Marvel.com recently interviewed Zak Krefting, creative director at Shaba Games, to discuss Spiderman Web of Shadows.
MARVEL.COM: To what extent will the choices the player makes in the game affect the abilities Spider-Man has and how he controls? What about the status of the game’s environment, characters and such?
ZAK KREFTING: “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” gives the player control over the alien symbiote that is used by Venom in a way never before seen in a Spider-Man game.
In Black Suit you can upgrade your suit’s ichor, turning your fists and webs into 30 foot tentacles with hatchet-like teeth on the end. The more enemies you hit, the more XP you get, the more you pour it into your Black Suit. The cycle continues until you are one bad-ass Spider-Man Venom Hybrid. When you utilize these attacks on the street, anything around you gets destroyed in the process, causing panic and fear.
If this offends purists, then great! That’s why we made Red Suit classic, with fast, agile and precise moves that you’ve seen in the comics. Instead of smashing everything with brute force, you can pluck an enemy off the ground, punch him, web him back to you, punch him again then wind him up like a yo-yo and pin him to the wall with webs. A lot of red suit’s moves reflect his sense of humor in the face of adversity, while Black Suit just smashes adversity to bits.
MARVEL.COM: It looks like this game targets more of a hardcore gaming audience, following a trend of giving players more customization and freedom with their characters. How do you think that will play out on, for example, the Wii version of the game, given that the console targets the casual gaming crowd?
KREFTING: I don’t think customization is limited to a hardcore audience. Both suits have upper-end moves that won’t be immediately accessible to a casual audience, but they are not required. Hardcore gamers will find their own ways to max-out the character and exploit both suits abilities and move out of the boundaries we’ve set.
The player can also choose to have his abilities automatically bought for him.
MARVEL.COM: Even in the advertising campaign for the game, you’re trying to give the player as many options as possible for how the game will be marketed/packaged. It’s fair to say the main theme of the entire game is control. Why such a decisive shift from previous Spider-Man games which followed relatively linear paths?
KREFTING: We don’t have a movie license to adhere to, which allows us to play with the characters and abilities in such a way that would never make sense if it was linear.
MARVEL.COM: How interactive/destructible are the environments?
KREFTING: New York’s streets provide an unending stream of heavy ordinance, in the form of cars that explode on impact. Enemies can utilize this ability as well, even “sucking” objects with anti gravity weapons. The majority of street-level building fronts crumble if they are hit, neon lights explode and fall.
Spider-Man can crawl and swing on anything, of course. If the player is going fast he can literally slide up buildings, perform a, uh, Spider-Plant, then slide down the building. It has to be seen and felt to be appreciated.
MARVEL.COM: Will there be alternate game endings depending on the choices the player makes? What’s the replay value going to be like?
KREFTING: This game is huge. We’ve been playing [for thousands] of hours, and still come up with new strategies to use. Yesterday I finally learned how to counter-attack and now that’s all I’m doing.
There are also a few surprises at the end of the game based on your choices, that you’d have to play twice to see.
MARVEL.COM: Does the storyline have any specific influences from comic story arcs or other sources?
KREFTING: There were several early concepts that we played around with, but we chose the one that would best reflect the new combat mechanics we were going for.
What is the point of wall combat if you can only fight enemies on the ground? We needed enemies that could do everything Spider-Man could do. We needed thousands of them all over the city so the player can link them together. All this meant we needed thousand “Venoms” to fight.
A symbiote invasion was the only answer. Zombies just aren’t fast enough, and a Ninja invasion was just plain stupid.
