Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

"Spider-Man: Edge of Time" picks up on the concept explored in the last Spiderman game, Shattered Dimensions, of multiple Spidermen.

 

Developer Beenox have scaled back slightly from four Spidies to two with Edge of Time which sees Amazing Spiderman and Spiderman 2099 brought together to battle Walter Sloan (voiced by Val Kilmer). Sloan has travelled back in time to shape the future to his own design, and kill Amazing Spiderman, the effects of which are being felt by Spiderman 2099. It is an original story written by Peter David set in a new timeline, allowing for more versatility than has been seen previous Spiderman games.

 

This is where the real selling point of Edge of Time reveals itself as the two Spideys help each other across time. As is typical with the two characters there is a lot of comic banter between them that boarders on animosity, but nothing that stops them working together to correct the timeline. Amazing’s actions have direct consequences on 2099’s world (such as destroying prototype robots in the past to prevent them attacking in the 2099), while 2099 is able to relay information of has altered since Sloan started time hopping. Alterations are not as predictable as may be expected, with shifts in history resulting in huge changes to Peter Parker’s world, including a completely different career path as rather than his traditional photo-journalist role, he is now a scientist. With 2099 remembering the ‘real’ events of the past, and with his mental link to Amazing is trying straighten things out.

 

Unfortunately for the Spidey duo, Walter Sloan is all to aware of the pairs weaknesses and is using Peter Parker’s loyalty to his friends to get the upper hand. Taking control of Peter’s friend Eddie Brock, and his alter-ego Anit-Venom, Sloan’s plan is to use the characters healing ability to remove Peter’s mutations, wakening him and enabling him to be killed. This will apparently lead to some drawn out boss encounters between Amazing and Eddie during this first segment of the story, as Peter tries to persuade Eddie to stop and try to break through Sloan’s control.   

 

Differences between 2099 and Amazing are not just cosmetic, with each of them has specific abilities. 2099 focuses on brutal melee attacks, with punches and kick forming the basis of his arsenal. He is also graced with decoys; doppelgangers that will appear from his suit and that can be able to be used offensively, defensively or to help solve puzzles. The duplicates will be upgradable courtesy of power-ups are collected around the world, and could form the basis for some interesting problem solving. Amazing is to focus far more on middle range skills, using his webbing to zip around the levels, form weapons and incapacitate attackers. Also to help amazing the alterations in time have heightened some of his powers giving him a hyper-sense, an ability which slows time and allows him to attack multiple targets before they can respond.

 

Switching back and forth between the two certainly felt different, utilising their abilities to full effect and with a few side mechanics thrown in for good measure (such as 2099’s gliding through tunnels), ensuring that during my demo I was constantly experiencing new gameplay mechanics. If it can remain this varied through out an entire game remains to be seen, because while the third-person combat was fun I would question its longevity.

 

That is no a huge issue of course because the real attraction of Spiderman - Edge of Time will come from the licence and the time mechanic, which if done well could prove a huge draw when it comes to 360 and PS3 on October 28th.