later beck returns as mysterio where he's continuing the alien ruse i really like the alien illusion here in the game too and it's a really compelling segment in the game but after saving all of the civilians from the burning theater mysterio informs us that his armada of aliens are taking over the statue of liberty so we rush over to investigate mysterio is clearly up to something on liberty island and luckily he left some alien devices floating above the water for us to swing on as we get closer we can see that mysterio is replacing lady liberty with his image in order to stop it we have to swing incredibly high up and destroy some alien power sources once all of them are destroyed we can swing to the main platform and destroy a brain with the brain popped this shuts down mysterio's invasion of lady liberty he's not done yet though since he challenges us to face him at his hidden fortress we somehow know where that is and head straight over only to find it someone's apartment it's not all as it seems though as we find an elevator hidden behind a sliding bookcase this elevator takes us to my favorite level in the game glad no one was around to see that where the heck am i welcome spiderman so glad you could drop in hey it's mysterio the cliche who walks like a man silence prepare to meet your end in my fun house of doom fun house of doom i thought you were an alien silence as i was saying even as we speak i am watching you for life in control perhaps you can find me if you survive let's begin shall we let me introduce you to my friend mr hoffenheck such a cheerful fellow is indeed you'll soon discover that he's quite like here we get a new enemy type an inflatable clown wielding an axe he's pretty cool though since his mechanic is based on one of those kids toys that bounces back at you when you hit it so you always have to be ready to dodge as soon as you finish a combo on it it's kind of a unique way to have an enemy counter your attacks and i thought it was a clever and thematic enemy type but after beating the inflatable clown we enter the fun house of doom the first room we find kind of reminds me of the haunted mansion at disneyland and it eventually flips upside down spider-man can stick to walls though so i'm not sure how he managed to fall like that regardless we fight more clowns in this room while we're watched by an illusion of mysterio's face this face illusion they created is really creepy and i think it was a very cool idea so far i'm really loving everything that they're doing with mysterio's levels the next room we enter is a hall of mirrors but with a twist all the weird reflections of spider-man can walk through the mirrors and they'll try and fight us even using their own web attacks we have to fight off all of the spider-men that attack us while also attempting to break all the mirrors out of all the fun house rooms i think this one's my favorite it's a really creative concept and i love how creepy it is to have the eye on the floor watching you the entire time not to mention the floating face of mysterio in the air this is such a cool level altogether and i can tell the design team had a really fun time creating these levels but after destroying all of the mirrors one reveals a doorway inside we find mysterio's control room with an angry hologram there are also multiple props and costumes scattered around one of which being that classic mysterio outfit from the comics unfortunately it seems that beck managed to escape so we have no choice but to hop out the window and continue our day as we're patrolling the city we remember that dr octavius's demonstration is beginning soon so we head straight over [Music] thank you for coming ladies and gentlemen you are all about to witness the dawning of a new age the power of a sun is now ours [Music] [Music] so [Music] peter [Music] wait a minute hiccup nothing to be alarmed about what get out of here you maniac [Music] rosie believe it or not that actually killed rosie so we have to shut down the power as quickly as possible it's a fairly simple mission though where you have to dodge the pulsing containment field as you attempt to destroy all of the control terminals once the power is shut off we flee the scene the next day while we're exploring the city we remember that we're late for dr connor's class again on our way we're delayed by attacking alien robots in the meantime doctor octopus pays connors a visit help me otto are you all right i i heard on the news that i killed them all right otto just calm down let's call the police police no no police those tentacles [Music] we need to get you help you're obviously not well get away from me you traitor what yeah he wants to turn me into the police is this how you would pay my friendship [Music] yes of course that murderous arachnid spider-man he killed rosie destroyed my life's work in an instant i'll rebuild it though and kill him it shouldn't have been like this you're right if i am a criminal then i will have to act as a criminal to do what i must i need money need to rebuild [Music] for rosie when we finally arrive we find dr connors on the ground he passes out before he can tell us what happened and we rush him to the hospital in hopes of generating a lead on this incident we head to the daily bugle we're just in time as jameson is discussing how otto killed the doctors who were attempting to operate on him and escape the hospital after learning this news about otto we leave the bugle and head to the bank to meet aunt may in the movie it's revealed that ant-may is at risk of having her house foreclosed on so we go to the bank to try to find solutions coincidentally this is also the exact moment that octavius decides to rob that same bank peter runs off and returns as spider-man to thwart octavius like in the movie doc grabs aunt may as a hostage to cover his escape unlike the movie doctor octopus escapes via a helicopter and leaves ant may on the railroad tracks with an oncoming train we rush over to rescue her and drop her safely in the park later we return to our apartment and check our voicemail it seems jameson needs us asap for pictures of his son's charity event we arrive just in time to witness jon jameson announce that mj has decided to marry him right on cue black cat shows up mary jane has just agreed to marry me and i couldn't wait to share my happiness with everyone so what's the hunk superpower he threw a football on the moon uh-huh red is easily impressed isn't she shouldn't you try to find somebody more your speed just what i needed love advice from a thief are you still sore about that statue i gave it to the cops already i was just having some fun with you you look kind of cute trying to figure out what happened back at that warehouse