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Launch Spider-Man into lots of exciting missions featuring awesome graphics 

Launch Spider-Man into lots of exciting missions featuring awesome graphics 

Vote: (1,011 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Gameloft

Version: 1.2.8d

Works under: Android

Vote:

Program license

(1,011 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Gameloft

1.2.8d

Works under:

Android

Pros

  • Impressively replicates aspects of open-world console games
  • Web swinging can be fun in spurts

Cons

  • Combat and navigation plagued with issues
  • Flat and dull mission design
  • Limited interaction with recognizable Spider-Man characters

The Amazing Spider-Man manages to pack an acrobatic open-world superhero adventure into a mobile format, but it has to take some disappointing sacrifices to make it work. Inspired by the 2012 movie, you'll spend your time using your webs to swing through the streets of New York City and trade blows with streets muggers and familiar super-powered villains alike. Spider-Man's best games have always leveraged the sensation of swinging on Spider-Man's webs to sell their experience, and gesture controls are fortunately well-suited to this breathlessly thrilling and rhythmic form of navigation.

Developer Gameloft does a decent job not just of capturing that sense of force and momentum but also of making it feel seamless and natural. But some core issues prevent players from genuinely enjoying that experience. The camera is rarely inclined to go where you need it to, and the fact that Spidey's webs don't actually anchor to any surfaces makes the otherwise solid controls feel more weightless than they should. And when you compound this with the frequently dodgy frame rates, you're left with a game engine that's certainly playable but often more frustrating than fun.

That would be a little more excusable if there was much to do in the quasi-open world. The map of New York is decently sized and rendered, and you can swing around its entirety at your leisure. But there's not much to do in the world apart from some achievement-style objectives and some collectibles. The biggest bulk of the experience takes place in the story missions, which you can find littered throughout the city. The fact that players usually have multiple missions to choose from at once brings some degree of variety, but the actual mission structure doesn't tend to be that different from one mission to another. Combat is simple to the point of being repetitive, employing a simple combination of dodges and attacks that key themselves to a limited amount of combo animations. What should create a sense of rhythm often feels more like a test of endurance as the game assaults you with large numbers of enemies who take forever to go down. Unfortunately, the camera is as frustrating in combat as it is when swinging through the city.

The upgrade system is ostensibly designed to fix this. As you complete missions and defeat enemies, you'll gain experience points that you can use to unlock new attacks, combos, and upgrades to your basic skills and stats. It's an admirably expansive upgrade system that unfortunately doesn't have much of a positive effect on either combat or navigation. Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man manages to pack in all of the components of an open world game from a AAA studio but never considered whether those elements are fun or functional.

Pros

  • Impressively replicates aspects of open-world console games
  • Web swinging can be fun in spurts

Cons

  • Combat and navigation plagued with issues
  • Flat and dull mission design
  • Limited interaction with recognizable Spider-Man characters