"I'm the GODDAMN BAT- er, you know."
For a start, the game is certainly true to its source material. Elevating this sense of sincerity is the game’s central gimmick: the ability to play as Spider-Man in four different incarnations, each one based on one of the alternative universes which make up the dizzyingly convoluted Marvel multi-verse. After all, Beenox must have figured, why choose which iteration of Spider-Man to venerate when you can choose four of the best? First off the rank is the Amazing Spider-Man, the most classic version of the web-slinger decked in traditional red and blue garb. Hot on his heels are the Ultimate Spider-Man, still a high-school kid enveloped in the thrall of the black alien symbiote suit, Spider-Man 2099, a futuristic superhero protecting a far-flung New York City, and Spider-Man Noir, a hardboiled crime-fighter of an alternate monochromatic past who does his job steeped in shadow.
These four, disparate realities are brought together by a slender, tidy narrative which sees the Amazing incarnation of Spidey foil a plot by longtime-foe Mysterio to steal an ancient artifact called the Tablet of Order and Chaos. When the aforementioned tablet is accidentally shattered, its handful of powerful fragments are scattered across the multi-verse and wind up in the hands of a bunch of Spider-Man’s arch-nemeses, and it falls to each of the four heroes to reclaim the pieces of the tablet and restore order to existence. All in all, it’s not too bad a premise for a Spider-Man title, and a good excuse to tinker with the designs of some of the web-slinger’s classic enemies, such as the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, each of whom receives an interesting makeover in Shattered Dimensions. While the plot never really goes anywhere very interesting, it is nonetheless more than enough to support the game’s plethora of set-pieces and boss encounters and is aided by some clever writing on the part of comic book scribe Dan Slott, which captures Spider-Man’s snappy witticisms with aplomb.
"Does this look like a bunion to you?"
Shattered Dimensions eschews the open-world design principles forged by the 2004 movie tie-in, Spider-Man 2 and run into the ground by the successively less interesting Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (2008). Instead of swinging freely around the umpteenth virtual recreation of Manhattan, Beenox has embraced a linear, focused design based around a dozen discrete levels across a number of acts. To play, Shattered Dimensions is a lean and direct experience. Alternating between levels based in each of the four realities on offer, players will spend most of their time engaged in melee brawls with cookie cutter goons and regular boss encounters with various members of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. The game’s levels, each hemmed by invisible walls, are largely gauntlets with plenty of points to which Spidey can web-zip with a simple tap of the right trigger or web-swing across by holding the same button. While each of the four realities boasts a unique visual style, all the iterations of Spider-Man play nearly identically, save for the Noir version. General movement is precise, but stiff and inelegant, and the game’s combat system is prone to button-mashing, and the experience tends to degenerate into spastic flailing and dodging.
The Noir levels, on the other hand, bear a heavy focus on stealth in lieu of melee attacks, and take their cues from the predatory mechanics on offer in games like Batman: Arkham Asylum. Sticking to the shadows and silently picking off armed henchmen is an interesting way of re-imagining the abilities of the web-slinger, and the Noir levels are ultimately the ones which offer any sense of variety in Shattered Dimensions. Having said that, none of the game’s levels are free from technical or design issues, ranging from an unreliable camera to shoddy collision detection which often sees Spider-Man fail to stick to a wall and, instead, plummet to an embarrassing death. Compounding the problem is the game’s predictable pacing and repetitive structure, which inevitably sees Spidey chasing a boss character across a level and encountering him a number of times before reclaiming a piece of the mystical tablet. While the bosses and levels which house them often sport wonderful designs or an epic sense of scale, there is little in the way of either peaks or troughs to demarcate the hour-to-hour game experience.
Do you like walloping nameless goons? We sure hope so.
Aesthetically, Shattered Dimensions is largely beyond reproach. Each of the game’s realities boasts a distinctive visual style, from the tactile comic book colours of the Amazing universe and the stark, gritty styling of the Noir version of New York City to the neon-soaked glare of the year 2099. Character models are chunky, evocative, and well-animated, and from an artistic vantage there is a wealth of variety for the eyes to savour. The frame rate can suffer dips during the most hectic encounters, but on the whole, this is a handsome production which does justice to its source material. In terms of audio, superlative voice acting from a stellar cast is the capper to the game’s generally wonderful presentation. Neil Patrick Harris lends his wit to the Amazing Spider-Man, while a slew of actors from the various animated series succeed in breathing life to the other incarnations of the web-slinger. Shattered Dimensions is a frequently hilarious and charming game, largely thanks to the efforts of its cast and solid direction.
While Shattered Dimensions is of average length, clocking in at approximately ten hours duration, the scant collection of unlockable costumes is unlikely to prove compelling enough to justify a second outing, especially in light of the game’s flat, monotonous rhythm and the uninspiring padding which surrounds each of the game’s memorable boss battles. Those with obsessive compulsive inclinations may find value in the game’s assortment of collectable trinkets and hidden doodads, but for most, one trek through Shattered Dimensions will probably suffice.
We imagine Rocksteady Studios is already on the phone to its lawyers.
What a pity it is to report, then, that Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is nowhere near polished enough to live up to its stellar presentation and the obvious love which has been poured into it. It appears that time is the web-slinger’s most devious foe; given another six or twelve months in development, Beenox could have crafted Shattered Dimensions into something truly special. As it is, the sacrifice of the open-world design feels like a waste and an unworthy trade-off. A renewed focus on linearity and set-piece moments should have resulted in a slick, polished and consistently thrilling experience, but in many ways, Shattered Dimensions feels underdone, which is a devastating disappointment given its vast albeit sadly-unrealised potential. Definitely worth a rental for the true believers who will derive a kick out of the fan-service on offer, but that is as far as our recommendation can extend.
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