Reviewed: October 3, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Activision
Developer
Artificial Mind and Movement
Released: October 2, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2
6
7
7
7
7.1
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
What’s this? A new Spider-Man videogame and no major film tie-in! That’s right, everybody’s favorite web-slinger is back, this time in an entirely original story inspired by the events of the last film with a presentation that borrows heavily on the look and flavor of the animated series and comics.
Spider-Man: Friend for Foe swings into town today in his latest adventure, and while the action gets started in New York, before this game is over Spidey will have seen more of the world than a piece of lost luggage. And borrowing on the ancient Arab proverb, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, Spidey will be teaming up with the unlikeliest of sidekicks in his quest for more of those meteor fragments that gave birth to Venom.
It seems somebody has snatched up all the super villains and attached a strange medallion to them, not only making them far more aggressive, but also quite forgetful about how they got stuck in exotic places like Egypt, Nepal, Tokyo, Transylvania, and even a lush tropical island. They, along with a small army of holographic soldiers are searching for the missing meteor fragments, so Spidey teams up with Nick Fury, head of SHIELD, and with the help of a sassy computer, a flying fortress, and a growing gallery of former foes turned temporary friends, Spidey must travel the world, recover the meteor rocks, and defeat the mastermind behind this nefarious scheme.
Friend or Foe is an unapologetic brawler that works well when played alone and gets even better when played with a friend via the drop-in/drop-out wireless connectivity of the PSP. I won’t lie, the gameplay is mindless for the most part, and while there are some pretty cool combos you can master, you can just as easily get by with mashing on the buttons. By the second chapter the combat mechanics will have become second nature and you can engage in idle conversations and not even really have to think about what you are doing.
Now a lot of you might think this is bad game design…not so. First, this game is designed for younger gamers in the 10-teen range, and for that audience, this is pure pick-up-and-play magic. Even if you are all thumbs (or no thumbs) you’ll feel like a superhero as you pull off these incredibly dynamic and animated moves with only two or three button taps. Older gamers will likely tire with the combat, but the sense of exploration and discovery will keep you pounding away at those evil holograms. The PSP version also features a grading system that will rank your performance for each level.
The one thing that impressed me most was how well the computer controls the second player when you are stuck playing alone. Not only does the computer get very involved in the combat, it will frequently grab and hold the larger enemies so I can pummel them. If you get too far ahead or above your partner they will just warp to your side, meaning they don’t get stuck or left behind…at least not for long. And when it comes time to push those synchronized buttons to open doors, they know exactly where to go and what to do. The AI is brilliant.
There is a nice reward system in place. As you work your way through all 20 levels you will smash thousands of objects and dispatch thousands of holograms. As these vanish from existence they are replaced with tokens you can use back on Fury’s ship to upgrade Spidey, his web abilities, and also boost the stats and special attacks of all the villains who will be joining your team. You can also purchase a few minigames that are more like challenges than actual game modes.
So how about those sidekicks. The designers really dug into the whole Spidey franchise to come up with all of your favorites and possibly a few surprises. You can't visit Egypt without the Sandman, and what would Transylvania be without everyone’s favorite vampire slayer, Blade. Throw in Ironfist, Prowler, Black Cat, Lizard, Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Venom, Rhino, and even a few levels with Spidey in his black suit and you have a large and diverse cast of characters.
I found that it didn’t really matter who you took on each mission. There are no character specific puzzles or combat situations, so Ironfist can kill a vampire hologram just as easily as Blade. I thought this was some missed potential in game design. As it was, I simply played the most recently unlocked character on the next mission if for no other reason than to watch the custom animation sequence for the Hero Strike, then I would revert to whatever character(s) I had boosted their stats the highest.
The levels are quite large and follow the same themes as the console version, although I'm guessing due to memory constraints, they are broken down into smaller parts and stages. These chapters each have their own theme that is carried across all the stages, culminating in a boss battle that usually relies on manipulating the environment rather than pure combat. The levels wrap around and have a lot of depth and height to them, so you can often look far ahead to where you are going or back at where you’ve been. Their design is linear, but there are often side paths and hidden rooms that you’ll need to watch closely for since the camera angles make for some interesting surprises.
The graphics in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe are awesome…for what they are. The PSP offers crisp visuals that are probably much what this game would have looked like had it released on the classic Xbox. It's a slight step above the PS2 and Wii and a definite step below the 360. It successfully creates what I can only call “a living comic book” or a valiant attempt at bringing an animated feature or TV show to virtual life. The opening movie will rock your world and then you are dumped into level after level of gorgeous themed scenery with fun designs and vibrant colors that literally pop off the screen.
The character designs are incredible, especially for Spidey, but even the supporting rogues gallery got the royal treatment with fun animations for running and jumping around and everybody has amazing combat routines, and when those Hero Strike movies kick in…well, let’s just say you will never get tired of seeing them no matter how many times you watch. My only minor complaint is that the camera is usually too far away and the characters are too small to appreciate all their subtle detail and style.
Enemy design is a bit weak. There are several varieties of enemy holograms but at this small scale they all blend together and after you have killed them all a few hundred times you simply don’t care what you are looking at. You will certainly appreciate the details in design when you do manage to get a close-up look, whether you are looking at a mummy-wrapped hologram or one that looks like a tropical island native, or even one that looks like an eviler version of Venom.
Friend or Foe has a great soundtrack Each chapter has its own theme like the Egyptian flavor from that particular chapter or the haunting pipe organ music from Transylvania. Even better, when the ambient music changes into the energetic combat music, they even manage to work in those subtle themes, so you get to dispatch vampire holograms to some pretty cool techno beats mixed with sinister organ music. Another standout was the island level with some serious tribal percussion. The tribal holograms are restless tonight.
For sound effects you get a wide variety of environmental sounds like the wind howling in Egypt or the rushing waterfalls in Nepal, or the creepy sounds of the night in Transylvania. Expect a lot of combat noises for punches and kicks as well as the wet squishy sound of webs getting flung around. Boxes break, furniture splinters, and jars and urns shatter with perfect effects.
And how about that voice acting…Spidey is better than ever, and in my opinion the guy who does this voice does it better than Tobey could have done. It hearkens back to the innocence of the animated series with plenty of bad jokes and fun banter with whatever partner he has taken along. There is also an ongoing and quite humorous situation involving Nick, Spidey, and the ship’s computer, who apparently has a “thing” for Spidey. Every villain is perfectly voiced and delivers a stunning performance for all their major dialogue and even the filler banter during gameplay.
Friend or Foe will take anywhere from 8-10 hours to beat the story mode. In addition to the cooperative campaign mode there is also a modest selection of minigames that will have you trying to beat down a certain numer of enemies or collect a specific item. Other than trying to improve your letter grade for each level, there is little reason to replay the game once you beat it the first time.
I loved Spider-Man: Friend or Foe on the console and the PSP offers a fun and challenging smaller scale version of that same game. While the overall game design is pretty much the same, the way the designers broke up the levels and made some subtle changes really created a unique experience, rather than simply rehashing what I had already done on the 360.
I had a great time from start to finish, and even though the combat did get repetitive, the action was so fluid and intense that it never bothered me. It's probably not as robust a game as X-Men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but for a kid-friendly fighter, Friend or Foe is definitely worth a look.