anyway my original point was why are you still bothering with a normal girl normal is boring normal is half my life at least it's supposed to be why i mean seriously why settle for being some smoke when you can be a superstar well forget it well i was going to tell you about shocker but you're obviously busy sulking shocker what about him oh just that he broke out of prison a little while back and he's back in the city i was going to show you where he's hiding out but show me that's a spirit trust me kicking his heavily padded butt will make you feel better yeah you're probably right let's go while we follow black cat she informs us that shocker managed to escape during our arena event with quentin beck you can actually see him escape in the background while becca's sulking eventually we make it to the abandoned power plant which serves as shocker's hideout this leads into a boss fight against shocker and he's probably my favorite boss fight in the game there's not much to him but he feels well balanced he'll send shock blast at you occasionally and run around the map and when you finally catch up to him you try to get as many hits in as you can before he charges up an incredibly powerful energy pulse getting caught in it does a lot of damage and he'll start charging it as soon as you land your first combo attack on him it's fun trying to gauge how many hits you think you can put in before attempting to escape and i like this risk-reward playstyle with him it's a bit tedious chasing him around the map but his health pool is low enough that it doesn't drag on for too long after doing enough damage to him he'll realize this is a losing battle so he targets black cat as a way to cover his escape black cat is fine aside from a bruised ego but she says she has some other things to do now so we head out and patrol the city some more the next day we head to the daily bugle for more work you were looking for me mr jameson parker where were you 15 minutes ago there's a latvian diplomat coming into the city by helicopter he's landing any moment and i need a photo now get over there like your job depended on it got it mr jameson the latvarian diplomat is likely a fun easter egg for dr doom the ruler of latveria on our way there though a pedestrian is yelling about martians robbing a speedy mart i was more interested in trying to see doctor doom though so i kept going to his location unfortunately by the time you get there doom has already entered the helicopter and you can't see him but peter at least has comments on it i missed him jj is gonna kill me but maybe i can make it up if i get a picture of that alien robbery having missed the letvarian diplomat we head back to the speedy martin hopes of getting pictures of something interesting for jonah lo and behold it's mysterio robbing a convenience store mysterio pulls another grand illusion this time targeted at us the player as we see him charge up multiple layers of a giant health bar to intimidate us in all actuality though he goes down in one punch whoa that was sick dude you rocked so hard spidey oh i i give up don't don't hit me again quentin beck i presume say cheese excited about our new photos we rushed back to the bugle to show jameson as you'd expect though he's never impressed parker what do you want i have some photos you might want to see remember quentin beck turns out he was mysterio so beck and spider-man were in cahoots all along how can you look at those pictures and say that i don't have time for your moral outrage parker i'm trying to run a paper here and make sure my son's wedding de jean marie doesn't bankrupt me her name is mary jane yeah right right i'll give you 200 for the lot you can collect your money on your way out immediately after leaving the bugle we hear someone yelling for help when we drop in they're actually more scared of us and run away it's become apparent to peter that the bugle's negative articles about him have started to make regular citizens assume that he's the bad guy this is likely a nod to the famous comic issue titled spider-man no more where the daily bugle's negative press has caused the city to fear spider-man this causes peter to feel a lot of self-doubt so he decides to throw away the spider-man suit and give up being spider-man eventually a new villain emerges in spider-man's absence causing him to rise up and take the mantle again he also gets a brief moment to confront jameson albeit in a lighthearted fashion he basically tells him that in the time that he's been away he's just been recruiting more spider-man for the city it's a great comic and was a big inspiration for the spider-man 2 movie pissed off though peter decides to return back to the bugle and give jameson a piece of his mind luckily black cat stops us and cools us down before we make it inside even better she brings news of shocker's whereabouts so we follow black cat again to his new hideout shockers hold up in an old oscorp research lab a more advanced hideout compared to the last one when we enter it seems shocker has been waiting for us revealing that he told every low life in new york where his hideout was so he'd fall into his trap shocker is more souped up for this battle and generates a force field for himself so we can't damage him with black cat we work as a team to take down shocker our goal of spider-man is to distract shocker while black cat finds a way to shut down the force field after hitting the switches to shut down his defense we're given a window of opportunity to fight him like we did in the last battle like in that fight he'll charge up a damaging energy pulse after we attack him we'll follow the same pattern of shutting down the power and attacking him a couple of times until we take him down for good was that as good for you as it was for me i have to admit you were right i feel much better you see i told you baby stick with me and you'll be fine come see me next time you're feeling down all right i'll see you around she's pretty amazing don't you think shock i think my career has just hit a new low ah who cares what you think after leaving shocker webbed up for the police we realize we might have just enough time to make it to mary jane's play we're of course still late but our timing is actually pretty good as she's leaving thieves attack mary jane in hopes of robbing her we swoop in and stop them reminiscent of the first movie this scene doesn't lead to an upside down kiss though and instead mary jane tells spider-man that she's getting married what are you doing here you know me always hanging around i'm getting married i don't know if you heard oh really what's he like he's there he loves me and he's there i see i um i i have to get back to my patrol see you around yeah next time a