Spider-Man 2 is a fine looking game, with a graphic engine that reminds the one used in Grand Theft Auto games. The level of detail is similar; even if Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City had much more complex car models, Spider-Man 2 runs more smoothly than Rockstar's recent masterpieces. I never experienced a serious slowdown throughout the game, despite the enormous draw distance. Just to make an example, from the top of the Statue Of Liberty you can really see the whole Manhattan, a truly breathtaking view that not even Vice City was able to provide; from the top of the skyscrapers, you can actually see the cars moving in the streets 150 feet below - the solid graphic engine serves perfectly the gameplay, also eliminating any noticeable loading time, as the data is continuously streamed off the disk.

Of course, the smoothness of the experience comes at a price. Everything in Spider-Man 2 is made of few polygons, like in Grand Theft Auto games. The skyscrapers are often little more than cardboard boxes covered with textures to make them look like real buildings, and textures are usually blurry and repeated throughout the city. Car models are less detailed than those of Grand Theft Auto games, and civilians show just a small range of different faces and bodies.

On the other hand, the game features some spectacular lighting effects, and some nice fake reflections over the buildings that become particularly intense during sunsets. In fact, Spider-Man 2 features a night and day cycle that successfully make the game look more varied than it actually is; the transition from day to night is extremely well done, and a lot of attention was put in the creation of a believable, beautiful sky to frame Manhattan's skyline. Ground Zero is also in the game, with flashlights projecting the eerie phantom of the Twin Towers in the night.

The few pre-rendered cutscenes look perfect, but the game relies more often on the in-game engine to render the cutscenes and narrate the storyline. Unfortunately, the main characters look all ridiculously bad in-game; Peter Parker looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Mary Jane Watson resembles more Charles Bronson than the cute Kirsten Dunst. Simply put, it's like if a road roller passed over all the character models' faces.

Thankfully, Spider-Man model looks good and is animated wonderfully; the same can be said for the main bad guys, like Doc Ock (his hydra-like robotic arms have the same scary movements seen in the movie), Rhino, Mysterio, and for Spider-Man's sexy friend, Black Cat.

Overall, despite its limits (undeniably caused also by the hardware's limited power), Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 2 is a nice looking game, with some moments of pure visual brilliance.

I loved the soundtrack of the movie composed by Danny Elfman, so I was happy to hear it in the game. Sadly, in addition to the main theme and some unobtrusive tune, there is not much to listen to in the game. Usually you only hear the sound of the wind and the voices of the civilians, and while this is acceptable, as a superhero game Spider-Man 2 evidently lacks the right support from a solid, epic, more present soundtrack.

Voice acting is good, with lots of lines recorded for the civilians and the movie's real actors starring as their respective characters, with the addition of Bruce Campbell to give you hints, especially in the first part of the game, and other good actors to play as Mysterio and the Black Cat. Sound effects are decent and varied, even if nothing really stands out.

The sad thing is that with more variety and with better mission design, Spider-Man 2 could have been one of the games with the longest replay value currently available on console. But this is not the case, so in addition to the time needed to play the main story (about 10 hours), the replay value of the game really depends on how much you like to collect stuff, play the same random missions over and over and over again, and compete in Spider-Man's "races". I doubt that even crazy fans of Spidey will play this game for much more than 20 hours - which is still a very good length, but not even close to what Spider-Man 2 could have actually offered.