The phrase ‘a day in the life’ is of great significance where Spiderman is concerned. Peter Parker isn’t a soldier, isn’t a millionaire and enjoys no separation from the denizens he strives to protect. Unlike Bruce Wayne or Frank Castle, his crimefighter status is one of which he is unsure; he works whatever jobs pay the rent, he commands respect from few outside of his family. When he isn’t swinging across the rooftops, he’s entirely down-to-earth.

This is just one of the key concepts that Treyarch have captured perfectly with Spiderman 2. Credit must be given for their attitude; as developers they have approached this project with enormous ambition and a complete lack of anxiety. Where other action titles march rigidly onward, here is a game that aims high into the air and, for a good while, soars above its peers.

By taking most of its cues from the always-inspiring GTAIII, the game seeks to offer a richer, fuller interpretation of the superhero action genre. It features the ‘sandbox’ convention of freeform missions and linear central story, staged in a ‘living, breathing city’ that encourages exploration. The difference here is that there are no cars to drive or weapons to fire – the player is directly empowered by the nature of the character.

Web slinging has, of course, already been implemented in the many previous Spidey games. In every instance, however, there is an element of falsehood – the webs are spun to points high above the action, beyond the view of the camera. Web slinging has consequently been a sadly simple affair, only ever enabling evolution into an increasingly elaborate arsenal of combat manoeuvres. With this game the rot stops; not only does Spiderman 2 feature a comprehensive fighting system, it introduces a revolutionary take on the ‘locomotion’ of web slinging.

Webs can be fired at literally any solid surface, their direction depending on how the environment relates to the position of the right analogue stick. The physics of the game are meticulously attuned to those of the movies, allowing for perfect recreation of Spidey’s graceful arcs and midair leaps. Jumping is a suitably exaggerated affair with a single full-power stride carrying you high into the air; it allows for immediate web slinging height and velocity, and also throws you farther when you detach from your line. Together with the anticipated wall-crawling and - quite unanticipated range of air tricks and manoeuvres, this is a truly exquisite example of character control. Spiderman handles with all the refinement and delicacy of a Sega Rally powerslide or a Tony Hawk invert; many games are similarly gifted, but practically none of them are action games like this.

This is very exhilarating stuff; home to the kind of rush that, technically speaking, doesn’t come cheap. Having swung, zipped and clambered to the top of the Empire State Building, for example, the all-encompassing view of Manhattan Island is astounding. Below is the bustling ant-hive of people and cars, punctuated by hundreds of skyscrapers that pierce the sky and gleam beneath the sun. You pause to take this latest marvel of modern gaming … and then you jump. The wind rises as you torpedo towards the ground, past the lower rooftops and within seconds of impact. You fire a web and it catches something, pulling taught and sending you into an arc that covers three city blocks in less than a second. Releasing, you travel a further block before landing effortlessly on the street corner, the Empire State now a mere detail on the horizon. This is premium gaming and as such requires appropriately powerful technology. Though sometimes conservative with its geometry and detail, Spiderman 2’s graphics engine is extremely impressive, practically never dropping a frame for all that it achieves. The game handles interiors with competence and boasts a faultless level of draw distance.

Great rides like this, unfortunately, have to stop somewhere.

Spiderman 2 effectively ends after approximately seven hours of play. At this time you will, of course, have vanquished Doctor Octopus and been treated to a climactic clip from the movie and closing credits. From here a new chapter of the game begins, one in which you can theoretically dedicate dozens of hours to the attainment of various statistics-based ‘awards’. Succeeding comprehensively in others, this is the area in which the game arguably falls short.

The main story actually represents a very small proportion of the whole game. Featuring more of comic book guest Black Cat than it does Doc Ock or Mary Jane, this is thinly spread and over before you know it. What’s left is a wealth of additional missions based on various combat and time-trial scenarios. You have pizza delivery and photo-shoot trials, rescue and ‘ambulance’ missions and a handful of different fighting set-pieces. Initially overwhelming, these soon reveal themselves to be very simple, often very similar distractions. Where GTAIII thrived on minutiae, character and seemingly endless variety, Spiderman is more like eating a packet of Revels – initially sweet, ultimately sickly, deceptively limited.

The appeal of the free-roaming environment quickly disintegrates if the illusion of reality fails. Character models in this game are so basic they can’t even open their mouths when talking; when they do talk, it’s usually with a grating New York accent that doesn’t benefit from repetition. There is similarly little variation in the difficulty and consequent reward of the standard missions; when only these, a fight arena and the time-trials remain, the game falls into a rut of grinding routine. Here, after about ten hours of play, you’ll probably decide to hang up your spandex and go get a pizza yourself. Ample longevity for an action game, this is nonetheless disappointing for a game that suggests a great deal more.

So Spiderman 2 remains a sporadically phenomenal action game, better still because we expect next to nothing of movie tie-ins. Though it leaves itself open to it, gamers will ultimately decide whether or not criticism is deserved. It's a very minor masterpiece; a perfect execution that's inherently shallow rather than profound. Give credit, though, to a hype-free summer blockbuster that will doubtlessly leave the senses tingling.