bunch of thugs try to jump me it's a date after this awkward interaction with mary jane peter remembers that he was supposed to meet black cat this evening too and we meet up on what looks to be the chrysler building interestingly enough we can actually see black cat in the same spot during the opening credits this location has another easter egg as well since you can find bird feathers along the side this is in reference to the first game where we fought vulture on this same building black cat can tell spider-man is in a bad mood though and suggests stopping a crime to lighten up his day black cat knows that something big is going down at another warehouse so we'll head there next honestly these black cat traversal missions have been getting old pretty fast so i'm glad the developers decided to change things up a bit here by making it into a race this time instead of another chase mission she's pretty quick too and provides a good challenge but once we arrive at the warehouse we find that it's an auction for some powerful armored suits instead of using the element of surprise to our advantage black cat finds it more amusing to make a dramatic entrance by announcing herself first this throws us right into the battle against the mechs these things are rough too and i found them to be the most challenging enemy type in the game they not only have machine gun turrets but they'll also blast you with rockets that have a good sized area of effect the best way i could defeat them was to get behind them and attack while i could throw in another mech though and it becomes even more difficult i think these things are actually more difficult than most of the bosses in the game too it took me a few tries but eventually we finally take them all down still peter can't get over the fact that black cat blew their cover and he ends up getting really pissy about it what were you doing we had to drop on them it was more fun my way that's totally irresponsible what are you so upset about we won well excuse me for trying to get you to enjoy yourself for once black cat leaves and we swing around the city while we think about whether we should give up being peter parker or spider-man peter eventually comes to the conclusion that he doesn't have to quit either of them and that he can find the right balance after coming to this realization he decides to catch up to black cat and talk to her once we find her peter basically breaks up with her we need to talk um okay talk then i don't think i can see you anymore hysterical blindness what oh nothing like that i just finally realized something i'm not like you i can't live the life that you do my powers came with a responsibility and i need the balance of a normal life being spider-man is who i am but being just me that's who i am too let's skip ahead to the part where you ask if we can still be friends can we still be friends [Music] don't sound so dejected once i cross your path i'm not so easy to get rid of go find your girl that's what you want to do right you finally started listening to me you're doing what you want i thanks kat see you around [Music] despite her alluding otherwise we unfortunately won't see black cat for the rest of the game regardless peter is so excited by his decision that he rushes straight over to mary jane's apartment to tell her that he loves her as you would expect mary jane tells him that she's still getting married and can't handle this conversation right now she heads back inside and peter realizes he was acting too impulsively meanwhile doctor octopus breaks into harry's office at ozcorp in search of the rare element tritium harry strikes a deal with him requesting awk find spider-man and bring him here as a reward he'll give him the tritium och agrees and harry suggests he start by finding peter parker since peter is known for taking pictures of spider-man we then return back to playing as spider-man and head to our apartment surprisingly mary jane has left us a voicemail saying to meet her at the diner we head over but before we can discuss anything octavius launches a car through the window a strange thing to do considering he needs peter alive to tell him about spider-man luckily for ock though peter survives anyway otto takes mary jane hostage telling peter that if he wants her to live he'll get spider-man to meet him later having no choice but to oblige spider-man shows up to meet ok hawk then jumps onto a moving train and removes its breaks this leads to a boss fight on a moving train against doctor octopus and it's a pretty cool fight aside from trying to stay aboard the train we also have to dodge aux tentacle attacks and then web them to the ground once his mechanical arms are webbed we're free to attack him after dealing enough damage awk will flee and we're left with the runaway train spider-man saves it much easier here than in the movie though however stopping the train used up all of his energy causing him to pass out with this opportunity ock grabs us and takes us to harry awk then takes the tritium and leaves harry to his business before i kill you i want to see who you are [Music] peter how can you be spider-man spider-man killed my dad my dad loved you like a son like a son harry we don't have time for this octavius has mj you have to tell me where he is i have to save her mary jane octavius he has a lab that he set up on an abandoned pier she's probably there we'll talk later harry i promise with harry's intel we rush over to the abandoned warehouse where awk is keeping mj once we make it there we sneak in flawlessly don't worry mj i'll get you out of here okay not flawlessly and that hit also knocked peter's mask off revealing his identity to both ock and mj with oxfusion reaction active once again we have to shut it down to save the city we'll have to traverse around this bus setup warehouse in order to shut down all of the control centers while also dodging the pulsing containment field and doctor octopus himself unfortunately shutting off all the control panels doesn't power down the fusion reaction but it does at least remove the shield around dr octopus with him vulnerable this leads to our final battle against him like in the previous fights we'll dodge his tentacle attacks and web them up and then beat up doc ock for as long as we can often causing him to bug out after dealing enough damage to him awk finally snaps out of his insanity what have we done what have i done [Music] dr octavius we have to stop that reactor before it's too late this is bad there's only one thing to do get the young lady out i'm sorry peter you weren't to blame for the accident my hubris my vanity cost rosie her life now i must set things right [Music] hang on [Music] i'm sorry i didn't tell you mj i wanted to