Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions First Look Preview

History has repeatedly taught us that superhero licenses are risky territory, even for the most experienced developer. For every Arkham Asylum there are umpteen titles that fall short, incurring the wrath of comic fans and seasoned gamers alike. When you adapt a piece of source material that has a long-established fanbase, you’re automatically exposing yourself to rigorous, beady-eyed scrutiny. In short, you are flirting with disaster.

But to take on four such licenses, to cram them into a single video game… that’s not flirting. No, that’s like taking disaster to a classy restaurant, feeding it champagne and oysters, then dragging it off to the carpark for a bout of passionate frottage. And in Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions, that’s exactly what Beenox and Activision have done. They’ve taken a quartet of Marvel licences and blended them into a single multi-faceted package: Four different web-slingers. Four different art styles. Four different kinds of gameplay. It’s a bold move, one that will set spider-senses tingling across the land – but none of us want to get our hearts broken.

Beenox says that it has listened to lots of community feedback in the wake of the disappointing Spider-man: Web of Shadows. While that’s certainly a good thing, the new approach is a bit of a puzzler: it has done away with the open world scenario, something that was arguably the most popular aspect of Activision’s previous spider-titles. Aside from its highly unusual structure, the main selling point of Shattered Dimensions is an increased focus on the conflict between our arachnid hero and his big-name villains. Each of the four segments will have their own flavour of play, but frequent boss encounters will be a running motif. You won’t just face “name” villains at the end of a level, after smashing truckloads of faceless thugs; the battle with the celeb will be an on-off thing throughout a stage. You’ll kick their ass, they’ll escape, and then a little later you’ll fight again – until the blighter finally quits and gives up his piece of the tablet.

What tablet, you cry? Why, the one that’s causing all the trouble. You see, there’s a magical artefact at stake here, and like most magical artefacts it bestowes all sorts of amazing powers on the person who carries it. As the Sam Raimi movies repeatedly drilled into us, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Or to put it another way, everyone is screwed if the bad guys get the prize. For reasons that aren’t yet clear the talisman has been split into four parts, with each bit falling into a different universe – hence the need for four different Spider-chaps. And no, I have no idea how they co-ordinate their plans. Perhaps they use Skype, or some kind of collaborative Google doc. Either way, I’ll bet it’s a logistical nightmare.

So far Activision and Beenox have only revealed two of the licenses they’re using. The first, predictably enough, is The Amazing Spider-man. For the uninitiated, this is the classic version of Mr Eat-Flies (I’m running low on synonyms), and as such the art style uses a rather pretty cel-shaded look that emulates ink on paper. The action is equally traditional, with the hero swinging through open environments and indulging in fisticuffs with gangs of badguys. In other words, it’s a beat-em-up, with Spidey using his web for throws, crowd control push-back moves, and as a simple projectile. So far, so familiar – but the backdrop for these battles is somewhat unusual: instead of rumbling in his native New York, our blue-and-red-brawler is chasing Crave though lush South American jungle.

It looks awfully pretty too. There’s no such thing as a fashion magazine for game design, but if there were then the writers would be screaming, “Cel-shading is soooooo in, darling!” It worked in Borderlands, it worked in Red Steel 2, and at first glance, it works well here. It’s bright, it’s colourful, and it feels inherently right for a Spider-man game. Obviously it’s hard to tell exactly how the gameplay will handle, but there are certainly some interesting new ideas mixed into the familiar beat-em-up shenanigans.

One encounter with Kraven the Hunter took place in a sort of leafy equivalent to the Thunderdrome from Mad Max 3 – an amphitheatre of stone and wood, with dozens of tattooed thugs cheering on their boss from the sidelines. That’s not the weird bit, though: the odd thing is that at one point the battle switched to a first-person perspective. There you are, with the camera right up in Kraven’s face, and these red spider-fists come rushing in from either side of the screen to whack him in the chops. Beenox says that these interludes are essentially interactive cut-scenes, loosely modelled after the old Punch-Out games. The idea that Spidey and his foe get a chance to trade a bit of smack-talk, while the player gets to inspect the detail on the character models. It’s decidedly odd, but my gut tells me it might just be weird enough to work.

Did you enjoy the stealth-y bits in Batman: Arkham Asylum? Did you ever wish that there was some kind of equivalent for Spider-man? And did you ever wish that he could do all his creeping around while dressed in a leather waistcoat? If the answer to one or more of these questions is “God, yes!” then you’re in luck. The second part of Shattered Dimensions is based around the mini-series Spider-man: Noir, which imagines what might have happened if Peter Parker had been around in the 1930s. There’s a gloomy colour scheme here, all dirty yellow lighting and inky shadows – which is just as well, as it looks like you’ll be doing an awful lot of skulking about in the dark.

It might sound a bit unfair to simply describe this as Spider-man: Arkham Asylum, but at first glance the similarities are pronounced. There seems to be a lot of sneaking up behind guards to perform silent take-downs, and if Spidey squats on a high-up perch, he can drop down to grab an enemy beneath; the thug in question is then left to hang on a long strand of web. The bad guy is overwhelmed in terror, but Batman players are more likely to be overwhelmed with deja-vu. Still, there’s no shame in borrowing from the best, and the take-down animations look fun: guards whimper as you grab them and are then suddenly silenced as you plaster them to the wall with oodles of webbing.

Stylistically, there’s a lot to admire about these noir sections, but I’m a little concerned about how well these stealth challenges will play out. As with the Amazing levels, it’s far too early to judge the gameplay, but I did notice that one section of the level,which was set in an expansive rail yard, seemed to insta-fail the player if they strayed into a searchlight. Most of us have had to suffer a teeth-grinding stealth level at some point in our gaming careers, so let’s hope that Beenox gets the balance right. Elsewhere, it looks like the studio is making good use of the series’ noir ambiance. The boss for this part of the demo was Hammerhead, a gangster character who never actually appeared in the original Noir mini-series. He’s a great fit for the universe, though: the fight I saw placed him at the trigger of a huge mounted gatling gun in the centre of a room, forcing Spidey to flank around cover before launching his attack.

There’s no word yet on what the other two licenses will be, but I’ll eat Stan Lee’s glasses if Ultimate Spider-man isn’t one of them. As for the fourth and final candidate, your guess is as good as mine. I’ve quizzed a few veteran Marvel fans, and several people suggested the futuristic Spider-man 2099 – but that particular imprint was abandoned a long time ago, so it’s probably an outside bet. At any rate, I’m really more interested in what genres the developer will embrace with its last two quarters. We’re bound to find out more at E3 in June, so there’s plenty of time to formulate your ideal scenario. Personally, I’d like a Mario Kart rip-off, and a dancing game where Dr Octopus does the Macarena while downing a Bacardi Breezer. Sadly, I doubt my dream will come true: Beenox is brave for taking the path it’s chosen, but I don’t think it’s that brave.

Spider-man Shattered Dimensions is in development for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Nintendo DS.