The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014 video game)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an action-adventure video game based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, and is the sequel to 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man. It was developed by Beenox and published by Activision. It is loosely based on the 2014 film of the same name.

It was released on April 29 in North America and May 2 in Europe for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox 360. The Xbox One version was released alongside the other platforms digitally while the release of physical copies was delayed by two weeks. Gameloft also released a mobile version on April 17 for iOS and Android devices as a paid game. The game was also localized in Japan as a Sony-exclusive title.

Gameplay
Morality is used in a system known as "Hero or Menace", where players will be rewarded for stopping crimes or punished for not consistently doing so or not responding. If the player responds to crimes and successfully stops them, their hero rating will go up, failing to do so will result in Spider Man's rating to decrease. The player is able to upgrade Spider-Man's web shooters. During certain sections of the game, the player can control Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker and walk around doing detective work.

Players have access to Peter Parker's home, and his room allows players to replay previous missions from the main storyline, purchase upgrades and equip the various costumes available. Audio logs of many characters can be collected from around the city. Players can use the Metro to go back to Peter Parker's home.

Additionally, new enemy types have been introduced. Armored guards can be taken down either with a stealth attack or by the Ionic Web upgrade, which allows players to break down armor, thus leaving the guard vulnerable to damage.

Furthermore, the city has been expanded to incorporate unique districts that allow for more open space to the player. The crimes from the first game have been expanded on, but it also includes new crimes such as arson and hostage situations. Unlike the previous game, there will be constant random side activities. Additionally, the use of the Web-Rush system returns and has been expanded on from the previous game, now allowing for critical strikes, dodges and rolls. There are also new upgrades and abilities introduced into the game, some of which have been expanded on from the previous game.

The player can, as before, use their in-game smartphone to access the map, which provides the player with information of activities taking place in the area at the time. Players can use the map to track current activities, main and side missions. Players will also use the in-game smart phone to manage in-game messages and upgrades for their suit and skills.

Missions have been altered to fit players' play style. Rather than players navigating through a linear level, levels have been redesigned to be more open, allowing players to explore the map and providing them with different ways to approach the mission. Players can now choose between a stealth approach and a combative, open approach to engage their enemies. Additionally, stealth based attacks have been improved since the previous entry, players are now able to silently take down enemies from a distance. Players are able to silently take down enemies from any surface the player is on, whether it be the ceiling, the wall or the ground. Players are also able to repel from their webs and perform inverted take downs on enemies.

Plot
After the events of the previous game, Peter Parker, also known as the vigilante Spider-Man, begins searching again after Dennis Carradine, the criminal who murdered Uncle Ben two years ago. In his search, Spider-Man runs into Herman Shultz, one of Carradine's contractor. Shultz doesn't know anything about Carradine, but instead tells him about the recently started gang war, in which his gang is also involved. Spider-Man starts interrogating him about the recently appeared Russian gang, Schultz's gang's rivals, but Schultz escapes.

The following day, Spider-Man returns to his regular life of crime fighting, in the hope of finding more about Carradine's whereabouts. Eventually, he finds out about a deal in which Carradine might be involved, so he goes to investigate. He chases Carradine, but loses him for a short while. When he finds him again, he discovers that he has been murdered by a serial killer known as the "Carnage Killer". Spider-Man decides to track down Carradine's killer, and bring him to Ravencroft, a prison for the criminally insane.

Peter returns home to talk to Aunt May, only to hear the breaking news: both Shultz's and the Russian gang are attacking Oscorp, in order to steal the advanced technology and weapons kept there, so that they could win the gang war. Spider-Man, feeling guilty for letting Shultz escape, rushes to stop them. After saving the lives of the kidnapped employees, including an electric engineer named Max Dillon, Spider-Man apprehends all the mobsters from both gangs (who were fighting over the technology) and prevents them from stealing anything or destroying the building. However, he runs once again into Shultz, who built himself a pair of shock gloves and now calls himself the Shocker. After defeating Shocker, Spidey interrogates him about the gang war and the Carnage Killer, and finds out that every criminal and mobster in town is afraid of this mysterious killer. Spider-Man then apprehends Shultz as well, but takes some of the technology he used for the gloves to make himself a similar gadget.

Following the attack and the death of Norman Osborn, the head of Oscorp, CEO Harry Osborn (Norman's son and Peter's childhood friend) and billionaire Wilson Fisk announce that their companies will begin working together to fund the Enhanced Crime Task Force, a privatized police force meant to contain criminals, as well as Spider-Man. When Fisk offers to take Oscorp off of Harry's hands, Harry rebuffs him. Fisk decides to wait until Harry dies from the same genetic disease that killed Norman, and then take over Oscorp.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man is met by a man named Kraven, who came to New York City in an attempt to hunt and kill all of Oscorp's failed cross-species experiments (which Spidey fought in the previous game). Kraven offers Peter a chance to act as his protege. Peter accepts and the two work together to find the Carnage Killer.

