Who would have thought that two of the most critically acclaimed games of 2004 would be movie-licensed games? Probably not a single person, as movie-based games are usually downright dreadful. However, some game developers are starting to realise that these games can actually be good and not an embarrassment - we've already seen one of the best movie based games ever this year with Chronicles of Riddick and now Spider-Man 2 is swinging onto the scene, hoping to continue the new trend.

Spider-Man didn't just set standards for movie based games back when the first title came out but it also set standards for comic book based games back on the original PSOne when the Neversoft developed Spider-Man was released. Now developers Treyarch, who handled ports of Neversoft's Tony Hawk's mega-franchise, are helming this new title, which loosely follows the events of the film (and yes, it will spoil the film so go and watch it first!)

The main selling point and feature this time around is the fact that you've been given the entire of Manhattan to explore and have fun in. This is a free roaming title and you can swing all over New York at your leisure with absolutely no load times, until you go into a building (which, unlike the last game, doesn't go inside nearly as much). Many things await Spidey in the huge city, such as random crimes and muggers to stop, or you can seek out the hidden icons that await you - and there are a lot of them. There are more than a hundred races to complete as well, some of which are very challenging.

Treyarch have gotten the feel of Spider-Man down perfectly. Your first venture through the city, once you get the controls down, will be very familiar with the scene from the original Spider-Man, in which Peter is experimenting with his powers for the first time, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Not only can you swing with infinite webbing but you can run and leap incredible distances, stick to any surface, swing around and sit on any kind of pole, slide down walls and leap off or even run along vertical surfaces for extended periods of time. The feeling of swinging from building to building and flying through the air is incredible and it's hard tp see how it could have been implemented any better.

Your aim is to play through the story of the movie, in which a scientist named Doctor Octavious has accidentally welded four mechanical arms to his back that have a mind of their own. Over the progress of the game, the arms' mind starts to drive Doc Ock insane. Now, bent on revenge and finishing what he started by any means necessary, he's destroying the city and killing innocent people to get what he wants. This is the main goal of the story but you will end up fighting other villains a heck of a lot more than you will Doc Ock. Rhino shows up at least once, while Mysterio and Shocker both show up at least three times each. Aside from doing the main challenges, many side quests await such as races or collectables, taking down muggers and car thieves, helping people who're stuck hanging from the side of a building, or just getting a little girl's balloon back for her.

The major complaint most people seem to have with this game is that many of the random crimes are too much alike, which is true, but I believe if they had been done better then this wouldn't be a problem. All of the crimes go down exactly the same every time - even the civilians say the same thing over and over and the voice acting for the non-playable characters is wretched. It would have been nice if the crimes, while similar, were at least played out differently. The car chases are always too easy to catch and end the same way and criminals never actually shoot cops (you just run out of time instead). It always feels like you're stopping the exact same crime you stopped five minutes ago, instead of stopping a crime of the same nature but that might take an unexpected turn.

While having no load times throughout the entire city is very cool, it unfortunately has some painful side effects. You'll notice right away that the graphics are not exactly impressive. Some buildings have some nice reflections and at night they are lit up very well; until you get close to them and can easily see the 2-D paper cut out displays right on the window. All the civilians look very blocky and just plain ugly, as if they came from games of yesteryear; their mouths don't even move when they talk and they have very few animations. The city also lacks any sort of weather. It never looks hot, never feels cold, rain doesn't exist and neither does fog. It's either daytime or night time and that's it.

The game is divided into chapters and in each chapter you have two or three goals to complete. One of them is just about always to investigate and complete a certain amount of random crimes, which will earn you hero points (which are used to buy very useful upgrades for Spider-Man). Other objectives are always to visit a certain place, usually Peter's apartment or the Daily Bugle and from here the game shows short and very badly done cut-scenes that usually try to re-enact the movie, though if you've actually seen the film you'll notice how poorly this has been done. After the cut scene, the real mission of the level begins and it could be a variety of things from getting somewhere in a certain amount of time to fighting a certain boss or just chasing Black Cat.

It's a shame that so many of the game's random crimes are so similar but so are many of the actual story missions. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to chase Black Cat and seeing as how I spend so much time just swinging around the city for no reason, it's not exactly exciting to do this over and over in an actual mission. Boss fights are based on patterns and just aren't much fun; to make things worse Mysterio has been turned into a huge joke and while he is portrayed as a weakling in the comics, Treyarch should have at least picked a villain worth fighting. After preparing for what I thought was a big boss fight, I took Mysterio down with one kick just when I thought the game couldn't get easier.

Aside from the free-roaming engine, one of this game's saving graces is the combat system. You'll start off with very few moves but as you earn hero points and progress through the chapters you'll be able to purchase new attacks and web upgrades. These new moves make doing those random crimes over and over feel new again, especially when you gain the ability to carry an enemy over your shoulder and go wherever you want with him. This means if you'd like, you can take the last thug in a group to the highest point in the city and just throw him (which, with the game's rag doll physics, is sometimes quite fun to watch), or you can drop him near some water, web him up and then yank him into the ocean. The choice is yours, but other than beating the living hell out of your enemies, there aren't very many other options. Other neat features in the combat system include the ability to yank weapons out of enemy hands, web up their mouths, or web three together and swing them around and around.

The voice acting has the top three stars of the movie (Alfred Molina, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst), the best of which is Alfred by far. Tobey sounds just like he does in the movie, except even more like he's asleep and Kirsten has so few lines it doesn't really matter. The rest of the voices are even worse, full of clichéd evil laughs and repeated over and over and over. The only exception here is Black Cat, whose voice work may just be the best in the game.

Whilst many of the objectives are just not very fun, the graphics aren't top notch and there are plenty of other bad things I could mention that disappointed me, just playing as Spider-Man and swinging around the city almost makes up for a lot of that. There's nothing like coming down from the tallest point in the city, then saving yourself at the last second with a quick web swing, only to swing into a crowd of baddies with your feet to save an innocent bystander. The developers obviously knew the best part of the game would be free roaming, because they've littered more than 500 collectables around the city for you to search for. This will no doubt take a lot of time and adds a good amount of replay value if you can be bothered with it. They will earn you a couple of good items and you get a special mode for beating the game as well.

As much fun as swinging around the city and helping random people is, Spider-Man 2 could have been an absolutely amazing title had the developers spent a little more time crafting better missions and crimes to stop and actually giving the enemy some AI instead of patterns to repeat. While the complete freedom to swing around New York makes this game feel very advanced and incredible at first (and don't get me wrong, it's great fun), you'll quickly realize it's merely a nice, creamy chocolate shell around a piece of hard candy that will, in the end, probably leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).