i even tried a couple of times but i think a part of me always knew now you see why i can't be with you it wouldn't be fair to you i was selfish to ask you you should marry john peter [Music] [Applause] come on in it's open expecting someone mj you're supposed to be getting married you i made a decision this involves both of us peter and you need to trust me to make my own choice i know who you are i know the life i'm choosing and i want to be with you that's the way it is deal [Music] go get em tiger mary jane the girl next door the girl i love and now the girl waiting for me at the end of the day fate handed me amazing powers and with those powers came a burden of responsibility somehow though having her with me makes that burden lighter still in the end it's mine to bear after all there's still only one spider-man and that ends the story of the game overall i think it was a pretty solid narrative it definitely feels really short though and i think i beat it in around five or six hours i don't really hold that against treyarch though since from what i can tell the short narrative is due to a lot of cuts that were made in the last few months before the game's release for example treyarch originally planned for some levels involving the lizard craven the hunter and the voodoo priestess calypso to appear as villains it's a shame they didn't have time to include these levels but a lot of those plans were later used for spider-man 3 so they did show up in some capacity down the line at least as far as the story that we got in this game though i enjoyed it but there were definitely some areas that felt more clunky than others namely the parts that adapt the movie in my opinion the game is at its strongest when it's creating its own original story beats and at its worst when it's replicating the movie i think this is common in a lot of movie tie-in games though probably because the developers are given a lot less creative freedom when forced to create specific levels to match the movie you can definitely tell that treyarch were having a lot more fun with their original levels and so was i the mysterio levels were so much fun and inventive and they felt a lot more fleshed out compared to anything involving doctor octopus his levels all felt very rushed and ended up being my least favorite ones even compared to shocker i get the sense that the doctor octopus levels all felt like an obligation to the developers while the rest of the game was where the excitement was i wouldn't blame them for feeling that way either and i think that's a major weakness to movie tie and games in general the writers and designers are hamstrung into recreating scenes that were meant for a film and movie scenes don't often translate as well into games i think that's especially apparent in the mary jane love arc it's a major part of the film but it doesn't really fit the game all that well the peter mary jane love arc came across very forced awkward and clunky and i got way more chemistry between spider-man and black cat than i ever did with peter and mj so even though the scenes adapted from the movie felt the most out of place i wouldn't say that the story is bad in fact i really love the original story missions and i think they carry the story especially the mysterio bits because i think he really shines the brightest in the game in our last retrospective he was the main antagonist in shattered dimensions although i absolutely love that game i think mysterio was actually handled better here his levels all have the most flair and there's a lot of fun absurdity to them mixed in with just enough creepiness to make it unnerving in the best of ways i don't even mind that he gets taken out with one punch in the convenience store as a kid when i first played this game i was bummed out that mysterio got taken down like a chump instead of posing a realistic threat but i think it fits the game's character well everything about him is illusory he's all bark no bite and i like that his final move is a trick against the player as he shows us this exaggerated health bar to intimidate us overall i think he was handled in a really fun way and his scenes ended up being my favorite i really liked black cat a lot too black cat is the spider-man what mary jane is to peter and i like that contrast i think she's a clever inclusion in that regard but i also like the energy that she brings to each level everyone else in the game seems so moody especially spider-man it's nice having black cat pop in to lighten things up although the developers had to cut down how flirty she was with peter i kind of wish they left more of that in maybe because toby mcguire's line readings as spider-man sounds so awkward when he tries to flirt that i find it amusing but i think those moments are fun regardless you always chase girls who brush you off no only the naughty ones i was definitely disappointed when peter broke things off with her but i was glad that they left the door open for her to return it's been a long time since i played spider-man 3 so i don't remember if she's in it i'm guessing not but she's a character i would have liked to have seen again we'll talk about the other characters a bit more when we get to the audio section for now though even though the main plot of the game has concluded the story isn't technically finished just yet as we're given another story chapter the first day of the rest of your life this chapter doesn't have any story tied to it and is instead just another day in the life of spider-man you're tasked with patrolling the city and basically doing whatever you want while attempting to eventually accumulate 50 000 points there are a ton of things that you can do in the city to achieve those points so let's next discuss the gameplay in spider-man 2. city's been quiet lately maybe my luck's finally changing [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] isn't it beautiful rosie this will be my gift to the world unlimited energy the power of a son harnessed for the good of all mankind don't forget the good of otto eat something the world will still be here in half an hour [Music] as much as we focused on the story so far the real stars of the show are the traversal and open world for the first time spider-man can attach his webs to buildings and he can explore an open world in new york city this was incredibly ambitious at the time and it's clearly the hallmark feature of the game the ability to traverse in this way may seem commonplace now but it was a big deal back in the day and really shaped the expectations for how spider-man should play ever since i think that's most evident in spider-man ps4 which clearly took a lot of inspiration from this game using what it did well and building upon it