Until I read the final reviews, I was very interested in playing Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. I was intrigued by having the chance to play a Spider-man game not constrained as a movie tie-in. The initial screenshots of New York City entangled in the webs of the symbiote  looked amazing and having Venom as the main baddie was also a big plus. Then came the first shots of Spidey and Wolverine together (ok, maybe there are some team-up missions), but then the shots of symbiote-like Wolverine appeared. Uh oh… what’s going on here? Finally the reviews dropped: GameSpot – 8.0/10.0, Game Informer – 65/100, 1UP: C+, IGN – 5.7/10.0; and so I held off from buying the game.

Then the Financialocalypse struck the U.S., Circuit City went out of business and I bought a few games at 50% off – this being one of them. It sat on my shelf for a few weeks as I continued to race through Paradise City in the latest Burnout game. Figuring that I should pop the game in to see if it even works in my 360, I fired up “Web of Shadows” and now I’m hooked on this game.

I love the visuals. Zipping through the streets and up the skyscrapers of New York City never looked so good. The flying animations are fun to watch as are the various fighting moves. This game offers the open sandbox style of gameplay found in the Grand Theft Auto series, mixed with an upgrade system found in most Role Playing Games. Keeping with the RPG gameplay, you will face various good vs. bad choices to make as Spider-man, which affect both the next story cinematic as well as the final ending. According to the achievement list, there are three possible endings. I’m early in the game, but the choices are fun and as I’m play mainly as the good, red Spidey, I’m looking forward to starting again and playing as the “bad” black-suited Spider-man.

The main issue I’m having with the game is the camera. On its own, the camera tends to get lost when you transition from climbing up the side of a building to flipping up onto the roof. The user can correct all of this by using the right stick, but it’s still annoying. Luckily, you can have Spidey “lock on” to the bad guys when you’re in a big brawl using the left trigger, so that alleviates some of the problem.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this game and I look forward to playing it each night. It’s so much fun just flying around the city looking for evildoers and just completing the optional missions. But once I found out about the good vs. bad choices Spider-man must make, I can’t wait to finish the main story so I can go back through and make all of the opposite choice the next time around.