Released Oct. 4, Spider-Man: Edge of Time is the latest release from Activision. The same company that brought us the last Spidey game on console, Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. Miguel O’Hara makes a return to video games as someone from his time (the year 2099) goes back to remake time as he sees fit. Of course our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Peter Parker, is needed to help stop this crime and save his own life!
The cinematic aspect of the game is spectacular. You watch as Spidey battles Anti-Venom in front of a standard Stargate-style portal; no credits or loading. Instead those are blended into the scenery as you follow Spider-Man 2099 crawling through ducts and across overhangs. The camera angles and narration feel more like they’re into to a feature film than a game.
The story unfolds to reveal Peter’s actions have an instant result in 2099. So the two spider men must work together to reach locations, defeat enemies, and set time right again.
The game play is like Shattered Dimensions. Beating groups of enemies up with combinations of dash and web attacks. Web swinging and wall crawling are done mostly for time and when obstacles present themselves along the way. The free fall dive mode from shattered dimensions also returns.
In total the game is very much like Shattered Dimensions, but with fewer changes in scenery and suits. Only the present and 2099 times are involved. A very liner path with little exploration options. Many items are hidden in plain site behind a force field with a hidden control or shaft to gain access them. This makes the game a bit repetitious. The same types of tasks need to be performed over and over again each time. And the beat-everyone-up strategy is always in effect. Even the story is not so different. Written by Spider-Man 2099 co-creater Peter David, it’s another time and another Spidey needing to set things right on the grandest of scales. Substitute the word time for dimensions and it’s not too far off.
