Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Reviews

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 review

Anthony John Agnello
By
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game review
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
MSRP $60.00
Score Details
“Most of the time, the game works, and some of it can be amusing if not nourishing. It's just stupid. Very, very stupid.”
Pros
  • Swinging around the city remains amusing
  • Fights are simple but work
Cons
  • Awful interface design obscures game
  • Illogical side missions

Spider-Man always bounces back. Toss a building on old Peter Parker and all he has to do is think about his Mary Jane, Gwen Stacey, or Uncle Ben and BAM! Spidey lifts nine tons of bricks off his back and throws them at an old man in a vulture costume. While Parker is crippled by psychological trauma and neurosis, he’s got a support network, people who love him, that inspire his ability to persevere.

Beenox, the studio that has steered Spider-Man through the video-game world since 2010, has no such luxury. Its developers aren’t superheroes, there is no support network, and the crush of churning out nearly annual games results in some deeply flawed Spider-Man adventures, such as The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Related

Like Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Edge of Time, and the first The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox’s latest isn’t exactly bad. Most of the time, the game works, and some of it can be amusing if not nourishing. It’s just stupid. Very, very stupid.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game review
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Set in a bizarre Playskool version of Manhattan populated by nothing but luxury high rises and brick tenements, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has you slowly work your way through a gang conflict between the Russian mob and NYC’s new crime lord, the Kingpin. You’ll swing between these buildings, making your way to the next in line of the game’s 14 main chapters, which typically drop you into a stock video-game setting to punch some thugs wearing bandanas and tank tops. Tour through a dilapidated subway, museum, high-tech lab, abandoned building, or cargo-loading area, then fight the occasional boss.

Vanilla as it all is, none of it is truly awful.

Vanilla as it all is, none of it is truly awful. In fact, it can be fun. Swinging around the city feels better with the left and right triggers mapped to Spidey’s hands. That the camera loses track of the action when Spidey collides with a building doesn’t take away from it. Neither does the fact that there’s no consistency to when he can web onto a building. Giant skyscraper directly on your right? Can’t web there! Swinging through Central Park above the tree line? Swing on through!

The same goes for the combat. The simplified Arkham Asylum-style fights, with one action button for punching, one for dodging, and another for shooting webs (rather than batarangs) is sloppy but perfectly functional. Same for Spidey’s stealth maneuvers, sneaking up behind a guy and webbing him up. Will it astound video-game neophytes and grip veterans? No, but it also won’t make you throw up your hands and quit video games forever. It’s fine.

Fine, at least, until the stupidity starts to pile on. The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s most galling problems are the lazy, dumb things that aren’t broken but don’t need to be there at all. Like giant tutorial prompts that appear on screen throughout the entire game, and can’t be turned off. Or Whitney Chang’s Daily Bugle news reports: Every single time you finish the most basic side missions like beating up gang members or saving people from a fire, you’re forced to watch a generic cutscene, each one more or less identical to the last. Same thing if you fail.

Why include these interruptions at all? Start asking questions like that while playing, and even more pop up. Why are random bombs planted in the city? Why does Stan Lee run a comic shop that Spider-Man shops at, and why is it exclusively stocked with Spider-Man comics? Why does Electro appear as a boss near the end of the game when there’s literally no prior mention of the villain before the fight? Why does Spider-Man gain experience points to unlock new moves when you never, ever need to use them for anything significant in the game?

Beenox does not have an enviable task in making these games, forced to turn them around as quickly as they must to coincide with the release of a movie. That the basics of fighting and swinging around the city work at all is impressive. That these mechanics are actually pleasantly distracting is actually pretty heroic. Like Spider-Man, Beenox has great responsibilities, but not much power or support to realize them. If only they had been told it was OK to make a simpler game. Cut all the stupid dialogue, cutscenes and bizarre fluff, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could have been a simpler, better game rooted in the base pleasures that Beenox got right. Unfortunately this Spider-Man game is buried beneath the rubble.

