When Spider-Man’s Spider Sense Tingles, Hit The Panic Button To Escape

I saw a hands-off demo of The Amazing Spider-Man video game from Beenox, which is being developed by the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions team. The demo started in Manhattan where Spider-Man swung through skyscrapers with acrobatic flair. He has unlimited webbing, so you won’t have to search for cans of web fluid. One of Spider-Man’s waiting animations is reloading web fluid into his shooters. Players can also upgrade the web shooters in game.

New for The Amazing Spider-Man is a Metroid Prime-like visor mode called "web rush" which switches into a first person view through Spider-Man’s mask and highlights objects for him to swing on. Since web rush creates a path (and a set of stylish tricks) to get from point A to point B you can put Spider-Man on auto pilot, if you want. There is an "advanced" version of web rush where you can link moves together to quickly fly through Manhattan. Manhattan is a hub world (with a "GPS" cell phone mini-map) with different missions for players to trigger. One mission had Spider-Man pursue a car during a police chase. Using web rush makes Spider-Man jump on the car’s hood so he can spray webbing on the windshield. After Spider-Man captures the criminals you may see New Yorkers "tweet" about it. The Amazing Spider-Man has a take on Twitter where you can see status updates from NPCs.

Spider-Man can also use web rush during combat, as seen when he is sneaking through OsCorp. You can use web rush to scan for spots to sneak behind enemies and trap them in a web cocoon. The director from Beenox explained, adding stealth mechanics came from their work on the Spider-Man Noir levels in Shattered Dimensions.

You can also give enemies an old fashioned beatdown. This Spider-Man learned his fighting techniques from watching lucha libre videos on YouTube, the director said, which accounts for a more wrestling-like style. If Spider-Man meets a machine gunner he can escape in a flash by pressing another web rush button (temporarily called "web rush back"). This makes Spider-Man escape and all enemies pursue him go from shooting him to an alarmed state where they pace around searching for Spider-Man a la Metal Gear Solid. If they find Spider-Man they’ll shoot on sight, but using web rush this way gives players a chance to recover health (but not Spider-Man’s clothes which take damage too). Spider-Man can do a web rush escape at anytime, so it’s possible to do hit and run attacks or hide if you’re low on health. Basically, web rush back is an all purpose Spider-Panic button.

The demo teased a boss fight with Rhino at the end. In this Spider-verse he’s a mutant, not a man in a ridiculous costume. Rhino charged towards Spider-Man who reacted by making a web net tied to two electric generators. Rhino, of course, ran right into those.