Review: Spider-Man Friend or Foe

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Xbox 360) Review 8-18-2009

In these times of economic struggle, my friends and I sometimes find ourselves looking for things to do on the cheap. A buddy of mine wanted to do a co-op game together, but without spending too much money. Looking through the local Best Buy we saw Spider-Man Friend or Foe at the $15 price point and it had 2 player local co-op. We decided to pick up despite the bad reviews and figured we could have some fun with it and in the end we were right.

Now don't get me wrong, this is far from a great game and it has lots of issues I will go over in a minute, but in the end we had a fun 2 player co-op brawler that didn't go on for too long and earned us some achievements along the way. The story is rather simple, there is some mind control aliens out there and if you beat the villains, they get angry that they were tricked so they help you. Makes no sense, and obviously made for kids, but what brawler has a good story anyway? This game is very similar to the Lego Star Wars games in the sense that you can go at it single player with an AI teammate, or 2 player co op and as you kill enemies you collect chips similar to how you collect Lego pieces. These chips are used to buy upgrades for your player. Spider-Man is obviously the main character so he has the most upgrades available and extra moves, but as you unlock the other teammates you can upgrade them as well. While fun to unlock more moves (and they do break up some of the monotony of the combat) a lot of times you stick with the basic moves. Unfortunately, a lot of the extra moves cannot be used on the larger enemies and bosses, which makes them somewhat pointless, which is a shame.

Some other negatives and that since this game is definitely made with kids in mind as the audience, it is definitely on the easy side. It seems they really took that Lego Star Wars copying even further with that, whereas you can't really “die” you just lose a few chips in which you can always earn more. There is also a lack of variety in the enemies (similar to how the 80s and 90s brawlers were made). They are mostly just color swaps to reflect the new location you are in, but their attacks and movements are all the same, even for the bigger guys. The only change in characters are the super-villains that you fight and later join you. The lack of variety there is made evident when you play as them though, as you will see how they have a lot of the same moves, even when it comes to the co-op double team moves. Some may say that the short completion time is a downside, but I can argue that it's longer than other brawlers and if it were much longer it could get even more monotonous. I find that the game is best played in short bursts anyway.

I played the Xbox 360 version, so I was able to get an easy 1000 points playing though this game. Most are just going through the game, with a few that you get for unlocking everyone and all their moves. They have other versions for other systems that are all the same game. I have not played them, but PS2 version is basically the same with graphics not as good (although the Xbox version isn't all that great to begin with) and obviously no achievements. The PS3 version is identical graphically but has no trophies since it was released before Sony implemented them and made them required for all games.

Bottom line: game is fun for kids, maybe to play with your kids or younger cousins, people looking for a fun semi-old school brawler, or achievement whores. If you fall into one or more of these categories, it's worth checking out for the bargain prices you can find it for. Amazon has it available for $20 for most systems, with the PC version being less than $13. You can go third party merchants to get it even cheaper. It is a poor-man's Lego Star Wars, but some fun can be had with it on the cheap.

My First Review: Wanted - Weapons of Fate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate (PS3) review 7-29-2009

Wanted was a movie based on a comic book released in 2008 to mixed reviews. Some didn't like how over the top it was or how it strayed from the comic source it came from. There is one thing that those that cared could agree on though, it would make a really sweet video game. One problem though, 99% of games based on comic books or movies suck, and this is based on BOTH. Well, I say that, while flawed, this is that 1% that's enjoyable.

For this review I played the Playstation 3 version of the game. I own a 360 and usually get multiplatform games for it, but I had an extra copy from my store (more on that later) that was going unsold and I figured I could use the Trophies (you will learn that I am an achievement/trophy whore that will try to get as many as I can). More on the differences between the two system versions and trophies later on.

So why is this the 1%? What makes it different? Well, first of all they were smart and did not rush the game to make sure it was out in time for a theatrical or DVD release. They waited until the game was done and ready before putting it out there and it shows. The game is very similar to other 3rd person action games like Gears of War or even the other “movie game” Stranglehold. You run around and shoot people or do instant close combat kills. Instead of having you recreate the events of the movie it is actually a sequel of sorts starting right after the end of the movie and going from there, although there are some flashbacks where you play as your father in various missions throughout his career. You can take cover like Gears of War, and although a bit uninspired there, it just leads to a lot of fun that lets you enjoy while you're furthering the story. You can also do “bullet time” type moves where you can shoot bullets out of the air like in the movie and can do the signature bullet curving as well. And as with most games of this type, to do these cool moves you have to build up a meter and each one uses up a different amount of the meter. Again, it may not be the most innovative, but they are going with the philosophy of “if it ain't broke don't fix it.” The developers at GRIN decided to take aspects of various games that work, and put them together into a game that is very enjoyable to play for fans of the movie. On a side note, for fans of the comic you can unlock and use the costume used in that as well, but it comes later in the game which there isn't as much left to it.

