The Amazing Spider-Man 2

It's super-fun to swing around New York City in The Amazing Spider-Man 2! Everything else, on the other hand...

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is as fun as it is flawed, capturing the snarky joy of the webbed crusader amid the repetition of combat and tedious side quests.

Maybe we've simply done everything there is to do with Spider-Man in a video game and all that's left is diminishing returns. And that kills me. It really does. Even in the worst of recent Spidey games there was always that fragment - that little sputtering flame of childlike excitement - that could kick in once you swan-dived off a skyscraper, clad in iconic red and blue. It's gone. Sullied by lacklustre gameplay and trampled by technical shoddiness, this time Spidey hasn't been done in by the Sinister Six, but reduced to a Terrible Two.

Not necessarily a bad superhero game, just one we've seen countless times before. The web-swinging, goon-bashing, crime-fighting fundamentals simply aren't fun.

There have been many worse Spider-Man games than this. But I can't recall one that's swung so conceptually close to greatness only to let poor execution drag it back to Earth.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes in a next-gen wrapper, but feels like a last-gen experience. There's plenty of fun to be had thanks to some fun battles, an entertaining story, and scads of collectibles. Just be prepared for an experience that looks and feels extremely familiar.

Swing between the skyscrapers of New York, stop petty crimes, punch the Green Goblin in the face – you've already played this game

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn't a complete disaster, and I can easily see fans of Spidey enjoying it at a deep discount. It's just a shame that Beenox somehow got worse at making Spider-Man games over time, and that the powers that be insist on rushing them as movie tie-ins. Somehow, someway -- we will get our Arkham of Spider-Man games again. Until then, you can just pick up a used copy of 2004's Spider-Man 2.

The tried and tested Spider-Man formula is beginning to wear thing.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is stuck so far in the shadow of better superhero games that it's difficult to see anything which makes it stand out from the crowd. While the traversal of the open world remains really enjoyable – in spite of some shortcomings – the rest of the release comes off as an inferior copy. While there's nothing horribly wrong with the experience, there's just not enough here to recommend it, especially when there are more engaging and polished experiences readily available.