Mad scientists, great fun

Deep under the Alps, CERN scientists in search of Higg's bosun, the "God particle", have come across something weird.

GAME: SPIDER-MAN: EDGE OF TIME (PS3)

PRICE: R399

AGE: 12+

Thousands of experiments repeatedly throw up an anomaly so potentially momentous that they can't believe it. A couple of weeks ago they asked physicists from around the world to scrutinise their results to find out what they are doing wrong.

For if the discrepancy - a gossamer-thin sliver of time - is not caused by information getting to and being processed by computers, nor by human error or scientific miscalculation, it means E is not equal to mc².

It suggests something travels faster than light and identifying what that is could lead to the discovery of a fifth dimension to sit alongside height, width, depth and time.

Theoretically, this opens up the possibility of time travel: into this zone swings Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

In it you get not one but two Spideys: the original, Peter Parker, and the 2099 version, Miguel O'Hara, in a time-hopping action adventure.

O'Hara, the Latino Spidey, first entered the Marvel universe about 20 years ago in a series that envisaged a dystopian New York ruled by giant corporations. He's a geneticist working for Walter Sloan at Alchemax, one of those evil empires.

Miguel-Spidey discovers that Sloan has built a time portal and, looking through it, sees Peter-Spidey being killed by Anti-Venom. Desperate to save Parker, he goes back in time to warn him. From there the action regularly switches between the present day and 2099.

Sloan becomes merged with Anti-Venom and Dr Octopus to create a really bad-ass boss called Atrocity. The writers attempt to address the paradoxes thrown up by messing with the space-time continuum but succeed only in making the story more muddled.

What saves Edge of Time from arachnophobia, though, is what has made the entire Spider-Man series a bestselling franchise: the superb game engine. Its gameplay is ridiculously good fun.

As you unlock upgrades and learn to time your web swings and attacks, movement and combat become more strategic.

Edge of Time is not the greatest game, but it's not a waste of money if you just give in to the silliness and enjoy a well-made product.

THE GOOD

Graphics are rich and dark - more Batman than Spidey - but they fit the mood.

You don't fight the controls as well as the opponent.

THE BAD

With great power comes great responsibility - and a preposterous plot. Unless the CERN scientists are right.

RATING: 6.8/10