Publisher: Activision
Developer: Beenox
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or better CPU, GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 (w/256 MB of video RAM) or better graphics card, 1 GB of RAM, 14 GB of uncompressed hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

“Four parallel worlds, one unparalleled adventure.” The blurb on a box cover has never been so accurate. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is one of the best, if not the best, Spider-Man games ever. Of course, for those who’ve read my other reviews, “Beenox strikes again” is equally apt; these are the same developers responsible for Transformers: War for Cybertron. This time, however, they’re bringing us a tale involving not one, but four different versions of an iconic character that recently celebrated his 50th anniversary.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a single-player-only game. One of Spidey’s well-known enemies, the illusionist known as Mysterio, tries to steal an artifact known as the “Tablet of Order and Chaos,” and Spidey inadvertently shatters the tablet while trying to stop him, scattering the tablet into 18 pieces across four dimensions. Mysterio has one of the pieces, and four more are recovered in the tutorial level. That leaves 12 fragments in the possession of some of Spidey’s most well-known enemies, and you must recover them all. There are three acts of four levels each. In each act, you play one level as the Amazing Spider-Man, one level as Spider-Man Noir (set in 1930s New York), one level as Ultimate Spider-Man (with the black Venom symbiote), and one level as Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099. Finally, you play as all four heroes in the final chapter, trying to put a stop to Mysterio’s sinister plans. To help you, all four can use Spider-Sense, even if they don’t normally have it; for example, Spider-Man 2099 does not normally have a Spider-Sense…he can thank Madame Web for letting him borrow it for a while. When you are using Spider-Sense, the locations of enemies are marked with a red outline and arrows to help you locate them, and civilians and spider icons are marked with a yellow outline.

Each of the four dimensions uses a different artistic style to capture the feel of the dimension you are supposed to be in. For example, the Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man levels use cel shading to make it feel more like you really are in the pages of a comic book. I know some people hate cel shading, so keep in mind that the cel shading is much subtler than in Borderlands; in fact, I didn’t even notice until someone pointed it out to me. Spider-Man Noir uses black and white (with occasional splashes of red or yellow) when Spidey’s in the shadows, and washed-out color in the lights, to catch that gritty noir feel. Spider-Man 2099 uses an appropriately futuristic-looking art style.

Each Spider-Man also uses different fighting styles. For example, Ultimate Spider-Man uses spikes and tendrils from his symbiote and has a Rage meter; when he is in Rage Mode, the screen changes color and he does significantly more damage. Spider-Man 2099 is not as agile, but makes up for it with natural talons that give him an advantage in combat, and he has an Accelerated Vision meter; when he is in Accelerated Vision mode, the enemies slow down. The most unique, however, is Spider-Man Noir, who is far more fragile than the other three. He can hold his own in hand-to-hand combat, but if he gets spotted by an enemy with a gun, he can be shot dead before he even gets close enough to punch him out. Even four or five solid bullet hits can kill him and send him back to the most recent checkpoint. As a result, he has to use stealth techniques to sneak up on his enemies and do a silent takedown, which usually results in being webbed to a wall, or wrapped up and hung upside down by a web.

As you go, you earn “Essence Points” in a number of ways: By picking up spider icons (there are 30 to 70 in each chapter except for the tutorial and the final chapter), by completing missions on the Web of Challenges, and of course, by defeating goons. There’s also a bonus at the end of the level based on your combo score, time to complete the level, and how many of that level’s spider icons you found. There are 15 challenges per chapter, each of which is worth anywhere from 500 to 6000 EP, which are specific to that chapter. For example, in the chapter where Amazing Spider-Man is going after Sandman’s piece of the Tablet, one of the challenges is to web-sling barrels of water at the sand-monsters that Sandman sends to stop Spidey 10 times, for 3000 points. At any time, you can go to the Character Upgrades screen or the Combat Upgrades screen to spend these points, but upgrades are only unlocked once you’ve completed enough Challenges, so you have to complete all 120 challenges to unlock every upgrade. Character Upgrades include things such as a larger Health Bar, or a larger Rage meter. Combat Upgrades include new moves (some of which are specific to only one Spider-Man, but most of them upgrade all four).

There is no save feature; your progress through a chapter is saved at checkpoints, which are abundant enough that you won’t miss being able to save anywhere. After completing a chapter, you unlock Character Bios and Concept Art in the Bonus Gallery, and you can go back and replay it at any time for a higher rating. In fact, the only way to unlock some of the bonus art is to get the highest possible award at the hardest difficulty, but the game is so much fun to play, you won’t mind replaying it at all. The PC version of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions includes five costumes for each Spider-Man, with the default costume and the Cosmic costume (which was offered as DLC on the consoles) being unlocked from the start, and the other costumes being unlocked by spending Essence Points on the Character Upgrade screen. It’s too bad the costumes are merely cosmetic changes and don’t provide any extra powers, but it’s still fun to waltz around as Flipside or the Bombastic Bag-Man. The graphics are absolutely stunning, and ran at a consistent 60 fps even at the highest resolution my monitor allows, and the highest in-game detail settings.

There are almost no downsides to the game. It is definitely more linear, especially when compared to Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (which was an “open sandbox” game), but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it helps you maintain focus on what you’re supposed to be doing. In fact, the only problems I had with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions were occasional glitches that were easily solved by merely restarting at the last checkpoint. Specifically, once or twice, web-swinging resulted in being stuck in a wall, and once, during a takedown by Spider-Man Noir, the game was unable to complete the takedown animation and Spider-Man froze in position, unable to move.

In summary, it’s been a while since I’ve given a game a rating this high, but I have no choice. Beenox has really outdone themselves this time. Each Spider-Man is voiced by one of the actors who provided Spidey’s voice in one of the cartoon series, and many actors have returned to reprise their roles as one of the villains. You will probably recognize names such as Neil Patrick Harris, Fred Tatasciore, Jennifer Hale, John Kassir, Steven Blum, and Jim Cummings, all of whom have provided voices for Spider-Man or one of the villains in other Spider-Man games. Even if you’re not a fan of comic-book tie-ins, you should go out and buy this one.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation: