In 2004, Activision and Treyarch’s blockbuster title, Spider-Man 2, gave us the best Spidey game since the SNES days. The web swinging and exploration of a digitally recreated Manhattan remains fun to this day, but the subsequent misfires of Spider-Man 3 and Ultimate Spider-Man knocked the franchise down a peg – or three. If movie-to-game titles struggled due to artificial limitations, then it appeared comic-to-movie-to-game titles struggled just as much. Until now.

With the power and capabilities of “next-gen” consoles more fully realized, it’s time developers use their great power to allow us fans to experience what it is to be a superhero. Of course, as I’m sure anyone who saw any of the Spider-Man movies realizes, with great power comes great responsibility. In the case of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Shaba’s responsibility was to make the best Spidey game yet—but the results are decidedly mixed.

The first (and best) change in Web of Shadows is that the developers shy away from the movie tie-in approach, and instead go back to the old-school roots of creating a new storyline in the Spider-Man universe. The result is the best Spidey story in years, regardless of medium. If you’re a huge fan of the wall crawler, ignore anything you’ve heard about the game and at least beat it to experience the tale, because it’s worth it.

The game starts off Tarantino style, throwing you into the end of the narrative where Manhattan has been overrun by the symbiotes. You learn the controls, see just enough to whet your appetite, and then it’s bam—back to the beginning, and time to figure out just what happened. Turns out that Venom figured out how to clone the symbiote, and all of Manhattan becomes infected and in danger of turning into Venom clones, mutating, etc. Even Peter contracts the infection after coming in contact with Venom, resulting in the famous black symbiote suit making an appearance.

Like any superhero game ever made, it’s then up to you to stop crime, occasionally fight the big named bad guy, and team up with other heroes who regularly play a cameo role; in the case of this game, you find yourself fighting alongside Luke Cage, Moonknight, Wolverine, and Black Cat.