You'll earn additional web talents over time, including the ability to shoot projectiles and wrap enemies up, but your starting abilities seem to be the most useful. They're also the most visually interesting, though admittedly some of the actions look more exciting than they might otherwise due to exaggerated physics that cause everyone to linger in the air before gravity pulls them back down. It's very easy to string these moves together, and even though it's not much of a challenge, fending off a dozen enemies at once with a constant flurry of attacks can be pretty satisfying.
It can be a real kick in the pants to fight alongside some of Spider-Man's greatest villains as well, and you can switch back and forth on the fly between controlling Spidey and his sidekick. When controlled by the artificial intelligence, your sidekick can take care of itself pretty well. As awesome as it might sound to finally get to play as these villains, the sidekicks simply don't have as many abilities as Spidey, which makes them inherently less interesting. This ends up limiting the appeal of the game's two-player support, although it's consequently less disappointing that there's no online play.
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe features the same clean art style on the PlayStation 2 as it does on the Xbox 360, PC, and Wii. It's not technically demanding, but it looks sharp. The environments favor clean textures over complex geometry, and each location features a distinct look while keeping with the overall cartoony feel. The character models are nicely embellished, and some of the animations--Spider-Man's in particular--look terrific. The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions look pretty comparable. Both suffer from jagged edges, minor frame rate issues, and a little fuzziness that diminishes the look of the game, but only somewhat.
The low level of challenge, the cartoon-inspired look, and a tone that favors humor over pathos certainly make it seem as if Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was designed with a younger, less sophisticated audience in mind, but for what it is, this is a well-crafted game.
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