Spider-Man discovers a Russian hideout, where he finds a map of all the places the killer attacked so far. However, he also finds the Russian's plan to kill Wilson Fisk during the fundraiser that will take place that night. Spider-Man sneaks at the fundraiser as his alter-ego and stops the Russian's plan. There, he also meets up with Harry Osborn (whom he hasn't seen for 10 years), as well as Felicia Hardy, a bank robber whom he fought 2 years ago (in the previous game), and somehow both managed to escape from prison and was present in during Spider-Man's search for Carradine. Spidey then heads for the docks, the Russian's main hideout. There he recovers all the stolen Oscorp tech and rescues a man who is an advertising seller, whom the Russians believe to be the Carnage Killer. After saving him, the advertising seller gives Spider-Man a description of the Carnage Killer.

The next day, using the map and the description, Peter and Kraven track down the killer. When they find him, he reveals himself as Cletus Kasady. Spider-Man and Kasady fight, and Kasady is defeated. However, Peter refuses to kill Kasady, after Kraven urges him to. Kasady is apprehended by the police and taken to Ravencroft where he meets Harry Osborn's assistant, Donald Menken. Kasady begins to be experimented on with a symbiotic red liquid code-named Venom, which was originally meant to cure Norman Osborn's disease.

Soon after, with the Carnage Killer in jail and the Russian Mob and Shultz's gang defeated, a mysterious man named the "Kingpin" begins filling in the power vacuum. At the same time, more people start viewing Spidey as a menace, and so, more Task Force troops appear in the city to take care of criminals and him. In an attempt to remake his reputation as a hero, Spider-Man escorts a police van to its destination, and then makes his way to a museum that is being robbed. After taking care of the robbers, Spidey fights with Felicia Hardy, who now calls herself Black Cat. After defeating her, Black Cat reveals that the Kingpin is Wilson Fisk (just as Peter thought) and that he is the one who got her out of Ravencroft. However, he made cross-species experiments on her, thus giving super-powers, just like Spider-Man. Peter offers to help her, but she refuses and runs away.

The following day, Peter makes his way to Harry's apartment in order to receive information on Wilson Fisk. However, Harry tells Peter that he is dying and asks him for Spider-Man's help, believing that his blood can help him with a cure. Peter visits Harry as Spider-Man and tells him that he cannot give him his blood, because he wants to avoid another incident like the Lizard incident and the blood needs to be researched, a fact that Harry sees as a waste of time. This discussion makes Harry angry with Spider-Man and causes him to look for a cure on his own.

After the discussion, Spider-Man makes his way to Kraven's loft, where he discovered from Harry's confirmations that he was hired by Kingpin to kill him. While there, he is tranquilized by Kraven and then forced to fight him in Central Park. During the fight, Kraven reveals that he trained him only to make Spider-Man a worthy opponent. Spider-Man defeats Kraven and coerces info from him on how to get to Kingpin, before webbing him up on a tree.

Arriving at Fisk Tower, Spider-Man infiltrates one of the trucks and rides it to Kingpin's hideout. Spider-Man proceeds to fight the Task Force soldiers and street thugs defending Kingpin, before entering the hideout and confronting him. Spider-Man defeats Kingpin and begins hacking his computer for incriminating evidence. However, all of a sudden, the power in the whole city is cut down by Max Dillon (the Oscorp electric engineer whom Spidey saved earlier), who, after an accident, gained electric powers and was incarcerated at Ravencroft, but managed to escape. Thus, Spider-Man is forced to leave and go stop Dillon, who is now calling himself Electro.

Spider-Man reaches Time Square and tries to reason with Electro, who reveals that the doctors at Ravencroft had done experiments on him. Electro blames Spidey for not being there to save him, since they were "partners", and thus attacks him. Spider-Man manages to defeat Electro, whose body explodes, thus killing him. The power returns to New York, but Spidey feels sorry for Dillon, since not only he did meant him to be his true partner, he was also only a victim, and realises that Ravencroft must be doing similar experiments on all of their patients, so its time for him to stop them.

Meanwhile, Harry discovers and injects himself with Richard Parker's spider venom (which gave Peter his powers), hoping that it will cure him of his disease. He also finds out from one of his employees that the rumors about Fisk trying to take over Oscorp are true. This makes him even more angry and, because of the unstable venom he has just injected himself with, he becomes insane, thus causing havoc in the Oscorp building.

