Shattered Dimensions is easily the most exciting Spider-Man game on paper. You get to play as four different Spider-Dudes, exploring each of their distinct worlds to face off against deadly foes and rebuild a powerful, mystical object. Each Spider-Man is voiced by a returning voice actor from a previous TV incarnation (the MTV show, Spectacular, the 90s show, and Amazing Friends), and each one has a unique gameplay style and combat loop to ensure variety between each universe. There's plenty of other smaller things, like Stan Lee acting as the narrator during cutscenes, or the silly post-credits scene, that help build the exciting style of the game. However, the game is definitely lacking in actual substance.
While the concept is interesting, the four Spider-Men don't have enough actual differences in gameplay to keep the player's attention. While Spider-Man Noir has fun stealth mechanics, the other three Spider-Guys all follow the same basic "Punch, Punch, Block, Punch" formula with slight differences. That combined with the closed-off, linear levels contributes to the game feeling repetitive and stale after a while. The core gameplay loop is fun but it's way too barebones to hold your attention for the eight to ten hours you'll be playing the game for. Another important thing to note, as this is a Spider-Man game, is the uninteresting web-swinging. It feels like it was added as a necessity, rather than as part of the game, ending up quite weightless and unexciting, especially after Web of Shadows' excellent swinging.
Shattered Dimensions is creative and constantly expressing its unique style, but it simply doesn't have enough substance to pass from "good" into "great". It's fun to see it as a precursor to the Spider-Verse comic (and the movie that followed), but as a standalone game, it doesn't leave much replay value or much to do once you're done. Definitely check it out if you're interested, but don't expect it to fully live up to the premise.
