Spider Man Friend or Foe

Spider Man Friend or Foe, the first game from UK-based developer Traveller's Tales, will be hitting stores in the US on November 3. The game is based on the long-running comic book storyline, and it will follow the adventures of Spider-Man, Mary Jane, Harry, and Brian as they try to overcome the daunting task of becoming Spider-Man.

The game features 25 levels, four levels, and a variety of environments ranging from a residential burg to a jungle. In the early build of the game, it was already easy to spot Spider-Man on the screen as he ran, but as soon as he turned around to face him in a helicopter, he stopped and stopped to stand still. This change in perspective--and by extension, the enemies--is something fans of the comic books and Spider-Man movies will be familiar with.

"I'm really excited for players to get to control the hero and get to use his different combat and powers, as well as just explore a city, and see all the different costumes and different mechanics," said Christian Doak, creative director at Insomniac Games. "That's why we have a ton of new enemies and new styles of combat for the players to experiment with. The most exciting new enemies, however, are the ones that we've made specifically to give the game a unique feel."

The best thing about fighting the Rhino, for instance, is the fact that you can see all of the different moves that he can pull off with his tentacles and then throw them back at your foe. "The unique visual difference that we have is that his tentacles are the most flexible, they don't need to be constrained by any other limitations," Doak explained. "We also have a new combat system that lets players go up against enemies in a specific way."

"The biggest difference with Rhino is that he's wearing a very specific outfit that he can wear at the very beginning of the game," said Christian Doak. "I can see that wearing a helmet will make the enemies look and move really fast. He's also wearing a vest that is a really nice mixture of a skirt and his waistband."

For those that don't remember, Rhino is the big bad of the PlayStation 2 game OutRun, and it's the perfect series to launch a game based on the nemesis. The question of whether or not the game will ever get a sequel was sparked by the outcry from fans, as Doak said on Twitter that the team hasn't been "completely happy" with the response.

Torna: To be clear, there is nothing new to say about the Rhino. It doesn't seem like the reason is that he's a big bad. That said, if you're going to be able to keep up with the original's evolution and innovatively update it with new features, it's important to take time. In the end, you're getting the latest in a genre that's all about evolution, without really alienating it. As a fan, I know there's some characters in that genre that, at least in some of the games that we have released, feel like they are totally unique and from different genres and genres. But for the most part, the Rhino will still be a niche game.

James: The second thing that I'm trying to say is that the community is incredibly important to us. As a fan, I'm incredibly thankful that you were able to play this game and the community has been great to me. We're just beginning to see games that were in development for quite a long time. One of the great things about Rhino is that people come to that community and say, "Holy crap, it's going to be cool. You've worked on this for like four years." We were fortunate enough to do so.

And so, when we heard about what we were doing and what we were getting used to doing, it was so good. I mean, we had a crazy amount of people working on this project, and it was just such a humbling experience. But because we were working on this game for five years, we wanted to make sure we had the time to really take the game apart. And that's the ultimate objective for us.

GS: And with a couple of months to go now, what can you tell us about the game itself?

JJ: The story for the game is a couple of years into development, and it's quite an ambitious game. At the moment, we're thinking of ways to create a game that feels fully connected. We want to make the characters in the game feel alive. So, if you get a guy like Jack Bauer in a movie, you have the right TV system to deal with that. And then, we're thinking of ways to add in all of those things that we've worked on in the past. If we're bringing Jack to a movie, then we're thinking about ways to expand on that experience.