Time travel as a plot device is always a tricky affair.

Much like in a strokey-beard philosophical debate with your learned friends – the ins and outs, cause and effect of travelling through time are never quite clear-cut, and usually just lead to someone dividing by zero and causing the universe to reset itself.

Luckily Spiderman: Edge of Time side-steps this conundrum completely by throwing out “quantum this” and “quantum that” at leisure – just to make sure that this is all too complicated for you to understand, so stop thinking about things and keep killing stuff.

Spiderman, Spiderman

Spiderman: Edge of Time kicks off by throwing you into a cinematic introduction where you play as the Amazing Spiderman, facing off against Anti-venom – and not doing so well.

After getting your arse kicked something awful; Spiderman 2099 races against time (oh yes) to try and rescue his counter-part from certain doom.

You see, as it so happens, a mad scientist/executive from 2099 invented a time-machine, as one does, and decided to travel to the past (our present) to use his future knowledge to establish the company he worked for – but in his own form, to gain control of the future.

Part of this ploy, is getting rid of present (past) Spidey.

Did you get all that?

As you proceed through the story, you alternate between the future and the past – playing as the respective Spidey each time; as things happen in the past, the environment in the future changes – but don’t be too impressed by this; it’s very much a function of the story (i.e. scripted events) rather than a gameplay mechanic.

This switching does provide some great diverse gameplay, though.

Does whatever a spider can

Spiderman Edge of Time is a brawler, or as I like to call them – a button smasher (it seems to be a staple for the Superhero genre); thankfully, unlike X-Men Destiny, there is a little more depth to the mashing.

Past/Present Spidey and Spidey 2099 share very similiar attack patterns – while not identical, their moves do essentially the same task; with Peter Parker using web-based attacks (like web-hammers and web punches) and super agility (to avoid lasers and enemy fire).

2099’s Miguel opts rather for high-tech powered moves and a suit clone that diverts enemy attention away from him, while he flanks them from the side.

Spins a web, anytime

Enemies aren’t entirely stupid, either, and on Normal can pose quite a challenge; with tens of enemies bombarding you at once – from various distances with different attacks – you’ll need to do a little more than just hit the same two buttons.

Collecting blue energy, you’re able to upgrade abilities to make them more powerful – and if you rack up a big enough combo, or deal with baddies in a fantastic way, you’re awarded golden spiders – which are used to upgrade health and stamina.

Then you can collect the purple energy which fills up your time paradox meter; once activated, the time paradox ability causes all enemies within a certain radious to freeze, allowing you to dispose of them as you see fit.

Don’t ask how it makes sense, it just does, okay? It’s quantum game coding, you won’t understand.

Catches thieves, just like flies

It’s great to finally play a game that offers more than two kinds of enemies to face.

The past/future jumping means that you get two SETS of enemies to smack around – with the past having humans to smash in the face, and the future opting for a robotic smackdown.

Graphically, the game is pretty damn decent. You won’t be blown away by stellar looks – but the game is attractive enough to at least classify it as part of the current generation of games – even if lip synching isn’t its strong point.

Speaking of which – the voice acting is great too, with the acidic Spidey “charm” ever-present; and the actors conveying enough emotion and drama to draw you in to what’s happening – rather than, say, nauseating you with cheese.

Watch out, here comes the Spiderman

Spiderman: Edge of time is a fun game.

A lot of it can feel samey and a bit repetitive; but the game offers a lot of variety, if you choose to use it.

It’s well presented, and challenging enough to warrent a bit of investment into learning the combos and different moves – but is also accessible enough to people who just want to mash buttons; what’s important is that the diversity is there.

I guess the biggest fault of the game, is the fact that it came out the same month as Batman: Arkham City – so superhero fans will likely give it a skip.

If you can take the convoluted plot with a pinch of salt (something that the in-game characters do themselves) and can ignore the occassional disorientating camera movement; then you’ll find value in this game.

With hard mode unlocked upon completion, as well as a set of challenges you’ll find throughout the game – you’re looking at a title that will keep you pretty entertained for hours.

At least until you start playing Batman: Arkham City again.

Spiderman: Edge of Time reviewed << Comments and views