Over the years I have played every Spider-man game possible ever created, from Spider-Man on NES to Spiderman Web of Shadows. Now that technology is on our side as gamers and comic fans, I think it is high time they step up the bar when creating a game for our friendly neighborhood webslinger. Here are a few ideas...
So im sure most of you have played spider-man 2, 3 ,Ultimate, and WOS. My question is, why cant they take the best stuff out of all those games and make one super bad ass game that will bring Spidey fans back to gaming?
Shattered Dimensions
I've watched the newest game-play vids for Shattered dimensions and i like what i see so far when it comes to the overall look of the game. I do not however, like the fact tat the Amazing universe spider-man isn't in new york, or the fact that he uses his webs to create weapons. that has always seemed really lame to me. Even back in the days when he made skis, bats, clubs, and sleds from webbing. Use the webbing for swinging and trapping criminals. Maybe sling them around a little but that's it.
Web of Shadows
In WOS, Spider-mans costume and movements were fantastic. i loved the fact that there were some movements he would just do in a given situation, like if he swung to the wall at a certain angle he would do a sort of flip with his hands planted on the wall and only his body turning around. And how he could slid over the hood of a car if you pressed the wall run button instead of running in place like a jack-hole like in previous games. Being able to spin on the vertical portion of a lamp post in addition to spinning on the top was simply an amazing addition, as was the aerial combat. I would definitely keep all of these aspects in a new game. It's all those small details that made the game interesting to play and visually stunning.
Spider-man 3
The basic city in this game felt good to swing around, though the colors were far too ...well... basic. There was really no texture to anything. The city felt like everything in it was brand new. It is quite noticeable if you compare it to a game like GTA 4. New York is a city that has been around for over 2 hundred years. It needs to feel lived in. Where are the bums and rust. Where is the garbage on the ground and in the alley.
The City
New York has a great mix of glitz and grime. The kind of place you are dying to go to but makes you feel like you want to take a shower when you get back. Did anyone notice the serious lack of people in the city? especially in the subway. there was like literally only one level that had anyone in the terminal and it was, what, two people? Come on. If Rock Star can make a convincing New York, AKA Liberty City, why can't Activision get with the program and make the city look real. I wouldn't even mind if they did the size the same as in GTA. It was, what, like 1/3 the size of the actual city? That's fine with me. That means they can give us more detail and a little bit of jersey on one side and a little bit of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens to move around in. This would open up so much in the way of villain combat and hide-outs. I would also like to see more people in the city in general. Where are the street vendors, the hotdog guys, the tourists taking pictures? That would be so cool to swing down a street and see all these flashes go off. I also think that your only save points should be at Peter Parker's apartment, The Daily Bugle, or one of the Marvel Land Marks, and that should be where you should start when you load the game.if you save the game at Parker's place, when you load you should be in his living room near the window, or on the roof. And the same can be said with other save points.
Villains
There would be room for all the well known Rouges gallery.
You could have Spider-man fighting Kraven in an abandoned Zoo, Lizard in the sewers and Central Park, Hydro-Man in the Manhattan Aquarium , Sand Man on Coney Island, Rhino on the express way, Vulture over Rockafeller Plaza and maybe carry it into Macys, Green Goblin at one of the Oscorpe Factories, I mean the choices are endless, and you can mix it up so that there are a good amount of Normal baddies like bank robbers, gang members, arms dealers, car jackers, purse snatchers and all that, then throw in the occasional Super Villain. you would have more choices so you wouldn't always have to use the same one at nauseum. As Spider-Man is fighting bad guys with different strength levels, It would be great for him to have a different fighting style and technique for each one. When fighting thugs with normal strength there would be more acrobatics while fighting, and the stronger the opponent is, the less he would have to hold back, until hes giving someone like venom the hamburger (when you use both hands with interlacing fingers like a giant club or sledge hammer..for those of you who don't know). Once a villain is defeated spider-man should be able to web them up, not just to the ground, but to the wall, to the ceiling, to the side of a telephone pole AND from the top like a pinata. It should almost be like the "Nail-gun" effect some shooting games have as a cheat. As soon as you are done you should be able to hear the police coming, clime up the building and watch the perps get arrested. Which ever emergency agency is appropriate for the given situation should arrive and handle the matter. If it's a car accident and spidey has to rescue people, an ambulance should show up to transport them to the hospital. If there's a building fire that spidey rescues civilians from, the Fire Fighters should show up to dowse the flames. The way the current games are made, it seems like Spider-man is the only game in town. Last but not least, If Spider-man is defeated the screen will fade to black, then it will fade back in to show the cops, Shield Agents, or The Avengers standing over Spidey asking him if hes alright and telling him to hold on, then it should fade to black again, bringing up the option to quit or restart.
