Continuing in the tradition of Treyarch's well-received Spider-Man 2, the upcoming sequel Spider-Man 3 brings the film home by offering gamers a large-scale virtual recreation of New York City to explore. As players traverse the city, either on-foot or through Spider-Man's trademark web-swinging, they can participate in a number of missions that recreate the various events and fights of the film, including Spider-Man's acquisition of the symbiote Venom. This results not only in Spider-Man's new black suit, which enhances the hero's aggressiveness and power, but also his ensuing struggle with it, causing him to periodically switch between the two suits as the game progresses.

Further following in the tradition of past movie-based Spider-Man games, Spider-Man 3 expands upon its source material with a number of additional subplots and villains based off the web-slinger's rich comic book history. One such example involves Scorpion, who appears in-game as the subject of a mind control experiment by Carlyle Industries. Though Scorpion does not appear in the film, he features a redesigned look that adheres to the movie's sleek, realistic aesthetic. Other subplots in the game include a series of gang attempts to overtake New York, Kraven the Hunter and crime overlord Kingpen.

A simple two-button combat system allows players to easily perform all the fancy acrobatic kicks, punches and maneuvers that make Spider-Man so entertaining to watch, the action dependent on the order in which one presses the PlayStation 3's Square and Triangle or Xbox 360's X and Y buttons. Spidey also has a variety of special moves in his arsenal. One in particular, referred to as Pinball, proves extremely useful in close quarters as it sends him ricocheting from wall to wall in a high speed crisscross pattern -- quite handy when facing off against a tightly-packed mob.

Environments also factor into the fights, as seen in a brawl with Sandman in the depths of New York's subway system. Set in a tall chamber filled with subway tracks running across at various heights, players must take special care as Spidey and Sandman duke it out to avoid oncoming subway cars, which can knock the hero off the platform and provide Sandman the time to escape through a nearby vent.

Luckily, players can also utilize this situation to their advantage. Under the right conditions, an icon appears above Sandman's head. By hitting the Circle or B button as this icon appears Spider-Man literally grinds Sandman's face against the side of the subway car.

After taking enough damage, a dazed Sandman wobbles unsteadily, representing a chance to advance the fight. A series of interactive cutscenes follow, during which Spider-Man throws the villain into the paths of oncoming subway cars before knocking him off the platform and slamming him into one of the tracks below. As Spidey executes these actions, a prompt appears briefly on-screen, displaying the input required for its successful completion, much like those found in Capcom's Resident Evil 4. Eventually, the duo winds up at the bottom of the chamber, where the fight draws to an end with a close recreation of a similar scene from the movie. So close, in fact, that the demo did not include the conclusion out of fear it would give too much away.

This duel also highlights the level of detail Spider-Man 3 pushes for thanks to the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and their support for HDTVs, which Spider-Man 3 utilizes to display in 720p and 1080i. When Sandman conjures up a defensive barrier, for example, players can easily distinguish between the various bricks that apparently compose it. Flecks of sand go flying into the air whenever Sandman takes a blow, complete with an explosion of particles if stuck by a subway car.

Another tidbit illustrating Treyarch's attention towards detail involves the in-game cinematics. After actors from the film, including star Tobey Maguire, recorded their lines for the game, the company hired additional actors to re-enact the various scenes and motion-captured them to help animators in their quest for smooth and realistic movements.

With previous Spider-Man games renowned as some of the best movie-to-game conversions in recent times, Spider-Man 3 certainly appears to continue the tradition. Even something as simple as web-slinging provides a thrill, as players can delight in utilizing the speed of a swing to shoot Spidey forward before letting him freefall towards the streets below, only to anchor a nearby object with a web strand via R2 or the right trigger mere seconds before he goes splat. Combined with the solid foundation of past efforts, two and a half years of development, a strong attention to detail, the potential of the next-generation hardware and an adventure that goes well beyond the movie, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Spider-Man 3 could very well constitute the best Spider-Man game yet when they release alongside the film on May 4, 2007.