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The game starts right in the action. There is no nice little obstacle course or tutorial. This tutorial is game play, and I like it. The game follows the storyline of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, which is a little different than the Spidey you’re used to. A very slender hero glides with ease through the city of New York. There is a very nice reconstruction of the city, with the landmarks of the series inserted. One twist to the game: you get to play as Venom! Just as you finish one line of missions with Spider-Man, you pick up with Venom.

Both stars of the game have similar, yet different, controls. There are no web-slinging abilities with Venom, but, boy, does he have one heck of a jump. Don't forget to feed the Venom suit or your health will deteriorate. The feeding adds some very interesting play in boss type battles. Some other Marvel characters make appearances in the game that seem a little odd, but nice to see nonetheless.

Once you have a taste of gliding through life on webs, you won’t want to go back. Most of my time is spent off the ground rather than on it. There is a nice boost ability which, if timed right, can be as seamless as flying.

As far as the PC version goes, I found it difficult at times to turn and swing exactly like I wanted. The directional (W, A, S, D) keys as movement were a bit off sometimes.

One thing I can't say enough, you ARE Spider-Man and Venom. The feeling is exactly how it should be; you are in the world and you are awesome.

I really like the way they set the graphics up. There was no oddness to it at all, but the comic look made it feel so nice. Cut-scenes are done in a comic-esque way, moving from one block to the other in harmony. Comic books in motion. I don't like being hindered though; I was in a gigantic city and I kept running into invisible walls! Yes, I can climb up to a huge building and jump down to my almost-death before webbing, that's fun.

The feeling of Ultimate Spider-Man is considerably different than other Spidey games. Things happen that you might not think are traditionally Spidey style, but it works, and I like it.

The design of the status bars and such are simple, non-clogging, and they work just as you need them. Most things are done in a movie-type format. Spidey sense pops up on your head rather than as a bar on the screen, etc.

The game is tough at first; I found my self doing missions over and over until I got the hang of it. Like I said, there aren’t really any training wheels put on. So although it was difficult for a bit to get the controls to an exact science, it was a good pain. The whole goal of the game is when you do things, do them fast! Really fast! Even faster! That's fine with me, although some races are a little unreasonable in my opinion.

One thing that bugged me is how the game was promoted as an open ended game, yet it didn't offer much to do outside of missions. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to swing around town or terrorize with Venom. It's also fun to do a bunch of races and time trials. Yet, as far as the open-ended gameplay, you really only get one type of random event at a time. The random events cycle, but there are only a few kinds offered. Go beat such and such up, go save so and so, go destroy this, rescue that one. It all just seemed too triggered.

Since this is PC, I only have two speakers to listen with, but overall I was disappointed with the sound. Now I don't know if the game contains anything that I couldn't hear due to standard speakers as opposed to 5.1 or such, but I can't see there being much available. The high point of the audio was the voice acting. I think they did a very good job. Some of the lines were a bit lame, but that was probably intentional. The sound FX and music just didn't bring me into the game.

The part of the game I enjoy the most is swinging around, taking in all the sights and sounds of the city. There isn't anything better. If you can handle the controls that take some getting used to and a few irritating boundaries and mildly repetitive play, then grab yourself a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man. There isn't currently a game on the market that captures the exact feeling that this game offers.