Visually, Spider-Man 3 manages to somehow look worse than its predecessor, Spider-Man 2. It is awash in blurry textures that become exponentially blurrier after moving farther away. Entire buildings vanish as Spider-Man climbs up higher structures, providing some of the dreariest landscapes seen in a game. Spider-Man's character model looks good, as do the other key figures from the film, especially in the cinema sequences, but every other character manages to be generic and lifeless. The frame rate for the most part is pretty stable, but character animation manages to be incredibly sloppy. It often appears that frames of animation are missing, especially in combat moves, and watching Spider-Man jump (and very often fall) rewards the player with a bevy of odd and disjointed animations that look like rag doll physics gone haywire.
Most of the actors reprise their roles from the film to provide voice dialogue, and while they generally do a good job, the cheesy material they worked with ruins the experience. Even the ever-talented Bruce Campbell, who narrates the game, sounds campier than ever. Furthermore, dull sound effects fail to excite, and the game does not offer much background music except in moments of combat, which leaves the players' time spent gliding throughout the city even more painfully drab.
Considering that after God of War II the PS2 has hit a bit of a slump in new and interesting releases, it is at least possible that Spider-Man 3 might offer a passing distraction, but that would only be if gamers do not have any other console in their living rooms. The game isn't broke, but it's not good either.
Final Score: 5 (out of 10)
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