NYCC: Inside Spider-Man's “Web of Shadows”

Activision debuted the trailer for the upcoming “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” game last week at New York Comic Con. The video showed Manhattan overrun with thick, oozing black tendrils, like a giant Venom symbiote out of control, while Spidey looks on from a rooftop. The tone of the footage suggested the game, which will be released for the PC and all next-gen consoles, would have a sci-fi/horror feel to it. CBR had a chance to chat with Executive Producer Graham Fuchs about “Web of Shadows” and the new gameplay options included in this latest adventure.

Giving a brief rundown of where we are when the game starts, Fuchs said, “The city's been invaded. S.H.I.E.L.D. has declared marshal law, they're set up downtown trying to evacuate civilians from the city. Luke Cage is up in Harlem trying to make a last stand against the invaders up there, Kingpin is locked up in his stronghold planning his own counter-attack against the invaders. And as Spider-man, it's up to the player to decide how he's going to tackle this invasion. He really has control over what happens in the situation.”

From "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows"

Similar to Activision's previous Spidey titles, there will be chances to extensively explore the Manhattan setting. “New York is an open city,” Fuchs said, “you're able to tour the entire island and there will be various factions throughout the island who are dealing with the invasion in different ways.”

He continued, “We've given the player a lot more control over what happens in the game, and there's a lot of aspects to that. Your actions will all have consequences in the game, so if you're going to take the more heroic approach to dealing with the invaders, the city's going to react to you in that way being the savior; or if you take more the by-any-means-necessary approach, that's going to have some effect as well. It may also affect who you wind up helping repel the invasion and who winds up helping you.”

From "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows"

Having mentioned the Kingpin and the possibility of playing as a more grim-and-gritty Spider-Man, will it be possible to team up with the villains? “That may be part of the control you have over the story,” Fuchs teased. “As I said, if you're taking the any-means-necessary approach, that might bring you more into a line with the bad guys that are in the city.”

Given the unique capabilities of the Nintendo Wii, CBR wondered whether the Wii edition of “Web of Shadows” would take advantage of the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers. “When we're ready to reveal the hands-on for all the platforms we'll be talking about that stuff,” Fuchs said.

From "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows"

Unlike some Spider-Man games, “Web of Shadows” will be based on the comics rather than the films, which Fuchs said “ really gave us a lot of freedom to craft the story and bring in elements to the game that we thought would maximize the gameplay.” “We've really been given a lot of freedom in terms of what we wanted to tackle. So something that led to the invasion story was, gee, what do we want to do, what would be fun to do in the city, what would be something that makes it really exciting to play?” he explained. He did clarify that, while the comics inform the design and story aspects of the game, it is not based on any existing story arc or continuity.

“Something else we've done in this game is re-do the combat system to allow for more vertical combat. Our lead combat designer likes to call it the most 3D game ever,” Fuchs continued. “So we really wanted to make you feel more like you're fighting like Spider-man fights in the comics. You'll be able to fight bad guys where you start off on the ground and then can actually fight a guy all the way up the side of a building and onto the rooftop, which should feel a lot more Spider-Man-y than previous games.”

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TAGS:  nycc2008, spider-man, web of shadows, activision

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