➤ Two wall climbers for the price of one 🎮

Version tested: PlayStation 3

These days a super hero is making a lot of talk about himself thanks to the excellent game that has been built around him, we are obviously talking about Batman and Batman Arkham City, developed by the talented Rockstedy, authors who are finally able to do justice to one of the heroes. in costume most loved ever. The game that this time we went to review is instead dedicated to Spider-Man and follows exactly one year after the publication of Spiderman: Shuttered Time, a fairly successful episode that passed through four different dimensions to explore, an interesting mix that had actually given the brand a good deal of variety. Beenox was confirmed thanks to the good work done with the previous episode they returned to the office by proposing Spiderman: Edge of Time which, eliminating a couple of more parallel dimensions, focuses only on two wall climbers, the Amazing, that of our times, and its futuristic version 2099 in a story that intersects the two realities in a continuous exchange between the two protagonists.

Intertwining? That's the right word ...

The events begin in 2099 and see Spiderman / Miguel O'Hara on the hunt for a mad scientist, a certain Sloan, who wants to go back in time to change the birth and fate of his company, Alchemax. This intention must obviously also be prevented because it provides for the contextual elimination of Spiderman / Peter Parker, a death that really takes place at the hands of a super Anti Venom (an opponent that we will actually meet several times during the adventure).

Miguel O'Hara in 2099 uses the portal to go back in time and thus save Peter Parker, hence a temporal paradox is created, with his Spidermans communicating with each other and helping each other, with actions set in the present that modify in real time what happens in 2099, the fight against the evil of the moment has never been so intricate. A plot certainly not easy to unravel but also rather weak and we must admit that it essentially serves only to be able to impersonate the two super heroes, often passing from the present to the future. Going forward with the action, well-known characters from the universe of the beloved Spidy also appear in the game, from Doc Octopus, to the aforementioned Anti Venom to the Black Cat, without too many preambles and a little "thrown there" to make appearances for their own sake same. The mental connection between the two wall climbers is a good stratagem that gives way to funny gags between the two protagonists, but certainly justifying it only on the basis of the common genetics is definitely too little.

Beat Beat

From the point of view of the game setting, the Beenox title is a third-person action, with the focus concentrated on the many fights that take place during the adventure, divided into 17 chapters. A sort of two-dimensional memory scrolling fighting game if it weren't for the fact that there are three dimensions and Spidy is able to move quickly throughout the game area, a little thanks to the cobwebs and a little thanks to its undoubted speed.

The control system that manages the movements of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man works quite well, even if it takes a while to get used to the spider's abilities and every now and then it happens that Spidy unintentionally sticks to a wall, with serious intention. to climb it. With the simple press of the R2 button you can quickly move from one point to another using the cobwebs, a perfect tactic for catching enemies off guard. During the fights we can show off various moves able to hit all opponents from a distance and up close with a good dose of showmanship. After some clashes with the unfortunate ones on duty, whether they are sentinels or mutant monsters, it becomes clear that the strategy in the fights is almost non-existent, and these become a continuous pressing of the keys with repeated combinations of the X key alternating with the triangle key to hit from a distance. If this were not enough it is possible to use, by pressing the two analog sticks at the same time, the time paradox to block the enemies in a sort of bullet time sufficient for Spidy to destroy a whole horde of bad guys.

PlayStation 3 Trophies

Spider-Man: Edge of Time offers 48 trophies divided as follows: 1 platinum, 2 gold, 5 silver, 19 bronze and 21 secret trophies. By completing the adventure the first time it will be possible to reach a good number of them but in order to reach the completion it will be necessary to replay the Activision action game several times, to maximize the two heroes and complete all the Challenges.

Super powers!

The two heroes have slightly different powers and dedicated special moves. By collecting the spheres of light scattered throughout the levels and the golden spiders it is possible to enhance their skills and their combinations of blows. To make the upgrade of the characters more interesting, the developers have given the possibility not only to choose which of the two heroes to upgrade but also, if there are the requirements, to upgrade them at the same time. The stylistic choice that convinced us the least is that of the game scenarios, for the entire progress of the adventure in fact the two Spidermans will explore and fight along closed levels and with which the interaction is really minimal, but above all it is the futuristic look. that does not make a good impression and is particularly monotonous since it is like this from start to finish, without variety. This flatness of the scenarios is the right completion of an all too linear gameplay that alternates combat phases with short exploration phases. Both situations are then unfortunately ruined by a camera management that does not always manage to follow the game action and more than sometimes loses our hero. A fight against Anti Venom is perhaps the perfect exemplification of the problems that plague the game. After dodging an attack from the beast, we chased it into a room that is framed in a long shot by the game's camera. We start to struggle with the added difficulty of distance and here is a stopwatch that goes to indicate that we have little more than a minute to save the life of Peter Parker.

At this point we thought we had to attack the beast with all our energy, and early deaths aside, caused by the strange visual and a questionable depth effect, we did this fight again almost a dozen times before realizing that it was only necessary to escape. and have the Anti Venom destroy the whole room in order to block events in the parallel dimension. How could we have known without an indication or a hint that could have come from the brief exchange of ideas with Peter Parker or from the on-screen indicators? Little remains to add, you will surely have an idea. To slightly vary the gameplay, the developers have included the Challenge mode in which it is possible to face, separately from the Adventure, some steps in a fight against time by quickly flitting in pre-established game arenas. During the adventure we will unlock not only the new moves of the super heroes and new costumes but also the statues depicting the characters of the game and which can be observed in a separate gallery, little more than a trophy room without any purpose. We confirm that there is no multiplayer mode of any kind. The game's speech is completely in English but the dialogues have all been translated and have Spanish subtitles.

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The new Activision title dedicated to Wall Climbing definitely disappointed us, mindful of the decent quality of Spiderman: Shattered Dimension we expected more. The choice of the developers to focus on two parallel realities that intersect could have been successful, but it was insufficiently developed and proposed, especially due to a too "cumbersome" plot. From the point of view of the gameplay we unfortunately find ourselves in front of a simple scrolling fighting game that is resolved in a mere pressing of keys discreetly confusing, and in this the management of the camera certainly does not help. The fact remains that Spider-Man: Edge of Time, except for some rare, somewhat frustrating passages, it is quite fun to play, perhaps with the sole purpose of upgrading the heroes and unlocking the new costumes. What is certain is that we are talking about a game dedicated to Spider-Man fans and at most to younger or less savvy players.