Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro

Published by Activision
Playstation
Out Now
Price £19.99

Spider-Man is back and this time he has to deal with Electro. One of the finest super heroes returns for another bout of web slinging and criminal bashing in this fast paced action thriller. The first Spider-Man was hailed as a success and this sequel builds upon the original and adds some extra features.

On starting a new game you'll notice that Beast from the X-Men has replaced Black Cat as your instructor. What you will not have noticed is the excellent introduction from Stan Lee. Why not? you ask, well the reason is simple there are no subtitles. So the game has no subtitles but it gets worse, the game does't display any mission objectives in text either. The only text you'll see is a very basic description of the game controls. At the beginning of the game, Beast explains the interface and the various items that you need to look out for but this is completely lost on the deaf gamer as there are no subtitles, so all you will see is the character movements which will tell you absolutely nothing.

Why oh why did they not textually display the mission objectives? The game is nigh on impossible unless you are sitting with a strategy guide in your lap. A very early example of the game's impossible nature for a deaf gamer can be seen almost immediately. Spider-Man passes a car that is on fire and remarks that he has to put the fire out. Nothing appears textually to tell you this, so you could simply just pass the car by and move on to other areas of the map but if you did decide, through your own initiative, to put out the fire then how are you going to do it? Next to the car is a rotating question mark. Walking over these question marks gives you verbal (not textual though) hints. In this case it tells you that your webbing will put the fire out but the deaf gamer is going to be oblivious to this and guess what if you let the car burn it blows up and the level is failed but again nothing tells you this.

The really heartbreaking thing is that the game is a superb representation of the world of Spider-Man. The level design is both diverse and excellent. The graphics are the finest the Playstation is capable of. The control of Spider-Man is excellent and to be perfectly honest with the exception of the odd duff camera angle the whole thing is top notch. Top notch for a hearing gamer that is but not a deaf gamer. If you love Spider-Man and you are prepared to be frustrated with the non-existent information on what to do then this game will please you no end but for the rest of us it will confuse and ultimately irritate.

Overall Game Rating: 5.7/10 With text feedback this Spider-Man adventure would have been almost perfect.

Quality of text: 0/10 Non-existent. No information in text at all.

Graphics: 10/10 The Playstation has been pushed to its limits.

Visual Presentation: 8/10 Very well done. Very authentic.

Interface: 8.5/10 A nice control system that makes controlling Spider-Man a breeze.

Gameplay: 2/10 Very difficult. A supreme test of your guess work ability.