Spiderman 2 on the Playstation 2 – enough said. Arguably the best Spiderman game ever made. Everything since then has been mediocre at best.

That is until a little known developer Beenox released Spiderman Shattered Dimensions in 2010, combining four different Spidermen from four different universes. This game was a breath of fresh air and way better than the drivel that came before.

Then Beenox gave us last year's Spiderman Edge of Time, which was a huge disappointment due to the lacklustre story and gameplay. Many believed that publisher Activision was responsible for the poor effort by rushing the game to release.

Now we have The Amazing Spiderman videogame based on the movie of the same name, also published and developed by Activision and Beenox respectively. Please don't let this be another Spiderman 3...

First off, a word of warning, the game does contain spoilers for the movie if you haven't seen it yet, taking place immediately after the movie's conclusion. Now that my duty is done, what else can I say… other than buy this game. I suppose you want some details about the game though, right?

The Amazing Spiderman is a free-roaming, open-world action adventure very much in the mould of titles like Prototype, Infamous and yes... Spiderman 2. In it you play as Spiderman/Peter Parker, trying to stop events, caused by the movie, from spiralling out of control.

In addition to this, you also have the option of saving random victims of crime, tackling a variety of challenges and other distractions. Collectibles are also present that'll keep you busy for hours. To be expected for the genre then, so what's new?

When it comes to the combat, The Amazing Spiderman borrows from one the best in the business – Batman Arkham Asylum / City. When you encounter enemies you can either go the stealth route by hiding in the shadows/ceiling and taking your enemies out one by one, or go in guns blazing and fight all enemies at once, using your agility, web shooters and counter-attacks to stay alive. If you are going to borrow from something, better you borrow from the best I suppose.

Other than your combat techniques, you also have your default spider abilities like your web-slinging, wall-crawling and spider strength. All of your abilities and tech can be upgraded by collecting experience and finding collectibles. Missions types do get repeated every so often, but you'll be having fun so you won't mind. Additional objectives like taking photographs also helps to avoid the repetition.

On the whole (other than the Batman Arkham Asylum inspired combat) the gameplay system is a refinement of the rather awesome elements found in Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, and is a joy to play. You really feel like Spiderman.

Since it also borrows the template from the older Spiderman 2, it's quite easy to get distracted by the open-world exploration that this virtual version of New York has to offer. The city is also filled with people that react to you when they see you, so it feels like a real city and not just a cardboard cut-out. Despite this, the story is still first and foremost and remains focused.

The Amazing Spiderman's graphics are good too, with an excellent draw distance for the outside environments and a good variety of indoor locations. Spiderman looks awesome too by the way.

On the audio side of things, everything is polished on the whole, with excellent voice acting too. Spiderman/Peter Parker has all his trademark one-liners too, which are quite funny at times.

As mentioned before, this game does borrow elements from other games, but it utilises these elements well, so if you remotely like Spiderman, you should get this game.

And if open-world games bore you, get the game anyway and just do the story missions - you won't be disappointed. 

Score: 8 out of 10