When a deadly symbiote invasion devastates the streets of New York City, only Spider-Man can seize control and bring the city salvation. From the game's direction and outcome through to Spider-Man's destiny, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows gives you an unprecedented level of game play choice, including, for the first time, control over the game's direction and outcome. Choose how Spider-Man fights, which powers to upgrade, who in the Marvel universe to fight with or against, and the fate of New York City itself. Choose wisely...

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is pretty similar in design to 2007's Spider-Man 3. However, a lot of elements have been tweaked and there's plenty of additional material introduced to spice up the game. Some of the most noticeable differences are the inclusion of experience points (to allow you to gain many new abilities); being able to fight enemies while you are on walls; and the ability to choose between the black and ordinary Spider-Man costume at the press of a button - and at any time.

In addition, the web system and how it’s used has been altered. The swinging action is now a lot more fluid when swinging around corners or into walls, and the movements that Spider-Man makes in mid-air (like moving his body in the direction he wants to go as well as pulling in the direction he's heading or to avoid a building or object) are also a lot more diverse. Also added to the web system is the ability to grab the tops of buildings when they are just a little bit to low to jump up onto the top. And then, when you're on the top of a building, there's also the ability to web swing from the edge in order get on the wall of the building. And if that wasn't enough, how about shooting two webs either side of a building in order to cannon up it for a short distance to gain height - making it easy to scale building without climbing or swinging.

As I mentioned before, you can now choose between the ordinary and black Spider-Man suits whenever you wish. This is a handy addition for people who have a preferred fighting style since both of the costumes have their own different fighting systems each with their own advantage. The normal suit shoots web balls at the enemies when you press the "B" button - which can let you attack enemies and stay at a distance so you can keep out of trouble. And, if you choose the black suit, you can use the tendril ability to catch your enemies and bring them towards you in order do perform a special attack such as slam them down in front of you. The two suits have more than just differing fighting styles; each one has its own story which can affect what happens in the game. This plays out, as at certain points in the game you have to choose whether to pick the black or red suit as well as choose whether to be good or evil.

When playing through the game you will notice glowing spider icons. These are used to level up - you can collect them and spend them on buying new moves - with each suit having six unique types of moves that you can purchase. These include ground combat, wall combat, air combat, web strike and special attacks, the other one is the suits web ability (tendrils for black and web shot for red). Each of the types of moves has a branch tree that starts with one ability and can then progress to include more moves on that ability or to make old abilities strong and more effective. These new moves can be bought with experience points collected from doing tasks for people or by fighting crime around the city.

As far as Spider-Man games go this one has a lot of improvements over Spider-Man 3 and still manages to keep a certain fluid feel to it whilst moving throughout the city. As far as graphics go this game has improved massively; the suits are a lot more defined in shading and also look more retro to give older fans a much better feel to the game.

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Carl Simpson