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- Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions was the first game to introduce the concept of Spiderverse in gaming.
- The game featured four different Spider-Men from their respective dimensions and various popular villains.
- It was excellent but flew under the radar and doesn’t receive enough recognition today.
The Spider-Man franchise reached a new high recently. Following 2018’s Insomniac adaptation, the character has really come into his own again.
The MCU recently gathered all three live-action Spider-Men in one movie, Sony’s Spiderverse films continue to redefine the character’s place in animation, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 was a record-breaking hit last year.
The Spiderverse films stand out as the most unique of all these releases, but this concept is not new for Spider-Man. While fans continue to speculate about Insomniac working on a similar game, one already exists.
In 2010, Beenox came out with Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. With four different Spider-Men, this was basically the Spiderverse concept before Sony’s films.
Why it matters: Shattered Dimensions came out at a time when Spider-Man games had begun to stagnate, losing their charm after the major success of Spider-Man 2 on the PS2.
Exploring The Spiderverse Before It Became Mainstream
For comic book readers, the concept wasn’t new, but it was the very first integration into a video game. However, for casual fans, this was something to watch out for. Suddenly, you realize that there were infinite dimensions, with each offering its own Spider-Man.
I’ve absolutely loved Spider-Man comics since my childhood, so you can imagine my excitement when I first picked the game and saw the multiple variants on the cover. I’d say this might’ve been true for all the enthusiasts.
The game featured The Amazing Spider-Man, The Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, and Noir, each coming from different dimensions. It had a great variety in combat as each Spidey had their own set of moves and fighting styles.
For example, Ultimate Spidey had access to the symbiote, allowing him to use symbiote-infused attacks for destructive blows. Meanwhile, Noire stuck to the shadows, breaking up the typical gameplay with stealth-focused missions.
The game also featured Madame Web, who was recently featured on the big screen in a not-so-great film from Sony. The cast of villains was no slouch either, including the likes of Mysterio, the Hobgoblin, Kraven, and Electro.
A Breath of Fresh Air
While the story was never the strongest part of the game, it opened the doors to a unique structure.
The various Spider-Men were tasked with finding broken pieces of an artifact. However, the quest for these artifacts was divided into linear missions, with each mission presenting different foes for the superheroes.
Unlike past games, Shattered Dimensions was strictly linear. Swinging was no longer a focus, but the overall experience was tightly presented, creating memorable encounters.
Every boss fight was a major event in Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. They offered multiple phases as the conflict gradually grew, allowing these foes to shine more than in past games.
While it may seem odd for Spider-Man to abandon the open-world formula, Shattered Dimensions quite literally shattered the formulaic open-world trope that Activision’s past Spider-Man games had begun to fall into.
This departure was a welcome change at the time and became one of my favorite parts of the experience.
There is no denying the game had its faults, but it introduced something that went on to become mainstream a decade later. It also serves as an example that Metacritic scores aren’t always the end all be all since the title never saw much critical success.
I would recommend all Spider-Man fans to give Shattered Dimensions a go. The game is difficult to find today, with no official way to play it on current-generation consoles.
PC users can certainly resort to other options, but console owners are left with no other option but to dust off their trusty PS3s and Xbox 360s if they intend to experience this underrated gem.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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