Which brings me to my next point: completion time. This is not a long game. There are 3 difficulty levels; Pussy, Assassin, and Killer. Killer was initially locked, so I started on Assassin and made it through the game in roughly 6 hours. I didn't have much trouble getting through most of it, but I enjoyed it the whole time. Some may see this short time as a good thing, some bad. It means the story doesn't drag and it means that the gameplay doesn't get stale, but it also means that if you're looking for a long game, you won't get it here. On the plus side for longevity though, there are a bunch of unlockables and alternate modes. As I mentioned before, the hardest difficulty is something that is initially locked, but you can earn it by completely the game on Assassin (the equivalent of “normal” in other games). On top of that, you also unlock Headshot Mode where you have to get a certain number of headshots before completing a level or it will restart. There is also close combat mode which you have to do a certain number of close combat kills, much like how Headshot mode works. So, if going for a new challenge in a game you've already completed is something you look for, this game has it. If not, and you feel you've already seen what you care about, keep that in mind. On top of the modes you can also unlock alternate characters to play as such as Cross, The Immortal, or even your old boss. These characters do not play any different at all, do not have any different animations or voice work, but it's something different at least.

Speaking of voice work, it is top notch in this game. They couldn't get James McAvoy or Morgan Freeman to do their voices in the game, but the people that they got did a damn fine job or sounding a lot like them, especially the guy playing Wesley. The rest of the characters are well done with some other actors coming from the movie such as Terence Stamp and Common. The likenesses are very close as well, which helps even more when hearing a voice. Overall great presentation to the game that isn't too heavy on the cut-scenes so you can just enjoy the gameplay, but enough to break it up a bit to prevent it from being monotonous.

I mentioned before Trophies and Achievements. They are the same for both systems, and I did not get all of them, but gave it the ol' college try anyway, and I had a lot of fun for the ones I did. They have the usual ones like beating a certain “act” on the different difficulty levels which is why I did that, and then they have one for beating headshot mode, and one for close combat, so again, that's why I did those modes. In the days before achievements I probably would have just said “no thanks” and had been done with the game, but would have also complained about how short it was. These trophies kept me playing a game I enjoyed and I had fun earning them. Now I felt like it was still worth the money, and frankly had the game been any longer I probably wouldn't have wanted to go through it as many times as I did (which remember is four times). They also had some items hidden throughout the game that you could hunt down to unlock things like concept art and photos of the programmers, but I am not a fan of scavenger hunts in games, so I did not get those. For those into that though, it's there. My favorites though were they had 2 trophies setup for laughs: one where you kill your girlfriend, and one where you kill your boss. They are hidden in 2 different levels and if you find them you can take them out for the achievements. It does not affect the game in any way or unlock anything else, but funny to see that Wesley gets the last laugh in the end.

Enough with the praise though, onto the issues. I did mention game length which can go either way, but there were other things in the game I didn't care for as much. For starters, there is no option to run. For a game so much like Gears of War with the cover system, you'd think they'd also have a run/sprint move to get to places. There are times I wanted to get to cover or at least away from fire and my guy moved too slow to do so. That's not to say he feels like a turtle, but sometimes you want that extra boost. Also, I felt this weird kind of “acceleration” when aiming. What I mean is that I will have my hand steady in a certain spot on the analog stick trying to turn for example, and instead of staying at a constant speed it would start speeding up (or as I said before, accelerating) which lead to me wildly aiming way more often that I would have liked. I am not new to these kinds of games, so I know it wasn't just how I was playing. I also had found quite a few bugs for a game that was in no rush to get out. Things like bodies getting stuck in walls (including me as the player to the point where I had to reset the game) were common place as well as stuttering animations. Finally, I felt that although there was a good mix in gameplay and what you could do in the game with the curved bullets, human shields, and the occational QTE (Quick Time Event, this time full controlable more along the lines of a light gun shooter), you didn't get to do them much. The airplane level (which you can play in the demo mind you) is easily the best level of the game because it has a little bit of everything. It is very inspired with it's moveable cover (the food carts) and having to shoot your way up a plane that is going down, but most of the time the levels felt kind of the same with you going 2 or 3 levels before you could move other cover, and same for the QTEs.

Most people always ask me for my opinion on which system they should get a game for if they have more than one. The differences between the two versions of Wanted for consoles were minimal (I have not played the PC version so I can't comment on that). Having played the demo of the Xbox version I can say that the controls felt exactly the same, and load times seemed about the same as well (although that was loading off of a hard drive vs. a disc). The achievements and trophies are exactly the same on both, although the PS3 version does have the “platinum” trophy if you get them all. The PS3 does also have a short installation that is required before you can play that will take up a small portion of your hard drive space that isn't in the Xbox 360 version. Graphically (again, judging Xbox 360 demo vs. retail PS3 so could be different) they seem to be about the same with the PS3 version looking a bit brighter with more of the “bloom” effect used when it's a daytime outdoor level. Everything is minor, they are basically the same so I say go for the version that you need more achievements/trophies if you care, or which controller is most comfortable to you (or whatever is cheaper).

Overall, it's well worth playing, and now that it has been out for a bit you can get it rather cheap. In this economy saving money is always a good thing, and you could certainly spend a lot more on a worse game. The demo is also available on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store. The game currently runs for less than $30 on Amazon.com.

So that's it for my first review. Thoughts? Let me know what you all would like and I will do my best to have a site you will all enjoy reading. Have any questions or comments feel free to leave comments on this blog, IM me, or send me an e-mail.