The game was directed by Gerard Lehiany and written by Seamus Kevin Fahey,[1] Benjamin Schirtz and Gérard Lehiany. Its story serves as an alternate epilogue to The Amazing Spider-Man film, which is continued in the game’s sequel, implying that the games form an alternate version of the movies’ universe.[11] Months after the events of the film, a number of cross-species experiments created by Oscorp using Curt Connors‘ research escape into Manhattan and infect its population with a deadly virus, forcing Spider-Man to join forces with Gwen Stacy and Connors to find a cure, while also contending with new Oscorp CEOAlistair Smythe, who aims to become the city’s savior and eliminate Spider-Man and Connors for interfering.
The Nintendo 3DS and Wii versions of the game also include the script and plot of the other versions of the game, but feature a much different, and more linear gameplay that doesn’t have an open world environment, and instead features the player selecting a level from a hub, in this case, Stan’s apartment, before playing a mostly linear level. It was natively designed for the 3DS and later ported to the Wii.
Gameplay
PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows versions[edit]
The Amazing Spider-Man is a third person action-adventure video game, set in an open world based on Manhattan. Players take on the role of Spider-Man and complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. The missions are structured in a linear manner, but the player is free to explore the game’s map in between missions and engage in various side activities. Players have access to all of Spider-Man’s superhuman abilities, including web swinging and wall crawling. The game also introduces a bullet time mechanic called Web-Rush, where players slow down time by holding a certain button and can select between different locations that Spider-Man will automatically move towards once the player releases the button. This gameplay mechanic can also be used to target enemies, whom Spider-Man will attack automatically, or objects that Spider-Man will throw at enemies, incapacitating them for a few seconds and allowing Spider-Man to web them in order to subdue them for good. The combat system is reminiscent of the Rocksteady Studios‘ Batman: Arkham series (at the time consisting of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City), using a freeflow design and counterattacks.[12] Beenox took a cue from the Batman games, with Dee Brown, the head of Beenox, stating “I played both Batman games and liked them. For me, the Spider-Man character is very different than Batman. You have to approach both in a different way. I think the Rocksteady guys did a good job at providing what was required to make a great Batman game, and we’re doing everything we need to this time to make a great Spider-Man game”.[13]
The game’s side missions include stopping petty crimes, car chases, and gun fights in the streets, recovering missing patients from a psychiatric hospital that escaped early on in the main storyline, and transporting civilians infected by the cross-species virus to quarantine camps. Spider-Man can use his phone to take photographs of evidence that links Oscorp to the cross-species conspiracy, or collect items such as audio files related to the conspiracy. Finding this evidence rewards the player with XP Points, or extra content in the main menu, such as concept art. Players canalso collect full, vintage comic books, such as Amazing Fantasy #15, as they collect comic covers throughout the game’s map.[14][15]
The game uses a unique damage system: the more damage Spider-Man takes, the more his suit is damaged; returning to the “safe house” repairs the suit. The player can also remove a utility belt from the default suit, which holds some extra web fluid. There are ten alternate suits in total, and five of them can be unlocked after completing certain tasks, or taking pictures of secret spider graffiti hidden within the city, such as the Scarlet Spider suit, the Black Suit from the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, a color-inverted version of the Future Foundation suit, the Negative Zone suit, and the Big Time suit. Two more secret suits include the Cross-Species suit (unlocked after completing the main storyline), and a Black Suit version of the 2012 movie suit (unlocked after attaining 100% completion), both of which are exclusive to the game. A party hat for “Spidey’s 50th anniversary” becomes available if the player changes the date of their console or PC to August 10, 2012.
The game’s downloadable content adds new mini-games and suits. For example, the Rhino Challenge DLC pack adds the classic Spider-Man suit from the Sam Raimifilm series and a mini-game where the player controls Rhino as he rampages through the streets of Manhattan, and the Lizard Rampage DLC pack adds the Vigilante suit from the film and a mini-game where the player controls the Lizard as he fights Oscorp mercenaries and destroys beacons across the city.
Nintendo 3DS and Wii versions
The Nintendo 3DS and Wii versions of The Amazing Spider-Man are very different from the main console and PC version. Although they feature different gameplay, they still share the same plot, voice-overs, and some of the other version’s version level design. Instead of featuring an open world game environment, this version employs a Star Wars: The Force Unleashed style hub approach, where the player selects a level from a map screen in Spider-Man’s apartment, and can also talk to Dr. Connors. Once a level is selected, Spider-Man is immediately dropped off at the start of that level. The game also includes some sub-missions that help the player work up their XP.
Due to the lack of free roaming within these versions of the game, players cannot find comic book pages or take pictures of hidden spider graffiti to instantly unlock more suits. The photo mode makes use of the 3DS gyroscope, but can also be more easily controlled by the analog slider.
Spider-Man’s moves in this game are more based on the previous moveset from the earlier Spider-Man movie based games, and not that of its HD counterpart, although several changes have been made, such as the addition of a “Web Rush” mode (controlled with the Wii Remote’s pointer in the Wii version), which allows Spider-Man to slow time down while he’s looking for targets to aim at.
The 3DS version has an exclusive game mode named “Vigilante”, which is a strategy-based RPG-style text game where they are given a map of locations and must complete tasks and missions and collect items needed for certain missions. A meter is shown with a slide moving to either a red or green marker. When Spider-Man successfully completes the mission, the player is awarded with Vigilante Points (VP) and Action Points (AP). The higher skill rank is, more locations and additional content are unlocked. Vigilante is compatible with Street Pass, allowing the player to trade items with other players.
Unlike the other versions of the game, there are only three suits to unlock: Basic, Classic, and the Black Suit. The Basic suit is the defeault one; the Classic Suit is unlocked by completing all of the side missions; and the Black Suit is unlocked by beating the game on Vigilante Mode.
