Ol' web-head himself, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, is back again for some more console videogame action in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by Beenox. I enjoyed the last Spider-Man game Beenox put out quite a bit, and was looking forward to getting my gloves on Amazing Spider-Man 2, but for a variety of different reasons, it fell short of my expectations.

Graphically, Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks pretty good on the PS4, with nicely detailed textures, nice particle effects (such as in electrical fields) and a "Spider-Sense" view mode that can be activated that indicates enemy locations through solid objects with glowing areas that look similar to thermal imaging. While this is a cool feature, activating this mode causes everything that isn't glowing to get very dark, making it easy to see enemies... but difficult to see the wall right in front of you. To compensate, I found I would use Spider-Sense only briefly, to get my bearings and to select my next target, then I would turn it back off so I could see what the heck I'm doing.

One thing that really detracted from my enjoyment was the occasional graphical glitch that caused vertices that were supposed to be part of the mesh of something on-screen to be relocated to off-screen somewhere, causing really jarring and disturbing warping of the models. The fact that I can't really describe that without using words such as "vertex", "mesh" and "models" contributes to the sudden and jarring halt this will cause to one's suspension of disbelief. This didn't happen constantly, but it happened a few times and that's the kind of thing that really should have been fixed.

Stan Lee plays, well, himself, but in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Game, he is the owner of a little comic book shop in New York called "The Comic Stand." The likeness is really spot on and the voicework is Stan "The Man" himself. As for all of the other likenesses and voices, not so much. I was surprised that Peter Parker didn't look more like Andrew Garfield and Electro didn't look like Jamie Foxx. I don't know if it was from a lack of licensing or just inaccurate depiction, but while it's not a bad depiction of Spider-Man or Electro, it doesn't look like the actors from the film. As for the other characters, there are a slew of them in the game, from Kraven to Fisk/Kingpin to Black Cat and even Carnage. The music is actually pretty good, a building, orchestral piece that seems to have a feeling of hope, as opposed to the dark shades that one might expect of, say, a Batman piece.

Interestingly, in the PS4's menu, under the game, but before selecting it, there is a video that you can watch about Stan Lee being in the game. "Special Features" such as this would be an interesting addition to games, but don't get too excited - the video is the same video that I've embedded above; it's not very long, but it's a little extra something.

You play as Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man. When I say that, I mean it - while most of your time will be spent in super-hero garb, swinging about the city of New York, there are some parts where you will don the civvies and persona of Peter Parker, beloved nephew and nerdy teenager, whether it be to make a quick stop by Aunt May's for a change of clothes or to take a moment for yourself and reclaim your top score on the Spider-Man arcade game in the "Comic Stand," the comic book shop run by none other than Stan - "The Man" - Lee. A good bit of the Parker action involves interviewing people, but there is some investigative work to be done as well, and when the heat is turning up on Spidey, it can be more convenient to do a little nosing around with a less recognizable persona.

As for the story, I don't really know what to say. Some games present the same story as the movie they're based on, while others present a continuation of the story, perhaps setting up the next movie or doing the old "oh, no... those guys busted out of jail, I'll have to round them up again" so that the story doesn't contradict the previous movie or, for that matter, introduce anything truly different. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 doesn't seem to care about contradicting the movie, presenting an alternate version of certain scenes from the movie - sometimes with nearly identical phrases in the script, but with the surrounding scene being different. There doesn't seem to be any good reason for this; it's just different. And that's just for the similar scenes. The Rhino is absent from the game, and, in addition to Electro and the Green Goblin, you also tangle with the Shocker, Kraven the Hunter, Black Cat, Kingpin and Carnage.

The game takes place in a more expansive version of Manhattan than previous games, but certain locations, such as "Aunt May's house" aren't specified. Instead, you have to catch up to the Metro train to go home. Strange, but, eh. You'll work your way across the city to investigate criminal activity and check out leads. While you're making your way across the city, however, you may want to stop a petty crime here and there or rescue some people from a fire or electrical accident. Actually, there is a meter that keeps track of your public image and with J. Jonah Jameson always trying to bad-mouth you and Wilson Fisk intent on taking you out of the picture, you'll want to keep your public opinion meter firmly planted in the "Heroic" side by proving your valor by helping out the citizens of Manhattan. It also doesn't hurt to web over a few slanderous posters on phone booths; just sayin'. Also, while commuting across the skyline, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for comic book pages floating around. Collecting these will unlock digital comic books, which can be viewed in Stan's "Comic Stand" in-game. While at the Comic Stand, you can also check out the game figures you've unlocked (which are presented as collectible maquettes for sale in the store) or reclaim your high-score on the Spider-Man arcade game in the back of the store.

There are three different levels of difficulty to choose from in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but the difficulty spikes at certain battles. Specifically, the boss battles seem to be a jump in difficulty - at least until you figure out the trick needed to beat that particular enemy. For example, there are some enemies that have been genetically altered to have hyper-speed. After encountering several of these and being given hints by the game on how to beat them, I then encountered a boss who had been altered in this manner, but this boss character had an even faster version of this modification, which was too much for that tactic. I had to alter my tactics a bit to get past that one. I'm not expecting to get past everything on the first try, but until you figure out how to keep from getting your spinnerets handed to you, just staying alive and on your feet can be a truly frustrating experience. Part of this frustration is that, once you're down, you have to wait for the game to reload that fight, which is not quick. This results in whiplash timing; it's a bit of faster-faster-faster, followed by a sudden and abrupt stop, then an annoying wait until you can get back into the fast-paced fight. I found it hard not to walk away from some of the boss fights and, in one case, had to resort to checking out a play-through video of that fight online to figure out what I had missed.

Luckily, this game does a good job of keeping the progress you have made and not forcing you to relive all of your mistakes by defeating everyone all over again. Boss battles still reset to the beginning of the boss battle, but you don't have to work your way through some level just to get back to the boss battle.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Beenox sought to take players closer to the experience of being Spider-Man, by changing the web-swinging dynamic a bit. Now, you sling webs from both arms, with separate controls for each arm. If you want to work your way down a street, for example, you'll want to alternate between using your left arm and your right arm, or you'll find yourself swinging into the building. While I appreciate the strive for "realism" and more realistic physics, this change might not be as well accepted by all gamers and may have been something that should have been able to be opted out of in the Options Menu. Spidey could still alternate which hand he shoots web with next, but that aspect wouldn't have to be controlled by the player, should they prefer less micro-management. In fact, there are certain parts of the game (when you're at a specific location and not out free-swinging around Manhattan) that you can simply hold a shoulder button down and you'll swing around as in the previous game, alternating between arms automatically. In these areas, you can also simply hold both shoulder buttons together to gain altitude. It just seems like that should be an option for the Manhattan areas for more casual players.

This story presents its own alternate version of some of the events from the film, but then just sort of goes off in its own direction. If you love the movie and wanted to play it interactively, you are likely to walk away disappointed. If you like Spidey and just want to play a new Spidey videogame... then it's a lot easier to like this game.