GameHoof.com

Publisher: Activision
Genre: Action, Adventure
Developer: Beenox Studios
Release Date: Dec 31, 2011
ESRB: Rating Pending
Platforms: 360 PS3 Wii DS

We’ve got the expected questions around which villains are being included, how long the game will be, and what cameos to look for, but it looks like those answers will come later, because no one was talking.

Beenox and Activision show off Spider-Man’s latest time-hopping adventure. Based on this early look, Spider-Man: Edge of Time appears to have an interesting premise that Beenox is making smart use of. We definitely like what we’ve seen so far. Spider-Man: Edge of Time is slated to ship this fall for the 3DS, DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

Gameplay

The story’s time travel angle is more than just a narrative device and figures prominently in Edge of Time’s gameplay. The core gameplay should be familiar to Spider-fans who’ve played previous Spider-Man games, especially Shattered Dimensions. The webslingers will have unique abilities that differentiate them from each other. Amazing is the speedy, acrobatic fighter of the pair and incorporates web constructs into his combat moves of punches, kicks, and leaps. For Edge of Time, Beenox has buffed him out with a new evasion move that will let him dodge just about anything when used properly. Well, almost anything, considering he isn’t going to be able to dodge his impending death without some help. 2099 is more of a powerhouse, throwing hard-hitting punches and kicks with a wide reach. His moves have been enhanced with a new decoy ability that lets him create a duplicate of himself to throw off enemies.

The time element in the gameplay has you bouncing between the past and the current, slightly busted 2099 future. The action is set in the Alchemax building in both eras, a massive, small-city-sized building that’s a cross between a fortress and a science lab. The actions taken by Amazing Spider-Man in the past impact 2099’s reality in a variety of ways. In the demo we saw, which showed off the third and fourth levels in the game, this played out in two key ways. The first element was basic and required both Spider-Men to be at the same location in both eras so they could work as a team. The second was a bit more mind warping: When 2099 is forced to fight a massive robot blocking his path, Amazing has a timed sequence where he has to destroy the prototype of the robot in the past. As he takes out various components of the robot in the past, the mech pounding 2099 becomes incapacitated and eventually disappears.

Unfortunately, as most any sci-fi time scholar can tell you, this alters the timeline, meaning one big problem can be replaced by another or by several smaller ones. The gameplay looks like it’s going to have quite a few “good news, bad news” moments as one threat is replaced by another. The upside is that there should be a lot of variety to the action. Finally, as before, both heroes will be able to use their spider sense to get insight into their goals and spot enemies, crawl on walls, and, for 2099, enjoy some freefall segments. The other familiar mechanic fans will appreciate is the ability to earn “spider essence” from downed foes that you’ll be able to spend to upgrade your existing abilities and moves as well as to unlock new ones. In addition, fans can spend essence on alternate costumes.