Spider-Man isn’t exactly the first character that comes to mind when one thinks of comic-book horror, but the iconic wall-crawler has actually dealt with his fair share of terror since his debut back in 1962. From his tragic part in the Marvel Zombies crossover to being forced to battle against monstrous villains like Carnage and The Lizard, there’s no shortage of horror-inspired stories starring our favorite web-head.
That’s why it makes sense that one of the most famous Spider-Man yarns centers around an extraterrestrial parasite that feeds off of aggression, with the aptly named “Alien Costume Saga” touching on elements of body horror and introducing a new monstrous antagonist in the form of Venom (who would later be rebranded as an anti-hero due to the character’s overwhelming popularity). 35 years later, this story is still influencing Spider-Man adaptations, with the most recent example being Insomniac’s upcoming Spider-Man 2, which appears to be adapting this arc and even features Tony Todd as the voice of Venom!
Naturally, this isn’t the first time that a Spider-Man game has focused on symbiotic horrors. From Neversoft’s iconic PS1 title to 2005’s Ultimate Spider-Man (which featured a playable Venom), several titles having already used intergalactic parasites as the basis for their stories. However, my personal favorite take on a symbiote invasion happens to come from Treyarch’s 2008 title, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, an underrated open world game that borrows heavily from zombie apocalypse media in its depiction of a New York City on the brink of viral destruction.
Clean-up on aisle… everywhere.
Long before they made a name for themselves by contributing to the Call of Duty franchise, Treyarch was known as Spider-Man’s personal videogame studio, with the developers having already released four Spidey games before tackling Web of Shadows. Borrowing from comic-book arcs like Planet of the Symbiotes, the developers came up with a scenario involving a viral symbiote outbreak where Venom would infect civilians and turn them into homicidal maniacs with varying degrees of monstrous powers. It would then be up to Spider-Man and his heroic allies to save the day, with the infection slowly turning Manhattan into a quarantined nightmare as the streets become overrun by monsters – which may include Spidey himself as he’s once again consumed by the infamous Black Suit.
Curiously enough, the game would be the first in a wave of pandemic-focused open world super-hero games, with titles like Infamous, Prototype and even Insomniac’s 2018 Spider-Man later riffing on the idea in an attempt to make their game worlds more dynamic. That being said, what makes Web of Shadows special is the fact that the city itself evolves during the course of the symbiote infection, with skyscrapers slowly becoming enveloped in xenomorph-like biomass and enemies mutating as the biological disaster rages on.
In fact, the game boasts plenty of moments that are clearly inspired by zombie media, with civilians being forced to evacuate as the military faces off against hordes of infected in scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Resident Evil game (though there isn’t much in the way of gore here). These genre influences actually extend to the game’s use of other Marvel characters, with even iconic heroes like Wolverine and Black Cat succumbing to the infection and transforming into man-eating Symbiote versions of themselves. Hell, the campaign even culminates in a bona fide kaiju battle, with Venom’s final form having more in common with Toho’s Biollante than anything we’d seen in the comics at that point.
Unfortunately, the refreshingly grim tone comes at a cost, with the entire game feeling like an edgy 90s comic-book with melodramatic characters trying to look cool while the world falls apart around them. And that’s not even mentioning the absurd morality system where you’re usually forced to choose between acting like a messianic savior or a complete sociopath with absolutely no reasonable middle ground.
Web of Shadows is also nowhere near as polished as some other big budget super-hero outings, lacking the intuitive combat and narrative cohesion of Rocksteady’s Arkham games or even the smooth traversal of more recent Spider-Man titles. Sure, this was the most advanced depiction of Marvel’s New York that we had ever seen in gaming up until that point, but the experience was seriously marred by boring textures and more than a few annoying glitches.
We’re gonna need a bigger Helicarrier.
But even with all that, I’d still argue that the game is a lot more entertaining than most folks give it credit for. The aerial combat here still hasn’t been outdone in any other Spidey game (web-zipping towards Vulture and kicking him in the face never gets old), and there’s something to be said about super-hero titles that allow you to let loose and be just as destructive as the enemies you’re fighting. Plus, you get to experience a more traditional version of the Marvel Universe before Disney took over the company and made everything more streamlined.
At the end of the day, Web of Shadows is by no means an actual horror game, with Spider-Man’s powers and the action-oriented gameplay consistently keeping things more thrilling than scary, but there’s no denying that the developers’ use of zombie horror tropes and a decidedly darker story make this one of the most unique super-hero games out there.
From Kraven’s Last Hunt to Spider-Man: Blue, it’s pretty clear that Spidey stories are at their best when writers are allowed to get dark while still staying true to the character, and that’s why I appreciate how Treyarch tried to do things a little differently in their final outing with the web-slinger – even if the end product was more than a little janky. In fact, I hope that we get more genre-bending storytelling from upcoming Spider-Man media, as I have a feeling that some more interactive terror might do the wall-crawler some good.
The post ‘Spider-Man: Web of Shadows’ – Looking Back on the Zombie-Inspired Horrors of the 2008 Video Game appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.