Parents' Guide to

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

By Brett Molina, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

High-flying action that grows repetitive quickly.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

age 10+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 14+

Decent game, but overwhelming sex content ruins it.

CSM's review of this game is not accurate. That is the first thing I would like to point out. The area where it fails to give correct information is in the "Sex" category. They don't even give it one dot, saying the only thing to worry about is "mild flirting between Spiderman and Black Cat". That is sorely wrong. I bought this game because I thought it would be okay based on the review from Common Sense. It is not. First, the flirting between Spidey and Black Cat is much more than mild, it is highly suggestive. Secondly, Black Cat's outfit is extremely revealing, similar to the outfit of Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City. I wanted to be able to play as Spiderman, not be exposed to the stuff of promiscuous "gentlemen's clubs". It is rather disturbing to me that 1) the game developers would even put this in a game, and 2) that Common Sense Media would seemingly overlook it. Otherwise, this game is fun enough, though as other have said it gets repetitive. Ultimately though, the bad outweighs the good, and I'll be looking for other options.

This title has:

Too much sex
age 2+

awesome

Even though I easily beat it fluently in four days, I thought that this was a totally different Spider-Man experience (it's T, but what kind of teenager would play Spider-Man? Settle down, ESRB!) I give it an E rating because the violence was a little strong and they said the word "hell" sometimes. Nothing wrong, a great game.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (18 ):

Fights look and feel incredible, particularly once you leave the ground. You can pull yourself toward enemies with a web shot and let loose a flurry of punches and kicks. You can also slings gobs of web to slow foes before beating them down. Out of all the Spider-Man video games, Web of Shadows is arguably the best at conveying the character's speed and agility.

Where Web of Shadows fails is the game's singular focus on combat. The game simply involves swinging from fight to fight. There are occassions where you rescue civilians or chase down an enemy, but they're rare. What's worse is the combat itself is fun initially, but grows repetitive as you see Spider-Man repeatedly execute the same moves. Web of Shadows may dazzle at first, but don't expect the thrills to last very long.

Game Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate