Spider-Man 2 | |
Developed by: | Treyarch (Console) The Fizz Factor (P.C. and Mac) Vicarious Visions (D.S.) Digital Eclipse (G.B.A.) Backbone Entertainment (N-Gage) Driver-Inter. (P.S.P.) |
Released by: | Activision MacPlay Taito (Japanese release) Bill Dugan |
Release Date: | {{{release date}}} |
Available on: |
Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, P.C., Mac O.S.X., PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo D.S., N-Gage |
Mode(s): |
Single-player |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen) |
Predecessor: |
Spider-Man (2002 video game) |
Sequel: |
Spider-Man 3 (2007 video game) |
Spider-Man 2 is a video game released for PC, PlayStation 2, Mac, GBA, DS, N-Gage, PSP, Gamecube, Xbox, based on the film of the same name.
Plot[]
Spider-Man is trying to balance his civilian and superhero life, frequently late or absent for school, work, and leisure time with his friends. Following dinner with Mary Jane Watson, Peter thwarts an armed looting of an art museum, and tracks down an escaped robber, the Black Cat. Soon after this, he thwarts an attack in the streets of Manhattan by The Rhino. Meanwhile, Doctor Otto Octavius attempts to recreate nuclear fusion of that seen in the sun to provide an energy source for Manhattan. To control this fusion, he creates four metal arms which he can mentally control. His fusion creates a strong magnetic field, destroying the lab, killing his wife Rosie, and grafting his metal arms to his spine and giving his arms control over him. He blames Spider-Man for the incident, despite the fact that Spider-Man was not in the lab until the middle of it.
Octavius, now known as Dr. Octopus, kidnaps Aunt May, but she is saved by Spider-Man. In the time following, special effects artist Quentin Beck tries to prove that Spider-Man is a fraud by challenging Peter in a series of "games". Spider-Man emerges successful. Consequently, Beck tries to kill Spider-Man, but is thwarted. The embarrassment causes Beck to assume the identity of Mysterio, attacking journalists attending his press conference, and commands his "UFOs" to "invade" the Statue of Liberty. Both of these attacks are thwarted by Spider-Man's efforts, with no casualties. Spider-Man eventually teams up with Black Cat, who leads him to the Shocker, who escaped during Beck's initial competition with Spider-Man. Shocker is apprehended in a warehouse after attempting to use an experimental propulsion system to enhance his powers, while Mysterio is knocked out with one punch from Spider-Man while trying to rob a Speedy Mart. Peter takes a few photos of Beck as Mysterio, and J. Jonah Jameson uses these photos to make it appear that Spider-Man is in league with Mysterio. Black Cat then leads Spider-Man to an illegal weapons trade, where she tries to convince him to permanently become Spider-Man, but he rejects the idea, saying that he cannot stop being either Spider-Man or who he really is.
Dr. Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and steals tritium from Harry Osborn to repower his nuclear fusion in exchange for Spider-Man. A long battle on top of a moving train leads to Peter being delivered to Harry. Harry unmasks him, and is greatly shocked that his best friend is Spider-Man. Nevertheless, Harry tells Peter where Dr Octopus is based, and Spider-Man sets off to defeat Dr. Octopus a final time. The fusion reactor is shut down, and Dr. Octopus regains control over his mind, and sacrifices his life to permanently destroy his fusion reactor.
The next day, Peter gets a surprise visit from Mary Jane, who tells Peter that she cannot live without him, and wants to offer her full support to his life as Spider-Man. With his confidence renewed, Spider-Man continues to defend the city from evil.
PC Game Plot[]
The PC plot of this game differs drastically from the main console versions. It first starts out with a short cutscene from the primary console game that introduces as to how Dr. Otto Octavius became Doc Ock with his fusion reaction experiment. The PC version then diverges from the console versions with a tutorial, (narrated by Bruce Campbell) telling the player how to play as Spider-Man, (i.e. web swinging, wall crawling, fighting, etc.).
