One of the main problems that I found with this game is the difficulty. Friend or Foe is the type of game that you play simply for completion. There is no real consequence to receiving damage or losing a life. Once a life is lost the character simply respawns after a few seconds. Lives are infinite. The only penalty to a lost life is that a few tokens (about 10) are taken away from that character. There is no real sense of challenge here.
The stages get repetitive very quickly. A door or gate seals, a joke is made by the characters as enemies appear, both you and your ally beat them to a pulp, the door or gate opens again, advance forward until the next door or gate seals - this is Friend or Foe in a nutshell. A boss fight is just about the only feature that breaks up the monotony of constant battles. Repetitiveness is usually a feature of the standard brawler however and Friend or Foe is a decent brawler, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds.
Boss fights are sometimes interesting, but some are way too easy. The boss fight with Venom is incredibly obvious and extremely easy even though he is one of the last few bosses. It's painful to see Spider-Man's greatest nemesis go out with such simplicity. The bosses before him are much more of a challenge.
The overall graphical appearance of Friend or Foe looks just like a PS2 game. Backgrounds and character designs are simple yet lively. The character animations are rather bouncy and full of life kind of like the original Jak and Daxter.
Light-hearted is about the only way to describe the story of Friend of Foe. Nothing is taken seriously and jokes are tossed around all the time throughout stages. All characters have a joking attitude no matter what they were like in other games. It is rather odd how Spider-Man's enemies simply forget all quarrels that they had with the web-slinger and instantly join up with him once beaten. The light-heartedness is not all bad though. Nick Fury's computer terminal is a riot during cutscenes when setting up missions.
Replay value is nearly absent. If you feel comfortable with playing through the same stages with your newly unlocked characters then there will still be some fun to be had upon completion, but overall there is no replay value here. The achievements help the Xbox 360 version to last a bit longer than the other versions, and they can influence a player to complete every stage fully.
Even with its flaws, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is a rather fun brawler that can be enjoyable for a while. It can be beaten in about two days, so one rental will easily give enough time to plow through this game and complete everything it has to offer.
The Good:
+ Overall decent brawler
+ Lively characters
The Bad:
- No real challenge
- Little lasting appeal once beaten
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
60%. It's slightly more friend rather than foe, but this game is not going make many best buds.
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