This is one of the few upcoming games I have any interest in, but I'm starting to think this won't be THAT game either. Like many I loved SM2 and felt like they could build the perfect SM game on that, but it hasn't happened yet.
To me that perfect SM game needs the next 3 things:
1) New York. NY is the home and perfect setting for Spiderman. The environment has already been almost perfected in SM2, 3 and TASM. There could however be more flashy ads, realistic traffic and better sense of congestion.
2) Spiderman's abilities. Spiderman can crawl on walls, swing on webs, fire web balls, use web like slingshot, hang on web and do all sorts of things with it. He can also jump, dodge, fight and generally move around magically. These things have also been nearly perfect since SM2.
3) Other characters. Spiderman alone gets only so far. Aunt May, Mary Jane, J.Jonah are important characters, but in a video game they aren't enough. A good action game needs villains. Open SM games have had them, but they've been pretty lackluster. If a spiderman game can have the entire NY and entire Spidey moveset why can't it have the entire villain gallery? I think this is where they have to improve. Villains should also appear in random crime missions even after the plot is completed. Green Goblin, Doc Ock and the others have a habit of coming back again and again. I don't want to play the scripted story over and over just to fight them again. And of course they need to work on the villains as well. Doc Ock is pretty boring when he is just hopelessly trying to catch up to you so he can maul you with his tentacles, when he could be throwing cars, mailboxes and other junk he often does in comics, tv shows or such.
The plots in SM2 and 3 were terribly disconnected and unimmersive so the first thing they should do is to make it one linear plot instead of having mission markers littered all around the city long distance from each other. In beginning the game introduces villains and pits Spiderman against them one by one while varying up the gameplay. In one segment Spidey fights Scorpion around the town, in other he tracks down Lizard, in third he has to deduct who Chameleon is disguised as, in fourth he has to use his athelticsm and puzzle solving to overcome Mysterio's hall of traps... Eventually villains start to communicate with each other and the plot thickens. The Playstation 1 games were pretty good at this.
I don't really care about the early story details atleast yet, but here's what I'd vision the things to end like, just to give the basic idea of where the game should lead:
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...The defeated villains gather at Kingpin's office. Kingpin proposes that they work together to smoke Spiderman out.
Peter is spending night with Mary Jane when he starts he hear loud noises outside and instantly goes to check it out as Spiderman. He immediately sees explosions around the city, giant Mysterio illusions illuminating in the dark night sky, heavily armed mercs and doombots running on the lit streets and other villains like Sandman, Rhino, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Venom, Scorpion, Beetle and Big Wheel wreacking havoc around the city smashing and throwing cars, killing people and destroying other property.
Once Spiderman has defeated any three of the villains, Hobgoblin appears on his glider, but soon Captain America's shield flies on screen and knocks him off his glider. Screen turns and shows Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Daredevil, Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm approaching. They talk about how things have gotten out of hand and say that Peter should go meet Kingpin while they deal with the other villains.
Spidey manages to enter Kingpin's heavily fortified and guarded headquarters. The 2 fight and when Kingpin is defeated Spiderman checks the data and realizes Kingpin couldn't have managed this all on his own. He sees something and rushes towards Baxter Building.
In Baxter Building Spidey sees Fantastic Four defeated and Doctor Doom standing in the middle. Doom notices him, talks about how surprisingly resourceful he is, talks a bit about his plans and attacks. Spidey defeats him inside the building, which causes Doom to unleash a powerful blast that crumbles the floor. Spidey escapes but Doom is flying right behind to the streets below. Doom unleashes all sorts of beams, missiles and radial blasts at Spidey. Iron Man approaches, but Doom shoots him down. Cyclops shoots a beam at Doom, but he doesn't even flinch and just strikes back with his own blast knocking Cyclops out. Hulk leaps at Doom, but Doom hits him with a powerful uppercut launching Hulk high in air out of the area. Spiderman is able to survive because of his ability to evade Doom's attacks and returning a quick jab here and there. Ultimately Doom goes down.
And once the game is over you can still occassionally bump into Mysterio, Carnage, Hammerhead, Electro etc. So on top of the rather boring thug robberies and hostage situations the real villains enter to spice up the random missions.
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