The storyline for the game starts off with a cutscene of a gray van being chased down by the police before it crashes, and out comes two crooks. Spider-Man dispatches the crooks quickly, but the van drives away on automatic. Spider-Man follows it to the New York Maximum Security Prison where a large group of thugs are causing a riot. Spider-Man defeats many crooks and escaping prisoners before the Rhino busts out of the prison. He briefly fights Spider-Man before he tries to charge away, but is caught in a laser cage set up by the police. Deciding to let the undefeated prisoners escape (whom he can later find in alleys and hidden areas), Spider-Man goes after the Rhino and defeats him by making him charge into the laser field (and subsequently pummel him while he is down, which is an option and could make Rhino's defeat quicker). And just before he is defeated, Rhino charges at Spider-Man one last time, escapes the laser field but accidentally rams into a gas station that blows up and knocks him several blocks away from the explosion, where Doc Ock takes his unconscious form. Spider-Man lets Ock get away with Rhino while he douses the fires caused by the explosion and then demonstrates a new power punch by defeating three crooks (these power punches are gained when defeating normal enemies, not bosses, and once they are gained, they drain out during combat, which quickly defeats enemies with a single punch).
Later, Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego, is with his Aunt May at the bank, and goes to the bathroom just as Doc Ock and a gang of his robbers hold the bank hostage. Spider-Man pummels his way through the robbers and saving the hostages, including Aunt May, until he reaches the basement of the bank where he confronts Ock. They fight, but Ock gets away with his stolen cash. Spider-Man once again lets him get away in order to save Aunt May from a band of three robbers who kidnap her and take her into their van. Spider-Man stops the van, dispatches the robbers and saves Aunt May.
The next day, Peter is walking with Mary Jane Watson through the city when they both spot MJ's car getting stolen. Peter tells MJ to wait where she is while he calls the police. Then Spider-Man follows the car to a garage where he confronts the villain Puma and a band of his crooks in a warehouse. Puma leads Spider-Man on a chase throughout the warehouse while Spider-Man pummels his way through Puma's cronies, and their initial fight takes place in a small room. After Puma takes some beating, he takes the fight outside to the rooftops, at a water fountain and finally to an unfinished construction site. There, Puma finally surrenders in his fight against Spider-Man, but gleefully tells him that he was merely a distraction for Spider-Man while Doc Ock kidnapped Mary Jane. In a cutscene, Puma tries to get away but Spider-Man webs him up and finally defeats Puma. He calls Mary Jane, but Ock has kidnapped her.
Later, Ock and his cronies attack Oscorp. Spider-Man goes to Oscorp to foil the heist there, defeating many cronies and saving countless civilians and scientists, as well as disabling the eight bombs Ock placed in the building. Spider-Man is then confronted by Rhino in a room with six generators which Spider-Man makes the brutish villain ram into and electrocute himself, but Rhino is not done yet. He confronts Spider-Man for a third time in a room with four liquid nitrogen tubes that Spider-Man destroys and leaks the gases in the tubes, quickly freezing the room. But fortunately, Spider-Man escapes the room before it freezes and Rhino is frozen with it, finally defeating him. Spider-Man leaves Oscorp through an elevator to continue his search for Doc Ock on Oscorp's rooftop before he finds himself in a New York literally torn out of the ground and into the sky by the machinations of the supervillain Mysterio, who has done this to further Ock's plans.
Spider-Man destroys the generators that seemingly hold New York in the sky, as well as fighting through Mysterio's numerous robots, before fighting and chasing a flying Mysterio himself, which Spider-Man fights back by throwing meteors at the villain that the latter throws down from the sky to defeat the superhero. But Mysterio is not done yet; he tries to kill Spider-Man again with a giant laser gun on top of the Daily Bugle, but Spider-Man destroys it and defeats Mysterio. Mysterio tells Spider-Man of Ock's plans and disappears, reverting New York back to normal.
Spider-Man takes the final fight to Doc Ock through the subways, fighting past the remainder of Ock's cronies, saving Mary Jane and battling Doc Ock in a final showdown at his fusion reactor. Spider-Man pummels enough sense into him to make Ock realize the error of his ways and he sacrifices himself by pulling his machine in with him into the river (much like the movie), and Spider-Man escapes with Mary Jane without revealing his identity to either.
