Publisher: Activision
Ages: Teens
Parental
Advisory:
Violence
Violence
Rating:
If the best way to fight
evil is to stretch, command fire, become invisible and hammer with brute force,
there's no better team than the Fantastic Four. Based on the summer feature
film, Activision's Fantastic Four is a team-based action adventure that lets
players wield the superheroes' powers and relive the movie experience.
As you would expect, in the game, players take on the role of Marvel Super Heroes, Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ben Grimm/The Thing and master each character's powers -- stretching, invisibility, shooting fire and leveling superhuman attacks -- to overcome the evil Doctor Doom.
The game features team-based combat that lets gamers control all four team members and dynamically switch between them. The game also features lots of objects to use and destructible environments.
As in the comic book and movies, each character has different strengths. Mr. Fantastic uses brainpower to hack computers, override security systems and outsmart enemies and delivers stretch attacks from a distance and squeezes into tight spaces. The Invisible Woman performs stealth moves with ninja-like speed and immobilizes enemies with force fields.
As the Human Torch, gamers create walls of fire, level super nova fireballs or shoot flames from their fingertips. And as The Thing, players use brute force to pick up heavy objects, tear them apart and obliterate foes.
In play, the characters were somewhat difficult to control. And despite the game's description, players usually don't usually have all four characters to choose from at a time. There is a cooperative mode that allows two players to fight through the game, and players can also compete against each other-head-to-head. As you would expect, the game is a violent one.
If players like the movie, they'll probably like Fantastic Four. It's not an exceptional game, but definitely a diversion, just like a decent summer movie.
8/1/05 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
