Comic Con '08: Activision Spins Web of Shadows

As the New York Comic Con opened to the public on Friday, Activision publically announced the mystery Marvel superhero project on their 2008 slate - Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. On the floor of the con, I chatted with Graham Fuchs, the game's producer. While Graham's just off of the totally underwhelming Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, he does have a quality pedigree - his resume includes two installments of the Jedi Knight trilogy, for instance.

As con-goers oohed and aahed over the trailer, I asked Graham about the ‘Seize Control' tagline in the trailer and how it was thematic to the game. He told me that the player has a larger degree of control over Spidey's actions than in previous games, and that the world will react to him differently based on that. Rather than hard-point branching, the game keeps track of his ‘alignment' (my word, not Graham's) behind-the-scenes, trending toward good for heroic behavior and toward bad for self-serving, shady acts. "It definitely is going to affect how New Yorkers respond to you," Fuchs assures me, "and also the other heroes."

Yes, other heroes. While most of the open-world Spider-Man games have the web-head existing in a vacuum, Web of Shadows promises to use plenty of familiar Marvel faces. While a lot of names haven't been revealed, we know that Luke Cage is leading a crew to fight off the alien threat at the heart of the game's plot, and it's a safe bet to figure on most of Cage's Avengers team being alone for the ride. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is across town taking the fight to the aliens in his own unique way. The player, as Spider-Man, is between these two factions, trying to help the city in the best way possible.

The gameplay promises to the follow the open world model that the Spider-Man movie games have been using.  "The neat thing," Fuchs tells me, "is that we're not using the movie universe, so we have a lot of leeway in determining the story."  In fact, Activision is working closely with Marvel on the development of Web of Shadows, and has enlisted an (unidentified) author from the 'House of Ideas' to plot the game.

Web of Shadows is still early in its dev cycle, so the trailer (and promotional posters painted by Secret War artist Gabrielle Dell'Otto) were all that the team had on display at the con.  However, the project is moving along quickly, and is still slated for a Holiday 2008 release.

Apr 21, 2008 - 11:20 am - Jeff Stolarcyk | 0 comments