although both games have some similarities their traversal handles pretty differently if you've recently played spider-man ps4 you'll remember how effortlessly you could move around the city primarily by just holding down the right trigger and pointing the control stick in any direction it looks amazing but it's not difficult in spider-man 2 though it's not that simple spider-man 2 requires more skill in its traversal you have to be more methodical with how you gauge your speed and move around the city and there are also different button inputs that you have to keep in mind so you don't lose that momentum for example in spider-man ps4 if you accidentally run into a wall spider-man will naturally start wall running in spider-man 2 you need to anticipate that you're about to run into a wall and then press the right trigger and circle to start a wall sprint it's fun when you can pull off different combinations in the city like moving from a web swing into a wall sprint and then back to swinging but it definitely requires more coordination than in spider-man ps4 this isn't a bad thing though and it felt really rewarding as i got better with its traversal it's also still incredibly relaxing to just swing around the city and explore for fun after playing more modern spider-man games i was curious to see how this game's traversal held up and if it would feel archaic now but actually feels just as great as i remembered there's a lot of freedom to explore the city the way you want to and it's still satisfying to just swing around aimlessly with jaime first german everyone else that treyarch was able to accomplish with spider-man 2's traversal was incredibly impressive and it's easily the biggest achievement in the game but while you're swinging around what can you do in the city to accumulate those 50 000 points well there's a lot for starters there are a ton of different buildings that you can enter making the world feel more lively some of these areas are just various shops and restaurants but some are also villain hideouts for example a nightclub where a ton of henchmen like to hang out you'll show up and beat down the criminals and usually there's a little token that you can collect in there as well finding a hideout token is worth a lot of points and they help you to keep track of which hideouts you've been to already there are a ton of different tokens scattered around the city incentivizing you to explore everywhere some of the other token types are for skyscrapers on top of new york's largest buildings secret tokens hidden in hard to see areas and buoy tokens requiring you to jump across the water to reach them spider-man can't swim in this game so if you miss the jump you'll scurry out of the water like a cat from a bath it's always rewarding finding these little tokens scattered around the map and i had fun casually exploring the city in search of them then there are challenges that are scattered around the city as well these range from easy to intense and test your skills in traversal some require you to race as fast as you can to a certain point in the city while some require you to perform certain moves to progress all of them are timed and the points are rewarded are based on how fast you can complete a challenge then there are hint markers they're not worth a lot of points but they're always fun to find not only do they give you helpful hints towards things like combat and traversal but they're also narrated by bruce campbell he of course has a lot of sass while reading these to you making tutorial hints a lot more fun than they otherwise would be some of them aren't even hints at all and are just there for fun for example this one is my personal favorite okay here's a little piece of advice i oh hang on i need to get that hello oh hey baby well no i haven't forgotten no well listen baby it's not like that look i'll have to get back to you later this might be a while well no one baby no don't worry about it yeah tell me about it see listen later tonight aside from different markers and tokens there are also some in-world challenges that you can trigger based on peter parker's life one of which is delivering pizzas for mr aziz you'll play a spider-man and you have to race across town and deliver all the pizzas in your bag before time runs out one catch though is that you can't flip around a bunch of spider-man or it'll ruin the pizzas so you have to be careful in how you're traversing or you'll start to lose points depending on how many times you flipped over the pizzas these were fun the first couple times but they start to get tedious pretty quick however i really love the music that plays during the challenge [Music] [Music] you can also pick up work from the daily bugle taking pictures for robbie it's another time challenge where you have to race to certain points on the map so peter can snap a photo these were longer challenges often lasting a few minutes each where every second counts they reward a lot of points if you're successful but if you run out of time you get nothing out of it so i found my time was usually better spent doing other challenges in the city still they're a pretty fun inclusion they're also mary jane missions you'll swing by mj's apartment and you'll find a note left by her typically stating that you're running late to a date that you scheduled with her this is of course another time mission where we have to race across town and meet mj before the timer runs out there's not much else to this one but it's a fun way to incorporate mary jane probably the most common way you'll be acquiring points in this game though are through random events in the city there are two different kinds spontaneous ones happening right now indicated by this purple icon and events triggered by talking to a civilian indicated by this green icon regarding the green icon you'll run over to a civilian who will give you a tip on a crime going down somewhere nearby this is randomly generated and could be any number of things some common ones are carjackings or armored car robberies sometimes the civilian called you over only to have you jumped by criminals which is a cool detail overall these aren't too exciting but they are a good way for you to get some combat in when you're in the mood even though these missions start to get a bit repetitive there's a big enough variety of them that they don't become annoying and it's fun to see which crimes pop up next to also help against too much repetition villain specific henchmen start to pop up once you encounter them in the game for example after that first mysterio level random events involving his alien drones will start to appear same with shocker and doc ox men the most difficult ones are still those armored mechs though