Trying to navigate between different modes of locomotion – swinging, wall-crawling and running, and using Spider-Man's slow-motion fast-dash "web rush" – is a frustrating mess because the camera either can't keep up, or it reorients too quickly, making it extraordinarily easy to overshoot your intended targets. But if he gets up close to them or tries to navigate between some tight nooks and crannies… oh boy – that's when the camera problems start. This all works well if he swings in a straight line between New York's cavernous skyscrapers. He also swings higher and further the longer the respective trigger is held, and he often gets caught without anything to latch onto if he's up too high above the buildings. The actual act of web-swinging is indeed more realistic in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Spidey shooting webs from his left and right wrists depending on which controller trigger is pressed. The important thing is that he was able to move along swiftly and smoothly, with the occasional "yahoo!" or "whoo!" expressing the same rush the player might have been feeling. Spidey simply shot webs and, as in the cartoons, no one ever really cared what they were attaching to.
In some of those earlier games, zipping along was a simple and elating affair.
And the worst part is, Beenox has broken the cardinal if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it rule by messing with the one thing that made its previous games enjoyable: web-swinging. Terrible writing, outdated menus, frequent load times, repetitive missions and bugs galore – we're not talking spiders – conspire to make this latest release a chore to play through. Those efforts, from Shattered Dimensions (2010) and Edge of Time (2011) to the eponymous game tied the 2012 movie, at least served up enough Spidey-ness to please die-hard fans.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an inauspicious fail for Beenox, the Quebec City-based developer responsible for the previous trio of console games starring everyone's favourite wall-crawler. "Terrible" might actually be a more accurate description. "Amazing" is hardly the word to describe the latest Spider-Man game.