NYCC Interview: Activision on ‘Spider-Man: Web of Shadows’ Videogame
One of Marvel’s most popular and beloved characters, Spider-Man has appeared many different media including movies, comics, TV and video games. Previously, Activision has released video games based on all three of the Spider-Man films as well as other Marvel tie-in titles like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and many others.
Now, they’re set to come out with a brand new game featuring the web-slinger called Spider-Man: Web of Shadows — which we previously brought you news of yesterday. Today at the New York Comic Con, ComicMix caught up with the producer of the game, Graham Fuchs, to get more on this exciting new project.
COMICMIX: Graham, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
GRAHAM FUCHS: Sure, no problem.
CMix: Okay, a new Spider-Man game. Tell us a little bit about it?
GF: New York City has been invaded and martial law has been declared, so you’ve got S.H.I.E.L.D. downtown trying to get civilians out of new York.
Luke Cage is making his last stand up in Harlem and Kingpin is hold up in his stronghold in midtown. You play as Spider-Man and you’re at the center of it deciding how it will all turn out.
CMIx: Is this story based on a movie or anything?
GF: Its an original story created by us set in the comic book universe but not based on any of the films or anything. It was actually nice to not have to follow the movie storyline and sort of come up with things on our own this time.
The comic book universe gives us the ability to tailer the game play and chioose the characters we chose and the events that happen to make a fun game.
CMix: Obviously, Marvel is still involved in the process. Are they more involved or less involved than they would be with a movie tie-in game?
GF: Marvel is always involved in any sort of property like this but there’s really a lot of fredom from them that allows us to things we want to do. Let’s put it this way, Marvel is pretty used to having their characters reinterpreted and as long as you’re keeping to what are the core values and character traits of the universes they are really great to work with.
There’s a lot us asking, "Hey, can we do this" and them saying, "Sure, that sounds cool go ahead."
CMix: There’s been other Spider-Man games that you guys have put out, what seperates this one from them besides the unique story?
GF: Its not just the story but we’re also giving the player a lot of control over what happens and what you do in the game. There are a lot of choices that you make that have consequences so wether you’re going to be a hero and is New York going to kind of cheer you on or are you going to get things done by any means necessary so people are a little more leary of you?
Since this invasion is in New York there are a lot of heroes and villans living in the city so you can maybe decide you want to work with some of the villians or some of the heroes to repel this invasion. You’ll have the choice as to the people you want to help you with this invasion.
CMix: You mentioned invasion. Does this game have anything to do with the current Marvel Secret invasion arc?
GF: Oh yeah, it a secret and I shouldn’t have said anything. No, actually, I’m a skrull. No, this game actually has nothing at all to do with the Secret Invasion arc Marvel is doing. Its its own original storyline but isn’t based on any particlyar storyline or arc.
Obviously, there’s going to be plenty in the game inspired by the comic books so i think it will have a great deal of appeal for the hard-core comics fans.
CMix: So, you’re playing Spider-Man and you mentioned Kingpin, any other villians we might expect to see?
GF: As i said, there’s a lot of heroes and villians in New York but we’re not really able to talk about the villians yet. Soon.
CMix: But we can assume that they will be pretty well known?
GF: Yes. Like i said before, this is a comic book game but we’re not tied into a particular movie with this game so we have lot more freedom to bring in many different heroes and villians.
CMix: So you can have different villains than Sandman or Green Goblin, for example? Or some that you’ve invented?
GF: Yeah so really what we’ve done is have a nice cross section of heroes and villians. Some fan-favorite heroes and villians that may not be known to Spidey fans if they just follow him from the movies.
There will be some that are well known and some fan favorites and even a few heroes and villians that have never been seen in a Spider-Man game before.
CMix: Is this game engine based on any of the old games or has it been redesigned?
GF: We’ve rebuilt the city from Spider-Man 3 and completely redone the combat system.
CMix: What’s one thing that you wolnd want fans to know about this game?
GF: It’s really a whole host of things. We’ve redone the game from the ground up and its really a much more advanced engine and the combat is going to be teriffic.
Our lead combat designer describes it as "the most 3D game ever" because now you’re going to not only be able to fight on the ground, but you can take it up a wall and onto a rooftops and all over.
And, there’s going to be plenty of regular thugs for you to pummel but also people you’re going to be taking on you’re going to need to be able to take the combat up those walls.
CMix: Any chance of a playable demo?
GF: Sure, come to Comic Con in San Diego but we don’t have anything here yet.
CMix: Will it be available for all platforms?
GF: All next-gen platforms like XBox 360, PS3, Wii. Also the PS2.
CMix: When is it being released?
GF: It’s coming out in the Fall.
CMix: Okay, thanks Graham.
GF: No problem. My pleasure.
For more on Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, check out our initial report on the game release, along with the first trailer.