and they'll occasionally pop up as events too even though i dreaded seeing the armored mechs since they were the ones that killed me the most they also pay out the best so they're worth the time i also really like the one where a boat is sinking in the harbor and you have to rescue everyone before it's completely submerged it's a unique event and i thought it was pretty fun the spontaneous events with the purple indicator aren't quite as intricate though it's usually someone getting their purse robbed or someone driving recklessly however this is where the infamous balloon missions come from frequently while you're swinging around some kid will let go of their balloon and it's your mission to grab it and return it back to them it's nothing crazy but i think it's often criticized for feeling pointless like superman saving a cat from a tree still you can ignore them if you want but i did find a small amount of enjoyment completing a few of these as the balloon gets higher it becomes trickier to grab since you start to run out of areas to swing from so you have to act fast to grab it and i often had to plot out jump points and accurately time my leaps to snag the balloon so they're not all bad although i will admit that the kid's voice was kind of annoying and after doing a bunch of these i wanted some revenge so i got to a point where i decided to grab the balloon and just run off with it to see what would happen and while the balloon just pops aside from those though there is one more area where you can rack up some points but first i want to talk about combat the combat in spider-man 2 is pretty solid as you progress the game new combos will be available in the store for you to purchase there are quite a few of them too so you're given some good variety to play around with i especially like that the combat has a good balance of web attacks integrated into it as well in fact i think the web moves are my favorite in the game it's really satisfying spinning an enemy around and hitting other enemies with them or firing a glob of webbing to subdue them however i think air combat is the most powerful feature here especially if you can juggle enemies for a while i noticed that i started to favor moves that would launch enemies into the air over others and that air combo seemed to be the fastest way to defeat an enemy but overall you have quite a few options for taking down enemies the way that you like the developers also integrated these spider sense into combat in two ways the first is the typical buzzing around spidey's head indicating that an attack is incoming if you press the dodge button in time you can avoid all the damage it's pretty nice when you're faced with gunfire since spider-man can dodge all of the incoming bullets if it's a melee attack you can follow up the dodge with your own counter attack my favorite being a whirlwind kick that damages nearby enemies the second version of the spider sense can be triggered whenever this bar is full and it slows down time this makes it easier to get the upper hand on enemies and you also get some exclusive attack animations i also like how you have a lot of freedom with how to handle enemies in the city in games like spider-man ps4 they've gone to additional lengths to show that spider-man doesn't kill like by having an enemy that's thrown off a building get automatically webbed to a nearby wall spider-man 2 isn't concerned with that and if you want you can grab an enemy take them to the top of the empire state building and pile drive them into the street yeah i know it's pretty sadistic but my point is that it's fun using the environment in ways that you can't in future games overall though i really like the combat in spider-man 2 and although it's not perfect i had fun with what it had to offer but that brings me to the final challenge mode that i want to discuss in the game the arena mode after beating the game you can go to the store and purchase the arena to use it you'll have to go back to the old warehouse where you first fought shocker and there will be a little challenge marker waiting for you here you're faced with increasingly difficult rounds of combat aimed at testing your skills there are three different types too timed endurance and boss levels even more exciting though is that some of the cut content that didn't make it into the game are introduced here for example one of the enemy types that you'll face occasionally are lizard minions from those cut sewer missions there's also a secret boss in the arena but we'll get there in a moment you first start with only the timed version unlocked and as you'd expect you have to take out a certain amount of criminals before the timer runs out these were my least favorite of the arena challenges though since there are already so many time trials in the game as is since i was being timed i also didn't feel like i had the freedom to test out combos the way that i wanted to and instead had to default to whatever the fastest method of beating enemies would be so overall i didn't enjoy the timed combat challenges but after you beat three rounds of it you unlock endurance mode which i think is a bit better instead of being timed to take out a certain number of enemies you now have unlimited time but you face a larger volume of enemies at first i was excited about this one but the quantity of enemies is so high that you still can't fight them the way that i had hoped the first couple rounds aren't too bad but once you get to round three with 75 enemies and a lot of guns i felt like i had to game the system a bit more i found that i was taking too much damage trying to fight the enemies head on so instead i would web one up take them to a rooftop or high platform and then beat them down one by one maybe more skilled players can handle these groups of enemies more effectively but i was really anxious to try out the next challenge section the boss mode in this series of challenges villains are thrown into the mix the early levels start with one villain like rhino or shocker amongst a small amount of henchmen one of the bosses we'll face here is the secret boss calypso exclusive to this game mode in the comics calypso is a voodoo priestess often associated with craven the hunter she's a tough and intricate boss fight too she'll use a variety of magic against us like launching fireballs or freezing us with ice she also teleports around the map and the only way to stun her is to find a magical staff hidden around the level if you punch it she'll be stunned for a moment allowing us to deal some damage it's pretty tedious hunting for the staff the whole time but otherwise she's a pretty cool boss fight and i'm glad the developers found a place to put her in as you get further into the