Reviewed: October 23, 2011
Reviewed by: Grant Chen

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Other Ocean Interactive

Released: October 4, 2011
Genre: Action
Players: 1

5
5
8
5
6.0

Supported Features:

In the story, a scientist named Walker Sloan plots to travel back in time to found his corporation, Alchemax, years before it was actually formed. O’Hara tries to stop him, but is unable to follow him back in time. However, he does see Peter Parker’s death as a result of the changed timeline, and when O’Hara makes his way back, the city has been transformed into a dystopia under the shadow of the Alchemax Corporation. Fortunately, O’Hara discovers a method to communicate with Parker, and together, they can fight Sloan in both the past and the future.

The writing and voice acting is quality work. Spider-Man’s quips are just as they should be, and the voice work never comes across as forced or unnatural. Val Kilmer also lends his vocal talents to Walker Sloan, and his presence is a pleasant surprise. Visually, it’s nothing too special. Some things look nice, and others don’t, but as a whole, it’s rather average, even with the stereoscopic 3D effects. Speaking of which, the cutscenes in the games are not in 3D. That effect is generally only reserved for gameplay segments, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man: Edge of Time’s gameplay doesn’t quite measure up. Combat is a plain and repetitive affair, with little variation in the enemies. I expect a comic book game to have a lot of colorful and memorable enemies, but in this game, none of them look terribly interesting, and they all tend to blend together. The actual combat is passable, but again, it’s nothing very special. The enemies don’t pose much of a challenge, and more often than not, I found myself spamming the same basic attacks over and over again.

The level design is similarly uninspired. The game takes place in the Alchemax building in two separate timelines, so all you’re going to see is whatever might exist in a large corporate headquarters, even if it is in a comic book universe. Parker and O’Hara go through the same areas in two different time periods, and while it’s interesting to see how a place changes decades later (in fact, to progress in the game, Parker has to perform actions to change the building’s layout or details in O’Hara’s time), it’s still the same building.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a game with a lot of promise, but the execution frequently falls short of expectations. If you’re the type of person who just wants to go around beating up enemies for a while, you could do worse than Edge of Time, especially since the writing and voices are still excellent, but for many, this game is going to disappoint. If you’re a Spider-Man fan, you can find some enjoyment here, but even then, I’d advise waiting for a price drop.