Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is an open-world action game set in New York, developed for PlayStation 3 by Shaba Games. The game continues the series of open-world Spider-Man titles but adds a key new feature - during play, the player continuously chooses between the hero's symbiote and human forms, which changes not only his appearance but also the combat style, available abilities, and the way Spider-Man moves around the city. The decision of which form to use also affects the reactions of the city's residents and allies, and steers the story toward one of several possible endings, an unusual feature at the time for an action game based on a film and comic book license. During gameplay, it was also possible to call in other heroes from the Marvel universe for help, who would fight alongside Spider-Man for a while, changing the dynamics of particularly demanding battles against larger numbers of enemies.

The combat system was built around free-flowing attack chains and flashy combinations of web-based abilities with melee strikes, allowing fights to flow smoothly even in the middle of free movement across rooftops and building facades, without the player having to break the pace of moving through the city. The PlayStation 3 version leveraged the power of that console generation for a densely populated city and smooth switching between acrobatic movement and combat, which became one of the game's main hallmarks compared to earlier entries in the series and showed how far open-world Spider-Man games could go on more powerful hardware. The story was built around a symbiote invasion of New York, which the player could either slow down through their choices in favor of the city's residents, or instead let the infestation spread further, which was gradually reflected in the appearance of individual neighborhoods.

Why play it: Web of Shadows will appeal to players who want to decide the story's morality for themselves in a Spider-Man game and smoothly switch between the heroic and the dark symbiote form in an open city full of optional missions and alternate endings.