This game is bigger, better and bolder than the last game by a massive web swing. Taking on the role of Peter Parker, a.k.a Spiderman once again, this time you battle crime on a city scale, as well as trying to balance Peter Parker�s social life.

Graphics 9/10

Graphically this game is astounding. Most of the time movie conversions suffer from terrible graphics, with a graphics engine that looks like it was designed for a Dreamcast. Spiderman 2 on the other hand is the complete opposite of that, it has top of the line graphics.
Spiderman himself is created perfectly in the gaming environment, along with the massive environment it�s self. Spiderman�s movements are fluid and well animated. They have included almost every know spidey ability, leaving out only the one�s fans will know about. His costumes also reacts very well to the surrounding light, if it is bright then his costume shines, but if it is dark, his costume has a sort of nightly glow. It�s hard to describe, you�ll have to play it to find out more.
Spiderman�s play ground is New York City. And I�m not talking just the roof top�s of New York; I�m talking everything, from street level to inside shops. You don�t really get a feel for the true size of the city until you climb to the tallest building. When you finally get up there, because the tallest building is over 1300 foot high, the view is magnificent. They have managed to include all of New York City, even Liberty Island. Though getting over to that famous statue is a job and a half.
Though Spiderman and his surrounding are created excellently, the people inhabiting the city and his random opponents are far from excellent. There only seems to be 6 or 7 different kinds of people in New York. Which I suppose the designer can be let of for because of the scale of the game. The thugs Spiderman fights also have the same problem. Though I am happy to say that it seems the job of thug is no longer held by just big, fat balding guys. It�s now an equal opportunity job. As you will now fight just as many women as men when fighting the crimes in the city.
Though I don�t usually finish on a bad point, but I�ve praised this games graphics far too much. It has a major problem with the entire main cast. None of them look anything like the real actors. Which can really make the well rendered cut scenes a let down.

Sound 9/10

Much like the graphics, the sound has everything you need to make a great Spiderman game, from all the sounds of swinging to the characters voices. As you swing through the city, not one sound is left out, not even on a mono TV. I have played this game on a surround system, and when some one called for my help behind me it really did sound like it was from behind me.
During gameplay Spiderman has a semi-large classic repertoire of quotes to use during different situations, like fighting and general swinging. Though if you play the game long enough you will find that his quotes are as repetitive as the random crime generator.
As for the main characters of the story, almost each one is voiced by the movie star. It adds well to the experience when you hear the actual star lending there voice, unlike a certain star of a vampire TV show that will remain nameless. Some of the more minor roles, like that of aunt May have been voiced by some one else. Though really, since she only has one scene in the whole game it�s not that bad. Also the lines have not just been lifted from the movie; each actor has recorded new line to use in the game.
Finally, the one man that is almost as important to the Spiderman movie as Stan Lee has also returned. Yes, I�m talking about Bruce Campbell; the man has lent his voice to the game for the tutorial and help icons around the city.

Game play 8/10

When it comes to a game like Spiderman, the gameplay has to be perfect. And it almost is in this game. The games system is best described as easy to pick up, hard to master.
The swinging has been completely over hauled since the last game, and let just say now the invisible roof has disappeared. You now have to be below the city sky line to swing. Though swinging in itself is simple, getting the most out of it is difficult. When swinging, you must realise that you are always out of control, though if you look out of control, then you are not doing it right. Though don�t let this system put you of, since it is actually quite simple. Right trigger to swing, Left trigger to accelerate and A to jump, see simple. Though swinging is not the only way to move about New York City. Spiderman abilities allow him to crawl on walls, jump between building, etc. I won�t bore you with the details of his abilities because surely most people know them. Swinging remains the fastest way to move across the city, using a charged jump, where you run at turbo speed also gives you a lot of distance. Though as Bruce Campbell said, running for Spiderman is very un-cool. Fighting is as much as a part of this game as swinging. Because usually if your not swinging or in a cut scene, your fighting somebody. They can be either a small time thug or the mighty Doc Ock himself. During combat your enemies have a read circle above there head, a bit unnecessary since they are the only ones trying to hurt you. You have a lot of choices, to what you can actually do to your opponent. You can either just go for the straight up punching or you can be a little more creative and use your webbing, especially since it�s now unlimited. Oh yes two more things about combat. First Spider-sense, very important. It�s allows you to dodge almost any attack and can interrupt almost any action. Also you can use your spider-reflexes. This allows you to move faster, do more damage and see attacks earlier.
Second, target locking. This can be used in and out of combat. In combat it�s allows you to track an enemies with ease. Out of combat, it can track a goal for you.
Which brings me on to the controls, they are quite well organized. I have a problem using the target tracking and the Spider reflexes, because both are controlled by the D-pad. You may ask why I have not just changed them, it�s because the Spider reflexes is something I learnt quite late in playing the game. At which time I had all ready remembered a lot of the default controller. There are two types of crime in the game. First there are the crimes in which you have to talk to a member of the public to activate. They are marked by green circles and people yelling out for you. These crime though can get very repetitive, I found myself stopping an armoured car robbing once every ten minutes. Second there are the purple crimes, these are crimes in which Spiderman finds and not the public. They can pop up at any time during gameplay, but can be ignored just as easily.
There is a system known as hero points in the game, with those hero points you can buy items from the spidey stores that are littered across New York. Though upgrades are not the only thing you can buy, they are the main thing. They consist of increasing how many webs you can fire at once, to special grapples you can do in different situations.
There is a time of day system in affect in the game. This really makes no sense, because you can find your self swinging around for days with out any breaks. Each day takes around 20 minutes.
Helping you around the city is a massive 3D map. It a bit of a pain though because you can�t move it to far away from Spiderman�s positions on the map.

Story 6/10

Someone has butchered the story I�m sorry to say. It�s like some one handed an amateur writer the notes to Spiderman 2 and told him to write a short story. But not to worry too much, there are some good parts to this story. For example, they managed to include the Black Cat in the story and that�s always a good thing. She doesn�t just make an appearance in the game as another character, they have actually managed to include some of her back story and make it in to a sub-plot where you spend a lot of time chasing her around the city.
Though on a bad note, another example of the horrible writing is how they almost completely removed the train scene from the game. In the film he has to go through a lot of pain to stop the train, well in the game he just webs it and pulls.
Lastly, for a few more super villains for the story, Shocker, Mysterio and Rhino all make an appearance.

Replay 6/10

Much like the story, the replay is not very good and that�s me being polite. Once you finish the short main story, which will only take about one afternoon for an experienced player, you are left with the tedious task of collecting the multitude of icons and items around the city. Well some of this is all right and if you like collecting pointless icons then it�s good, but this is about all the replay there is. What might have made this game better is the ability to replay certain parts of the story, using the upgraded abilities you have brought or some form of Xbox Live play.

Overall 8/10

Spiderman 2 is by far the best movie conversion game I have ever played. It has a city to explore along with a great way to explore it. This game would have got higher, but because of the terrible story and annoying repetitive nature it scored a little lower. This is a great buy if you�re a fan, but more a long rent it your not.