Game Review: Spiderman Friend or Foe (Xbox 360 Demo)
Let me first say that this is only the demo, as I'll be Miniviewing fairly often. Who knows what they will do with the full game...
The demo starts off nicely, with a cutscene that looks almost movie quality. Ya don't really know whats happening, only that Spiderman is getting ambushed by practically all his foes at once. After he's done thoroughly pummeling them (with the help of the New Goblin) he and the villians are surprised to find a new enemy--so called phantoms--appear. They are then teleported off to a ship or more of a UFO.
The begining of the demo doesn't go in-line with the cutscene in the least. Your sucked up into a spaceship then you appear in Tokyo with Venom as your sidekick. I didn't really care too much for that, seeing as I had an extremely low expectaion to begin with.
Then came the fighting. Let me again first say that for the passed few weeks I've been absolutely obsessed with God of War. And this game tries very hard to be God of War. And the surprising thing is, it starts to do it well. You have a good deal of combos you can use using the A and B buttons. However, thus far I have yet to see a cooperation between the 2. Ya know, like a combo involving both A and B? You can use charge attacks for all of you RB and LB web specials (Which really did come in handy). Another neat trick for some enemies is, after you knock em around a little, you'll be able to use a Button Sequance attack, identical to God of War. Like a little cutscene where Spidey messes up the enemy in one fell swoop. You also get temporary upgrades such a Max damage and invincibility.
Now for the problem with these combos: They lack flavor! They lack the punch and slam that we want. They are simply punch punch punch instead of BAM ZOOM BOOM! If you didn't catch my meaning, I mean that they really are not interesting in the least. Well, with 13 playable characters all with they're own combos, its does give the user quite a bit of variety, if bland variety. Now this is real annoying problem with this game:
You can't lose.
No matter how many times you die, it seems as though you just keep coming back again and again and again. ( Trust me, I launched myself off the rooftops more then enough times to know this)
But unlike God of War, this game has a really nice feature: drop in co-op. This co-op is exactly like Lego Star Wars co-op down to the nail. I don't know about you, but I liked that kind of co-op. But don't worry, no two screens needed. SMFoF has the camera like its a movie, also from games like Lego star wars, God of War and Too Human.
The graphics...could use work to say the least. But I don't really think they were going for an amazing style of design. It kinda looks like it came out of a comic book. I'm still wondering how Spidey landed in Tokyo, though...
Well, all in all, its probably a game I'm gonna rent at one time or another. I guess I'd give this game a 3.5/5. Probably too lenient but I really do think this title will deserve more then a 3...
Overall: http://games-reviews.dcemu.co.uk/review/review3_5.gif
NOTE: Don't forget, this is JUST THE DEMO! We have no clue how the real game will be!