Highs

  • Swinging around the city remains amusing
  • Fights are simple but work

Lows

  • Awful interface design obscures game
  • Illogical side missions

Trailer

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
The best item recipes in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Believe it or not, your Arisen in Dragon's Dogma 2 is very skilled at crafting. We're not talking about building structures, tools, or weapons, but item crafting. By combining specific pairs of ingredients in your inventory, you can produce some extremely potent consumables. As you will discover for yourself on your first long trip across the land, there are a ton of materials to discover, leading to hundreds or thousands of possible combinations. Knowing what items are best saved to make something special can save you from having to scour the world looking for more or struggling without it. Here are the best recipes that not even the best pawns will tell you about.
Best item recipes

Salburious Drought
This green liquid will be your most common healing item in Dragon's Dogma 2 and also the item you will probably craft first. It probably has the most possible combinations of ingredients to make and will always be a more effective way to get the most healing out of any individual ingredients. If you have a Greenwarish and combine it with almost any fruit, you can whip this tonic up.
Detoxifying Decoction
Status effects are no joke in Dragon's Dogma 2. If you get poisoned, it isn't going away until you cure it or rest at an in or camp. And that's if you have enough healing items to keep yourself alive long enough to make it there. Detoxifying Decoctions will cure what ails you and keep you adventuring instead of scrambling to get back to town. An easy way to make it is by combining Pitywort and Syrupwort leaves.
Exquisite Dried Spud
Stamina regenerates naturally, so you may not think an item that replenishes it would be all that important. Ask yourself that when you're clinging to the back of a Griffen 100 feet above the ground and your grip is slipping. Pop an Exquisite Dried Spud to keep climbing or running in those touchy moments. Just smash two Ripened Princess Harspuds together to make it.
Mighty Robrant
For a more flavorful and alternative healing item, the Mighty Robrant will be able to take you from close to death to full HP for the majority of the game. This is a second-level item made by first crafting a Fruit Robrant and then combining that with Cinnamon Bark.
Miracle Robrant
The ultimate consumable that you can make is the Miracle Robrant. This will heal a massive amount of HP and refill your stamina all in one. These take a bit more work to get, so save them for emergencies. Make one with any Fine Robrant and a Saurian's Tail.
Bunch of Flowers
Finally, make a nice gift for someone with a Bunch of Flowers to earn some favor. You can give gifts to almost any important character in the game, and while not all will like flowers, a good deal will, and they're free to make. We craft ours out of Sunbloom and Noonblooms, but most flower combinations will do the job.

Read more
All sphinx riddle solutions in Dragon’s Dogma 2
A sphinx in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is full of mythological monsters and beasts. During your travels, you will encounter many classics like Cyclopses, Griffins, and Dragons, but a more obscure creature is hidden away in a cave waiting to challenge you in a different way. The Sphinx is found in the Mountain Shrine at the top of the hill once you go through Wordlsend Cave. It won't attack you when you approach, but instead, it will challenge you to a test of intellect. There are a total of 10 riddles to be solved, with a reward given for each one you manage to crack. Dragon's Dogma 2 never holds your hand with anything, so we'll help you unravel these riddles.
First five riddle solutions

The first half of the riddles are given at the location mentioned above. Once you solve this first batch, the Sphinx will move, and you will need to find it again to continue. Here are the first five riddles, their solutions, and rewards.
Riddle of the Eyes
“Our eyes are our allies, yet oft do they betray, for eyes tell lies, so I advise, and thence do lead astray. Yet how will your eyes advise you? Venture through yonder door and retrieve that which is of greatest value.“

Read more
How long is Dragon’s Dogma 2?
A sphinx in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Open-world RPGs can be anywhere from around a dozen hours long to well over 100. Dragon's Dogma 2 is very unique, even among others in the genre, for not adhering to a lot of traditional design philosophies, such as how it handles fast travel. If anything, that will only add to your total playtime, plus there are all the optional quests to do, Vocations to try out and level up, and more if you're a completionist. If you're wondering if you have the time to fit Dragon's Dogma 2 into your schedule among all the other games releasing, here's how long you can expect this adventure to last.
How long is Dragon's Dogma 2?

For the main quest, Dragon's Dogma 2 can probably be beaten in around 25 hours, give or take. That's assuming you mainline the story as efficiently as possible and don't get stuck on any boss fights being under-leveled. A more realistic playthrough where you explore a bit, do some side content, and maybe go for the true ending will push you into the 30 to 35-hour range, as it did for us.

Read more