Coming off of the success of Shattered Dimensions, does Beenox deliver a Spider-Man title for the ages, or does it amount to nothing more than a cash-grab. Hit the break for our verdict.

While Edge of Time is not a direct sequel to Shattered Dimensions it follows two of the four previous characters; The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099. Everything about the plot is pretty straight-forward and simple to grasp, and even throws that whole time-continuum (seems like that’s been everywhere) arc in for good measure. In 2099, scientist Walker Sloan uses advanced technology and travels back in time to establish something called Alchemax. Needless to say he succeeds and time essentially rips apart creating an alternative universe. Hey, still with me? Of course you are. While all this is taking place the original (how can you tell? Is it the custom?) Spider-Man dies. As a result future Spidey (that just sounds so much better) retrieves the original Spider-Man from the new universe to help him revert things back to normal. Wow, that sounds awesome.

Unfortunately, about the only place the story succeeds is on paper. It’s not bad, but when you compare it to the now released Batman: Arkham City (go easy on me Marvel fans) it just comes off as under-developed. Centering the story on the concept of time rarely works, and should be left for major plot twists, or things of that nature. I can’t criticize Beenox to much however, because at least they tried; which is far more than I can say about several studios these days. It’s not like the story is a total mess, it’s just entirely under-whelming. Granted, I will say some of the cut-scenes and presentation was a bit better than I expected.

Shattered Dimensions wasn’t a bad title, however there was a ton of room for improvement. In some regards it seems like Beenox took a step back. There’s less interesting characters and the general gameplay comes off as mundane as ever. Players will be forced to open doors, collect keys, and engage in tasks that just seem far too trivial for our web-slinging friend. It’s not that these events are really that bad, however the player will be forced to rinse and repeat these pieces far too often. It just seems that in the greater scheme of things that these events really don’t help Spidey complete his ultimate goal with any sort of reward.

Having to complete these types of triggers also really hurts the pacing of a story that was already suffering from a plethora of issues. It’s very difficult not to bring up Shattered Dimensions because at least there were enough changes to the gameplay to prevent things from becoming boring and repetitive. That isn’t the case with Edge of Time. Everything is even more linear, which is completely un-intuitive for a super-hero that should be thriving in a wide-open environment. In so many ways this is a step back from its predecessor.

Combat is fun, but as I stated before there’s really no reward to it. Players will be given something to progress to the next area, and then forced to complete the same action. There are fewer special moves to unlock, and you no longer have the ability to evade attacks. Pfffffft. Yeah, I know. It’s a much more streamlined title, however not in the way a title should be.

The graphics are decent but are never more than that. The different art styles that were present between the 4 characters in Shattered Dimensions has been replaced with a much more sterile and clichéd look. The music is pretty good; however the voice acting is all over the place from a quality standpoint. The campaign can be completely within 10 hours and despite some incentive with an extra play-through, I can’t imagine players will want to revisit the same boring gameplay elements.

Whether it was the time constraints, or the budget, Edge of Time just feels and plays like a budget title. Is it terrible? No, not even close, but you can do much better this Holiday season.