When Spider-Man debuted in 1962, his publisher had so little faith in him that it shoved the initial 15-page story into a comic book anthology on the verge of cancellation. The character proved resilient, spawning an endless series of comics, television shows, toys, and movies. More than 40 years later, Activision introduced Spider-Man to the open world video game genre. Spider-Man 2 captured the imagination of fans and critics, and it spawned a series of like-minded sequels that were met with mixed success. Sometimes, good ideas grow stale.

I had high hopes that Amazing Spider-Man would make the wall-crawler a respectable gaming hero once again. Spider-Man has already proven he’s a great fit for the open world formula, and developer Beenox showed some early promise with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Sadly, not only does Amazing Spider-Man fail to deliver, it may also diminish my enjoyment of this summer’s film.