Weather
A few years ago a football game came out that gave you live stats on each player every day trough the magic of wifi. Lets do that with the Spider-man game, except it would give you things like weather, time of day, and certain events that occur often, like the Macy's day Parade and holidays. At the end of September, you'll start seeing civilians in coats and sweaters, Halloween decorations pop up in shop windows and jack-O-Lanterns showing up on apartment stoops, and on the 31st, you see groups of kids running down the sidewalks like they are trick-or-treating. After the 31st, all the leaves in the trees change to brown yellow and orange, and the city gets a little more windy. All they would need to do is have the animation for the leaves and garbage to blow around like they did in True Crime Streets of New York. December 1st through March 1st, snow is on the ground and falling from the sky. Its on every rooftop and every parked car. Christmas lights would be showing on the buildings and the Giant Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center would be lit til Dec 26th while civilians would be seen ice skating til the snow disappeared in the beginning of March. Once the snow disappeared, the trees would be green and flowers could be seen at Central Park. during the summer months, Conney Island would be populated and certain civilians would be in shorts. Central Park would have people picnicking in the day time. really they wouldn't even have to use Wifi, just the internal memory of what ever gaming platform you may have. The date and time would dictate when there would be changes to the appearance of the city. Like in the real world it should also rain occasionally. Thunderstorms, drizzle, the whole range.
Marvel Universe
Since this the marvel universe, Marvel landmarks should be present. Some would be very noticeable. Others would be like Easter eggs for true fans to find, like the Nelson,Blake, and Murdock law office in Hells Kitchen, Dr Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village, and The Hellfire Club Mansion on the upper west side. The Traskilion should be seen offshore next to Rykers. The Baxter Building can be found near Time Square. Stark Tower should be near Union Square, not way down in Battery Park, and The daily Bugle is actually in Midtown. Billboards of J.J.J. pimping the daily bugle and bashing spider-man should be everywhere. Old Anti-Mutant posters should be seen still on the walls in some alleys. Dazzler's name should be up on the marquee during some portion of the year. Certain shops should have apparel designed or inspired by some of the famous marvel super heroin like "The Sue Richards Collection" and that kind of thing. Hell if Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton can do it in our Universe, why wouldnt the super crowd get in on the fashion game in the Marvel-verse.
Wanton or unwanton destruction
one thing i didn't like about WOS was the fact that anything you did could break apart portions of buildings or blow up cars. There should be damage to cars and buildings if u hit them or get slammed into them but they shouldn't be destroyed. and i think portions of some of the buildings should be breakable like all store front windows and things like tat. Just so you can be thrown into or just wank into any store front if you want to. There should be a price for purposely destroying city property in front of civilians however.
Your approval rating should be directly proportional to what you do in the city. if you go around tossing cars and causing problems, the cops start chasing you and people throw things at you and villains and crimes dont pop up as often. If they do, the surrounding people and police will make it very difficult for you to do your job. This will insure that players themselves are punished for being jerks, lol. i know a lot of people who played WOS loved being in the black suit solely for the purpose of dabbling in the dark side. i want to give them that option but also show tat there is consequence to not acting heroically.
Accidents and crime
As with past free roaming spider-man games, there have to be things going on in the city to keep the web-head busy. This time around, lets not make them boring or repetitive. There could be Armored Truck heists, bank robberies, store robberies, muggings, purse snatching, theft of military grade weapons from Oscorp and Roxxon, Car crashes on one of the bridges with a car or school bus hanging off the edge, apartment fires requiring you to enter and find people. Anything creative that would keep the game interesting and new. Spider-man shouldn't have to only rely on his spider-sense to find crimes. there should be alleys with police cars parked in them where spider-man can web yo yo down and listen in to the police scanner. then when a crime happens, it will pop up on the map screen. That way its a little more realistic than if he's just traveling along and 10 miles away he feels something happen, or hes in one part of the city and a civilian tells him of an incident that's happening on the other side (ala Spider-man 2). How the hell do they know?
It seems like there would be a lot to tackle in this game, but if you put the cool things about some of the other games together and invest some time in the creation of something great, that is what you will get. a phenomenal game. It will be a must have on everyones lists. But the gaming companies look at the quick profits. I hope that this game will see the light of day and tat we will be able to experiance a spider-man game to beat all spider-man games!
See Also :
Conan O'Brien and his 'Prohibited Tour' take over the Orpheum Theatre
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