It takes place after the movie Grega.
I have it, and not being a HUGE fan of Spidey, I can say that I enjoy it for what it is. Spider-man, swinging around (a graphically nice to look at) Manhatten. The fighting took a book from the Arkham Batman games (a big plus) and it has a nice balance of stealth style gameplay and all around Spidey brawler. I haven't played a Spider-man game since Spider-man 3 was released, so I can't say if it's as good/bad as those that came before it, but I can say it is MUCH better then Spider-man 3 was. The web slinging controls are fluid, but if you're one of those people that are going to cry "WHAT IS HE ATTACHING THE WEB TOOOOOOOO!??!?!?!" and are going to allow something that small to suck you out of the fun that can be had in the game, maybe skip it. Don't go in expecting a mind blowing story, it's lack luster, but the fun is had in the combat/side missions anyway.