My initial experience with Spider-Man 3: The Game on the 360 and PS3 was simultaneously dramatic and familiar. Upon arrival I was ushered into a darkened room in Activision’s Santa Monica headquarters that had as its center piece a life-size version of the Super Hero standing in front of a dozen flickering monitors. It felt like I had just arrived back at work in our own Alliance Headquarters to see Captain Almighty surveying the screens in the command center just waiting for one of the alarms to go off so he could spring into action in his fight against crime. Only we weren’t there waiting to fight crime, though there were a number of criminals involved.

In fact, my first glimpse of gameplay involved one of the movie’s ne’er-do-wells in an amazing level that took place over the skies of New York. My first focused look at one of the monitors showed a battle between Green Goblin and Peter Parker as they duked it out high above the city’s streets on Green Goblin’s antigravity skiff. The sense of height and scale was remarkable. The camera was pushed up close against the violence of the two while skyscrapers whizzed by and the sidewalks seemed miles below. Indicator’s on the screen encouraged you to tap different buttons to push and strike your assailant as you zipped through the air.

The level of visual detail in the gameplay I was watching as well as the sensitive timing called for by the button indicators on screen reminded me of the interactive cutscenes found in the God of War series. I was told that using this same technique allowed them to do a better job of pulling the player into the sequence of events found in the movie.

That’s not to imply that they have restricted themselves to following the plot of the film. A significant change in the Spider-Man game this time around is the use of sandbox play like that found in the Grand Theft Auto series. This means that you can websling your way to nearly any part of the huge city to fight vicious criminals and super villains –provided there is a sufficiently tall building nearby. (One of the quirks of past Spider-Man games was the ability swing through the air even when there weren’t any tall buildings anywhere near you. That has been rectified in Spiderman 3.)

And there are criminals and villains aplenty. Throughout the game world rival gangs will conduct an ongoing campaign against one another for control of the most turf. Unless you move to stop it, chaos spreads as gang members and Super Villains do everything from stealing cars to taking hostages. All of this affects the feelings of the citizens, which in turn has consequences in your game. I wasn’t told what those specific consequences were, but my Spidey-Sense tells me that it has to do with your ability to essentially level up. Over time you can attain new fight combos, improve swinging skills, and enhance your other super abilities over the course of the game.

All this coupled with the combat system in Spider-Man 3 that has received a complete overhaul and has greatly increased how much fun and variety can be had during your throwdowns with characters such as the Scorpion and Sandman. Further diversifying the attacks you can perform in the game is the addition of Spiderman’s black suit (see our video interview with the game’s Executive Producer Chris Archer to hear an explanation as to why he isn’t actually being called Venom). Black suited Spider-Man plays very different from the familiar red and blue suited Peter Parker. In addition to totally unique animations and moves, the black suit gives players added strength, damage resistance, and agility. But there is a hitch – the longer you stay in the black suit and use the Symbiote’s powers, the harder it is to control Spider-Man. It’s a clever gameplay element that made your decisions to use the suit more strategic. In the words of Christopher Palmisano, one of the guys who deals with all things Marvel at Activision, “Black suit is not a hoax at all in this game. A lot of games have features that don’t always pay off. Treyarch took a lot of time to make sure that’s not true here.” From what I saw so far, I would have to agree.

In regards to sound, none of the effects or score that I came across was particularly remarkable, but the same can’t be said of the voice acting. One of the things I noticed immediately was that someone that sounds exactly like Bruce Campbell voices the part of the sarcastic instructor that leads you through the initial tutorial missions. While Activision wouldn’t confirm that the voice actually belonged to the Evil Dead star, they did say that his presence in earlier games was an oft mentioned favorite feature for fans of previous Spider-Man titles. In addition to Campbell’s, I did hear the voices of numerous other actors that I know are in the film. It was them or their vocal stand-ins were so dead on that no one will be able to tell the difference. Either way, with a twinkle in their eye, Activision reps said they were unable to comment on any of the voice talent in the game at this point.

Graphically, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions looked great. The PS3 might have edged past the Xbox in vibrancy of color, but the edges of people and objects were a little bit crisper on the 360. Both featured the latest lighting effects which seemed to be in good use everywhere you went in each of the different levels. Some of the most impressive eye candy I saw came from black-suited Spider-Man’s repertoire of combat moves. One in particular had him creating a dark blue pulse of energy that would send enemies flying. Every time I activated it you could see light bounce off of the windows of nearby buildings. Very satisfying.

In addition to those slight graphical differences, there are a few more differences that should help you make your decision as to which version to buy (if you are lucky enough to have both systems). The PS3 version will feature an additional character or two you’ll encounter in the game while the Xbox 360 version will be getting a healthy serving of downloadable content. While we were playing the game Christopher Palmisano commented on the 360 possibilities, “If there is a game that works well for it, it’s this one. New suits…” After his trail off he declined to elaborate, but I thought his enthusiasm was high praise from one of the team that just finished putting together the new downloadable content for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

For more details as well as a few things about Spider-Man I can guarantee you won’t hear anywhere else (his webbing tastes like vanilla?), check out our video interview with Chris Archer of Treyarch, the Executive Producer for Spider-Man 3.

For those interested in the Wii and DS versions of the game, check out Sam Sollars’ impressions of them both: Wii and DS.

And if you want to learn a little more about Spider-Man and a lot about the hilarious Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions (developer of the Wii and DS versions), be sure and watch our video interview with him here.