boss rounds though multiple villains start to fight alongside each other in the final level you're faced against all of the villains at once rhino shocker doctor octopus and calypso this is a really awesome level and really tests you it's incredibly difficult though as you slowly try to chip away at each villain calypso makes this way harder too since she can really screw you over with a well-timed ice blast on his own rhino isn't too tough to beat but if calypso can trap you for a moment rhino can get an opportunity to deal some massive damage the same goes for shocker where i was confident i could get some extra punches in before his big energy blast only to be stuck in place right before my exit even though it's a very difficult challenge round it's also really fun and i was surprised at how well all of the villains attacks mesh together almost as if they're fighting as a team it's the closest thing we'll get to a sinister sixth battle in this game and i really enjoyed it but that's the gist of the arena mode as well as everything you can do around the city after you accumulate that 50 000 points a new chapter will begin the second day of the rest of your life there are no goals anymore and you're pretty much free to roam the city and do whatever you want now you do get one reward for getting the 50 000 points though if you go back to the spidey store there will be an upgrade available to your swing speed this will help you to traverse the world faster and give you an edge on the game's many time trials so i think it's a worthwhile reward to end the game with overall i really loved traversing new york city and exploring everything it had to offer it's surprisingly relaxing to swing around town and i liked having the option to test myself with various challenges if i was in the mood my only complaint is the over-reliance on time trials the vast majority of challenges in this game are time trials based around traversal and it got old really fast i think this is another reason that i especially enjoyed the arena mode since it felt so different from the rest of the challenges in the game regardless i had a lot of fun with the gameplay in spider-man 2 and it still holds up today [Applause] for those of you just joining us hollywood effects expert and spider-man critic quentin bent has issued a public challenge to the webslinger bob what do you think well steve it's a bold move no doubt about it personally my money's on spider-man all right we'll have to see how it plays out here comes quentin back now and now you're mc and host for this evening you know his legendary work from such films as cyborg babysitter and tears of an alien bounty hunter a man who has worked tirelessly for the entertainment of all mankind ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to introduce that master of phil magic illusion that expert of the unknown the one the only thank you for coming spider-man i know you couldn't resist i don't like people building a career off bad mouthing in fact what about that newspaper man jameson jj he just has a knack for hiring good photographers at first glance the voice cast for spider-man 2 is pretty exciting with three stars of the movie returning to voice their characters toby maguire spider-man kirsten dunst as mary jane and alfred molina as doctor octopus as excited as i was to see them in the game's credits i felt pretty underwhelmed by their performances these three in particular felt like they were giving pretty flat line readings throughout the game and i rarely felt like i got much enthusiasm or energy from these actors i don't know if it's because their craft is with physical acting and not voice acting or if they just saw the game as an obligation but their performances were disappointing so even though these three are the big selling points of the game's cast i feel like they're also amongst the weakest however i still think the most jarring performance in this game is ant-may and me sorry i'm late peter don't be sorry i was just worried about you even though i've been knocking the voice acting so far there are some real highlights in spider-man 2. my favorite out of everyone is easily bruce campbell which i think is an impressive feat since his role is just to give tutorials he brings a lot of fun to the game and i was excited to check out a lot of those hint markers scattered around the map just to hear him talk again now you probably know this already being the expert gamer that you are but you can charge your jump while you're swinging around it's really handy just keep pressing the jump button until you're ready to jump and then wham off you go if you do it right you can charge jump off your web and get some serious distance i also think that holly fields as black cat was a real standout as well while toby was giving some pretty flat line readings holly was bringing a lot of life to black cat i feel like the game immediately became more enjoyable every time black cat showed up and i think that's because of the energy that holly fields was providing with her performance the black cat character also felt like she was having the most fun in this game compared to most of the other characters i don't know if it's the writing or the performances or both but so many characters seem down in the dumps and moody throughout the whole game especially spider-man who feels like he's moping around most of the time i think that's why i'm gravitating towards bruce campbell quentin beck and black cat since i feel like they're the ones injecting the most fun into the game and their voice actors seem to be having the most fun with their roles another notable voice actor though is josh keaton voicing harry osborn had toby maguire chosen not to voice spider-man in this game josh very well could have been the one to take his place later in 2008 josh keaton voiced peter parker in the spectacular spider-man animated series as well as in the game we discussed last retrospective spider-man shattered dimensions in 2010 although he hadn't played spider-man prior to this game i wouldn't be surprised if he was on the short list to play peter if toby backed out given his natural ability with the character that's just my own personal speculation of course but i think it's cool to see josh in a spider-man game prior to becoming a notable voice for peter in the future lastly there's also james arnold taylor the voice of quentin beck alongside josh keaton james would also appear in the spectacular spider-man animated series playing harry osborne james also went on to voice spider-man himself and spider-man friender foe but now let's look at the music in the game like in prior retrospectives i've selected four of my favorite tracks from the game that i think you'll enjoy