More often than not, movie games are just another gimmick for minting money, ending up in trash cans of the fans who so excitedly buy them. You may put the same argument for the Spiderman games too, but Spiderman 2 was one of the rare games which actually enraptured gamers and made them give an appreciative nod. The Amazing Spiderman 2 was expected to run along the same lines. It has, but not completely.
One thing that everyone is cheering, is that Spidey’s web no longer attaches to the clouds. Aren’t we jovial about it? Even so, our focus would be on the multi-platform game’s graphical prowess across a number of platforms.
"You’ll come across a LOT of jagged ends. It’s almost painful when you’re swinging from building to building. Bokeh depth of field is present which probably saved the developers a little resources by not bothering to render detailed far off objects which is acceptable since it actually adds to the experience. "
Since the previous generation of consoles haven’t been anywhere near browbeaten by their superior successors till now, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has found its way to the older generation of consoles. The game is locked at 30fps on almost all platforms (even the PC with V-sync turned on), but the 7th gen consoles haven’t been able to handle this game satisfactorily.
The game looks mediocre on the Xbox 360, with rather unsettling texture rendering, too dark a gamma rendering resulting in shadows being a tad too dark. The bloom effect in the game is nothing to boast about and sun rays are nigh on non-existent. There are plenty of instances of frame rate drops even in cut scenes where there’s a simple yammering done by a handful of people with nothing fancy going around. Thankfully, the fight sequences do not have such severe frame rate drops, but it does affect the overall experience of the game.
You’ll come across a LOT of jagged ends. It’s almost painful when you’re swinging from building to building. Bokeh depth of field is present which probably saved the developers a little resources by not bothering to render detailed far off objects which is acceptable since it actually adds to the experience. The textures on the 360 are blander than its Sony counterpart and particle shadows are lacking too, evident from the uniformly coloured smoke/fire that you’ll come across. The shadows in the game, I frankly couldn’t stop staring at in horror. All of the shadows in the game are wobbly like half settled Jell-O. WITH jaggies. The horror.
"The PS3 version of TAS 2 is noticeably better than the Xbox version on a number of levels, but by no means is it phenomenal. The PS3 has less instances of screen tearing and frame rate drops, although the latter is still there and very apparent at times. Depth of field on the PS3 is quite decent with an equally agreeably bokeh depth of field albeit slightly more detailed owing to better texture rendering."
The PS3 version of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is noticeably better than the Xbox version on a number of levels, but by no means is it phenomenal. The PS3 has less instances of screen tearing and frame rate drops, although the latter is still there and very apparent at times. Depth of field on the PS3 is quite decent with an equally agreeably bokeh depth of field albeit slightly more detailed owing to better texture rendering.
The gamma correction in the game is nicely handled too. Bloom and reflections are significantly better than the 360 but the problems with object shadows still remain. Foliage in the PS3 version is significantly more detailed than the 360 version. Overall, better than the 360 version, but only marginally.
The Wii U, which is more of 7 3/4ths generation, is pitted against the 7th gen consoles. Owing to the newer hardware, the textures are remarkably better than both the previously mentioned consoles. The overall experience of the game is rather smooth (around 30fps) but jagged ends show up more often than one would like. The textures are still not up to the mark but that’s also because of poor game optimasation.
There’s almost no bokeh depth of field except in combat, but the a fair amount of details of far off objects are maintained. Ambient occlusion is present, but only just. Again, shadows in the Wii U version are wobbly. It’s like looking at T-1000 from Terminator 2 re-forming. Only, it’s not that. The combat in the game is fluid although yet again, cut scenes are accompanied by frame rate drops.
Character designs and animation remain rather tepid and similar across all three platforms. Owing to the smoothness of the gameplay, the PS3 version of TAS 2 was bearable, although still rather vexing.
"Ambient occlusion is visible across both platforms although gamma correction in the Xbox version is employed at a greater level, resulting in deeper shadows and more contrasting colours which make it look rather appealing. But this means that at night time, all things become too dark and lose detailing, which the PS4 doesn’t. "
The eighth generation consoles handle the game like their earlier counterparts. The PS4 version of the game seems better optimised. The PS4 effortlessly maintains the consistency of 30fps, almost all the time. Xbox One on the other hand, YET AGAIN, experiences frame rate drops in excess of 5fps in CUT SCENES. Ambient occlusion is visible across both platforms although gamma correction in the Xbox version is employed at a greater level, resulting in deeper shadows and more contrasting colours which make it look rather appealing. But this means that at night time, all things become too dark and lose detailing, which the PS4 doesn’t.
The PS4 version seemingly has more waning colours – a sobre look if you may – but remains more detailed, provided you give a close inspection to the two versions. Light rays and bloom is employed splendidly in both the versions of the game. So much so that you can soar through the city without bothering with the missions. The city looks quite beautiful as you cruise along, but don’t ever get too close to the buildings.
All buildings look like hastily made and utterly blatantly plain coloured rectangles. It’s a BIG letdown. Anti-aliasing in both the games is commendable. The Xbox version can get annoying at times with screen tearing in fast sequences, but it’s not a recurring or game breaking problem. Also, bokeh depth of field is more prominent in the Xbox One than in the PS4 version.
What this means is that, far off buildings are quite blurred in the Xbox One while the PS4 has the same buildings, less blurred and more neatly detailed. This may be done to reduce resource load but we have no idea why. Every bit of foliage in the Xbox One version looks like to have been made from a pair of paper sheets while the PS4 renders the foliage in good detail. Rendering problems in the Xbox One sometimes lead to misalignment of objects but that’s not a problem at all.
"The character design and concept needs polishing, so does animation and voice acting/lip-syncing. The graphics are merely acceptable by any standards. "
Which is better which in the 8th gen consoles is a no brainer. The PS4 version is better optimised than its MS counterpart although it eludes me as to why the developers would make one version of the game inferior to the other. The Amazing Spiderman 2, is a significant improvement over its predecessor, but it’s not up to the mark. fans of the series might enjoy the game but not otherwise.
The character design and concept needs polishing, so does animation and voice acting/lip-syncing. The graphics are merely acceptable by any standards.They are nothing to brag about even on the current generation of consoles. Beenox seems to have hastily delivered a potentially brilliant title owing to deadline pressures of releasing the game alongside the movie.
Had Beenox taken their time, improved upon the character art and design, dialogues etc, it would have been one of the best games out there now. It falls short of the hype, not too many to call it bad, but neither too less to actually call it good.