Gameplay[]
Players can now perform many moves and use many skills as seen in the film, including:
- Wall Sprint: Spidey can run along vertical walls and even straight up the side of a building. If this skill has been upgraded, the wall running speed will be increased and the length of the sprint multiplied. It is even possible to pace the whole way up a tall building.
- Spider Reflexes: Spidey can use his Spider reflexes during times of danger. When his Spidey reflexes are activated, the rest of the game world slows down, granting Spidey more speed and agility to dodge and attack, his attacks become much stronger and varied, and enemy attacks are easier to spot.
- Charged Jumps: Spider-Man can jump higher than before. To activate, the player holds down the jump button to charge and releases it to jump. Jumps can be charged to different levels.
The zoom map provides a top-down view of the city centered on Spider-Man, but if Spider-Man reaches a high enough elevation and the zoom map is brought up, it will flip upside down to display the sky.
Side Missions[]
In order to progress to the next story mission, you'll need to get a certain number of hero points. Aside from the story missions themselves which also give you points, you'll also have to complete side quests to get enough points to go to the next chapter. As for whichever side quests you do, it's all up to you. The side quests you can do are as follows;
- Pizza Delivery - Find the Yellow Pizza icon at the Pizzeria which you can find on the map, which you'll have to go to once during the main story, Spidey must get each of the pizzas to the customers and then get back to the Pizzeria before time runs out. If Spider-Man flips due to jumping or landing, he'll damage the pizza's. If the pizza takes too much damage, you'll fail the mission. If you return to the Pizzeria after failing a mission(unless you abort the mission which has it's own cutscene), you'll get a different cutscene of Mr Aziz yelling at you, depending on how you failed the mission. If you deliver a damaged pizza to a customer, they'll complain, throw the pizza on the ground and turn around with their arms crossed. Be careful not to crash into the water or Spidey will lose the bag, causing you to fail the mission (this failure doesn't have a game over cutscene). If your successful, customers will thank you, Mr Aziz will thank you, and you'll get hero points. There are 20 Pizza Missions in total. You can't replay these.
- Races - These are large Blue tokens throughout the city. Each challenge will have different difficulties. You must get through or land on rings as fast as your can or within the record time. This can range from wall running, crawling, swinging, landing, etc. You can replay each of these.
- Get to MJ date - You must race to get to where you're meeting MJ before time runs out. You can't replay these.
- Take Photos - Robbie will give Peter locations of where to take photos, where you must go and then return to the Bugle before time runs out. You can't replay these.
- Civilians with green icons that require you to either fight thugs or save people - Once you talk to the person the mission will start. Either thugs will ambush you or you'll be told where a crime is happening. As for saving people, this ranges from saving people trapped on a sinking ship, getting people to the hospital, saving someone hanging from a roof or stopping an out of control car
- Purple icons on small map which show crimes that randomly occur in the open world - These are the same as Green Icon Citizens mentioned above, only these occur around you automatically.
- Saving kid's balloons - Simply jump to the balloon to catch it, then return it to the kid. Don't use your webbing or you'll burst the balloon.
- Collecting small yellow tokens hidden throughout the city
- Getting large green hint tokens - Each of these gives you both Hero points and a hint or joke narrated by Bruce Campbell.
Reception[]
Spider-Man 2 received generally positive reviews from critics. GameInformer gave it a 7.5 out of 10. IGN gave it an 8.8 out of 10 for PS2, 9 out of 10 for Xbox, and a 4.5 out of 10 for PC. It also received IGN's Editor's Choice Award for the year.
The Official Playstation 2 Magazine ranked the game #50 of "The Top 100 PS2 Games of All-time".
Trivia[]
- This game had Spider-Man's webs sling on walls this time instead of attaching to the air.
Notes[]
- If a Police Chase crime is finished and a purple crime starts in the area, it is possible to lure the crime over. If the character keeps the police officer in sight and attracts the attention of the purple crime thugs, the character can return to the police officer and the thugs will follow. The character can then hide behind the cop. The thugs will begin throwing beer bottles at the cop. These bottles do damage and the officer will make a series of noises when hit that are an exact match to the noises made by thugs on Spider-Man 1 the Video Game when taking damage. Eventually, the cop will make the same noise a SM1 thug does when he dies and the cop will fall on the ground, seemingly dead.