Spider-Man Friend or Foe is the newest entry into the web slinger's gaming canon. Taking control of both Spider-Man and his foes, you will try to understand what has happened to both your enemies and the world you live in.

The initial CGI movie shows Spider-Man being teamed up on by most of his greatest enemies. Sandman, Doc Ock, and Venom, among others, seem to have finally gotten the upper hand. As Spidey looks most vulnerable, the Green Goblin appears, giving a hand (and a few pumpkin bombs) to Spider-Man. Suddenly, as a huge brawl begins, strange creatures begin crawling up the sides of building, overrunning the rooftop. Unsure of what to make of the situation, Spider-Man looks for an answer, only to watch each of his foes disappear into thin air. The game takes off shortly thereafter, with Spider-Man trying his best to get to the bottom of the situation, while befriending each of his enemies.

In the demo, players are given the choice of siding with either Venom or the Green Goblin. Each character has their own attacks, with added ability for some interesting co-op strikes. At any time another player can join in as well, which can lead to some fun double teams. Perhaps in the final build more enemies will spawn when two players are involved, but as of now, there seems to be little in the way of difficulty in dispatching any of the enemies in cooperative play, including the bosses.

The first level - a tutorial for all intents and purposes - explains the various play mechanics as Spidey and a teammate traverse a cityscape. The attack system is fairly basic, and at first glance, doesn't appear to be more than a button-masher. There is, however, a bit of variety. You have a few individual attacks, such as the ability to drag people toward you, stun them with a web attack, or stand them up in place; stuck by one of your webs. Each character has similar individual attacks, but in the preliminary level, the only necessary move was the drag-in attack, which allows you to beat the first sub-boss. There are also modifiers that can be picked up, which give you invincibility for a short time, along with a damage increaser which doubles your power. The most interesting move lies in the ability for characters to team up against an enemy, using a double-team attack. When performed correctly, this move can devastate weaker enemies. As the level features mostly lower-tier opponents, this move can be quite powerful. Of course, its usefulness is limited based on the pure ease of the level, but over the course of a full game it might be far more useful.

In terms of audio, Spider-Man himself sounds a bit goofier then normal. Having listened to Toby Maguire for the past few games, it's interesting to hear another person's take on the character, but he seems far more childish than what most people are used to. Similarly, the other characters sound just as strange, with Venom shouting silly comments as the game progresses, or the Green Goblin stating that he is friends with Spider-Man. It's not that they're out of place in the context of the game, but after the darker readings in past games, it's definitely a departure. There's little music in the demo, but if the opening tracks are any indication, the sweeping scores from previous games and films will still exist here. In-game, however, there is little noise past the sound of enemies dying and the occasional quip between Spider-Man and whoever his partner might be.

The game also features a static camera that, at times, limits the visibility of enemies. It's not a huge issue, as they will generally come into view regardless, but there were times when in battle it seemed as though enemies might come back onscreen, even though they had been knocked off the building or even killed. More than anything, the camera is particularly restraining, never allowing for Spider-Man to do the things we would expect, such as shooting his webs freely or traversing walls. In fact, the only times he uses his web swinging are automatic, a sort of backwards step for the series after so much freedom has been granted in the previous games. It's assumable the game opens up a bit after the first few levels, but from the demo alone, there seemed to be few options and little to do past playing the game linearly.

Although incomplete, Friend or Foe is shaping up to, at the very least, be an entertaining action romp. As of right now, the biggest issues lie with the hit detection and camera. This game will be released relatively soon, and we can only hope that those issues will be properly addressed before the game is on store shelves.