as well we'll start with this one from one of these shocker boss fights [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] next up is a track that plays occasionally during fights in the city it's really fast paced and energetic perfect for combat encounters [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] up next is a track that will sometimes play during different time challenges throughout the city it's another fast paced one that i think is perfect for speed trials [Music] [Music] [Music] our next one is probably my personal favorite in the game and you'll hear it a lot through the different events that you trigger in the city [Music] [Music] [Music] i know i said only four but i threw this next one in as a bonus because i think it's so cool and unique it's the music that plays during the first mysterio mission and i love all the alien vibes [Music] [Music] so [Music] overall i really love the soundtrack in the game it's incredibly upbeat and really energizes you throughout your adventures a lot of these tracks are very memorable too and i felt a lot of nostalgia as i encountered them in the game spider-man huh finally i've been tired to see what you can do let's go i just try to break through my armor i'm gonna break your bones and make you cry for your mama rhino i'm gonna take a wild guess that you're strong but dumb spider-man 2 is one hell of a game there's no denying that it was an incredibly revolutionary game for its time and has really shaped the way that we expect to see spider-man games released now after spider-man 2 it's almost been a prerequisite that future games have spider-man's webs attached to buildings and that he'd be in a fully open world not every spider-man game after this one followed that structure but it's what we started to expect from spider-man games as fans jamie fristrom and the rest of treyarch really captured the excitement of swinging around the city of spider-man for the first time and it'll forever be an iconic game for that reason for this retrospective though i wanted to see how it would feel returning to spider-man 2 now that it's nearly 2 decades old especially after experiencing the tremendously executed spider-man ps4 game is spider-man 2 still as good as we remember it or does its age really show well as far as traversal goes it still feels great today i was surprised at how much i still enjoyed swinging around the city as spider-man again and i think it's worth revisiting if you've been considering trying it for yourself the web swinging still feels unique in its own right and i like that it doesn't hold your hand even though i was often crashing into buildings i felt more in control and it forced me to push myself to get better with my web swinging skills it feels rewarding as you slowly get better at traversing the world and it even became relaxing to just swing around and explore the web swinging mechanics and open world are easily the main highlights of this game and they still feel great today the rest of the game isn't quite as flawless though the story definitely struggles as it attempts to blend the narrative of the movie with its own original ideas and those movie sections never feel quite as engaging the story isn't bad but aside from the mysterio levels it lacks excitement it makes me really wish that this game hadn't been a movie tie-in because i think it would have excelled even further had treyarch been given the freedom to craft their own original story here it's clear that they had a lot of innovative and creative ideas many of which were left on the cutting room floor due to the strict deadline that they had to make to release alongside the movie i think these ties to the movie held this game back and the story in particular felt hindered because of it the voice acting was hit or miss as well even with some of the stars of the movie reprising their roles for the game i'm sure their name in the credits was a big selling point but i think the game would have been better off with unknown voice actors who fit their roles as far as gameplay there were way too many time trials in this game i can't tell you how many times peter is late for something and has to race across town in a certain amount of time and the vast majority of the challenges are time-based i imagine it's because the developers really wanted you to engage with the swinging system and open world but it's a bit too much however i'm really glad that there are plenty of collectibles and hidden areas scattered throughout the city to incentivize you to explore at your own pace but overall spider-man 2 is not a perfect game but it is still amongst the elite in terms of spider-man games i definitely enjoyed my time replaying it and in a few years i'll probably revisit it again as always though i wanted to see how it was scored on metacritic and compare it to my personal rankings as it stands the gamecube version of spiderman 2 is at a critic score of 80 with a user score of 84. i think this is a pretty reasonable score and i'm not too far from it myself i personally give spider-man 2 a 9 out of 10 not only because it's such a revolutionary spider-man game but also because there's still a lot of fun to be had within it today if you've been considering playing it for yourself lately i definitely recommend giving it a try because it is such a classic especially if you played it around the time of its initial release and enjoyed it since i think you'll get quite the nostalgia trip but those are my thoughts on spider-man 2. since i kind of skipped around and started with spider-man 2 instead of 1 i think we should next circle back to that game and see how the two compare especially with spider-man no way home reintroducing willem dafoe's green goblin to modern cinemas so that's what's coming up next in the meantime though if you're looking for more retrospectives i have quite a few to choose from such as the punisher all the marvel ultimate alliance games and x-men legends if you're in a spider-man mood i'd recommend checking out spider-man shattered dimensions as well and if you're looking for a community to discuss all things marvel you can swing on by our discord the link is in the description below but anyway thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next video [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Always Nerdy

Views: 753,256

Keywords: spider-man 2 game 2004, spiderman 2 game ps2, spider man 2 video game tobey maguire, spiderman 2 doctor, spider man 2 doctor octopus, spider man 2 dr octopus, spider man 2 mysterio, always nerdy, treyarch, activision, sony, spider man no way home, marvel games, retrospective review

Id: ecYf_OAy8X4

Length: 80min 47sec (4847 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021