Spider-Man comes to investigate and finds the insane and grotesque Harry, who dubs himself the "Green Goblin". After saving the civilians inside the building and defusing the bombs Green Goblin has planted around Manhattan, Spider-Man is forced to chase and fight his former friend. Peter eventually defeats Green Goblin, who accidentally stabs himself with his own glider and dies.

With the menace of the Green Goblin over, Spider-Man heads over to the Ravencroft Institute, after hearing of large riots breaking out. Spider-Man saves Donald Menken, who reveals that the experiments on Kasady failed, thus allowing him to control the Venom he was injected with and now calls himself Carnage. After taking Menken and the other staff to safety, Spidey defeats all the other patients Kasady has infected with the symbiote, and eventually finds him. Spider-Man defeats Kasady, but he and the symbiote fully bond, becoming Carnage. Spidey manages to defeat Carnage and burns the symbiote off Casady, thanks to Menken's tips on how to defeat the symbiote. He begs Spider-Man to let him die, but he refuses, saying that they are different, and takes him back to his cell, where the symbiote is completely removed.

Sometime later, Peter visits Stan Lee in his comic book shop. There, Stan encourages him to be the man Uncle Ben would have wanted him to be, before Peter resumes his role as Spider-Man and goes to save the day once more.

In a post-credits scene, Kingpin tells the mayor on the phone that he will continue to finance the Enhanced Crime Task Force without Harry, when he is interrupted by the Chameleon, who was actually posing as Donald Menken all along. When he asks Fisk what their next plan is, he replies that "the real work begins".

Development and release
The game was announced at New York Comic Con October 2013 slated for a Spring 2014 release. It was announced that Beenox would be developing the game.

Motion capture performances were provided by Aaron Schoenke of Bat in the Sun Productions, as well as Sean T. Krishnan and Alina Andrei.

A small teaser trailer was released at the New York Comic Con in 2013 to support the first announcement of the game. In January 2014, the first trailer for the game was released to the public. The release date for the console versions was announced in March 2014. The walkthrough trailer was released on 27 March 2014. The launch trailer for the mobile version was released upon the release of the game.

Reception
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received generally mixed reviews upon release, with most of the criticism aimed at the graphics, story, and glitches. The iOS version of the game has a weighted aggregate rating of 58/100 on Metacritic, based on 11 reviews, and 57.50% on GameRankings, based 8 reviews, the PlayStation 3 version of the game has 59.00% on GameRankings, based on 1 review, the PlayStation 4 version of the game has 54.02% on GameRankings, based on 5 reviews, and 50/100 on Metacritic, based on 7 reviews.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were reviewed as "inferior" to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, primarily due to the fact that the older console versions suffered from poor lighting, frame rate drops, and poorly detailed textures. The PS4 version of the game received a 5.4/10 from IGN. The Xbox One version of the game received a 5.5/10 from Digital-Tutors stating the biggest issue was "...it just isn’t polished, and based on the many issues we found with the game it looks thrown together in a rush trying to get it out the door in time for the release of the movie." ABC's Good Game hated the game, both Bajo and Hex gave it a 4/10 with Hex saying; "This feels like a poor copy-paste job of The Amazing Spider-Man, with most of the good bits removed."

Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead scored the game a 2 out of 10, saying "It's like a part of me has died". Whitehead was very disappointed in the game because, as he is a big fan of Spider-Man, he felt that the game provided no significant fun for the player, whereas past Spider-Man games at least provided something. Whitehead stated: "Sullied by lacklustre gameplay and trampled by technical shoddiness, this time Spidey hasn't been done in by the Sinister Six, but reduced to a Terrible Two."

Tom McShea from GameSpot scored the game a 5/10. McShea called the representation of Spider-Man "enjoyable", and liked the "satisfying" boss battles, but criticized the controls, side-missions, and combat. McShea summarized his review by saying: "The biggest failing of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is how familiar it feels. In fact, there have been other open-world games starring Spider-Man that walk a remarkably similar path. So there weren't many surprises, nothing that jumped out and made me take notice. Still, being able to spend time with Spider-Man was enough for me to stomach the various problems, just because he's a fun character to listen to. There's nothing majorly wrong with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, after all. There's just not a lot right with it, either."

Richard Grisham of GamesRadar was more positive of the game, giving it a 3 out of 5. He called the combat "shallow" but "enjoyable", praised the collectables, and liked the "entertaining, fun" story. He did feel as though the game was a dated experience, and disliked the controls and mission variety.

In his review for Polygon, Justin McElroy scored the game a 6/10 and wrote: "I've accepted that there's probably never going to be a truly great Spider-Man game. If the dispiriting The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is any indication, Activision and Beenox may have reached the same conclusion. There have been many worse Spider-Man games than this. But I can't recall one that's swung so conceptually close to greatness only to let poor execution drag it back to Earth."