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| | Title:
Fantastic Four
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System:
Playstation 2
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Genre:
Action/Adventure
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Publisher:
Activision
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Developer:
7 Studios
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Release:
June 27, 2005
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Teen (T)
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The Fantastic Four consists of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm. After a freak accident onboard a space craft, the four ordinary astronauts find themselves in a hospital. When they awake they discover that they have new super human powers. Reed Richards can stretch in every which way and can slap adversaries silly across an entire room. Sue Storm has the ability to cloak and evade sticky situations or to go unnoticed as well as having telekinetic powers. Johnny Storm is actually on fire (literally) and can control fire with his bare hands. Ben Grimm is now a muscular rock-man that has tremendous power. Together the four are an awesome team and throughout the rest of the Fantastic Four game you will have an equal chance to play as all four of them in intense combat.
Gameplay
Like in most other action-based games, Fantastic Four has a series of levels that follow a story. On each level you have a number of different objectives you must complete before advancing to the next level. The objectives will range from smashing a certain amount of objects to beating up a huge and ugly monster. Each of the four characters have a light and heavy attack as well as their own special moves that they will gain throughout the game by buying upgrades with experience points. The combat system is complex, yet easy to grasp and the game features tons of unique enemies and super villains that you will have to watch out for.
The best thing about Fantastic Four is that there is always action --and a bunch of it. Depending on what difficulty you choose, or if you choose to play co-op or single player, will determine how intense the action is. There is a large variety of enemies that are specific to the level you are playing in. For example, in an underground level the main enemies are mole-like creatures, diggers that can dig and move around underground, and a large beast that looks as if he has been buried underground for over a century.
The hot spots are a very unique part of the game. Each character has their own hot spot (differs by color) and each time one appears it will be for something different. They are used for actions you can't normally perform with the normal controls. For instance, they are usually present during boss fights to perform a certain action such as creating a force field around the boss's hands so he can't move them. Another instance allows Ben to keep a fire truck from falling from a tall bridge. The hot spots are always fun to use and add a little variety to the game. Luckily, they are not over used at all and only appear every now and then.
The super villains that you will encounter add to the action-intensity of the game. The villains range from the famous Dr. Doom, to the Mole Man, to the Dragon Man. With a few other super villains here and there they always seem to get in the way and screw things up, but it makes the game fun and not repetitive. The super villains also make the game feel more like the actual comic book that the story was based on.
Besides the main story mode, players also have the option to play in the Arena Fight. In the Arena Fight you choose two players and fight off a number of enemies. Your goal is to fight off a set amount of enemies (from a specific group of enemies that you get to pick) in a set amount of time. Once you beat the stage on easy, you will then have to complete it on medium and then on hard to unlock the extra stages and groups of enemies that you fight against. Just like in the story mode, you can play the Arena Fight either solo, or co-op.
Combat
The combat system of this game is quite complex due to the amount of things you can do, but it's not so difficult that you can't stick to the basics and just use the normal light and hard attacks if you are playing on an easy setting. First off, if another character in the Fantastic Four is available you can easily switch to them by using the directional pad. Each character has their own direction so after a few times of switching around characters you should get used to who is who.
Besides just normal attacks you can also carry out a number of combos. Combination attacks can be extremely usefully against specific enemies. If a specific combo works well against an enemy or group of enemies, text will usually pop up on the screen letting you know this. As you progress though the game you can also purchase combo moves that you will be able to use right away. Even better than just normal combos, you can also perform team combos with another member of the Fantastic Four. If you or another hero has grappled an enemy, another hero can grapple the same enemy and together they will perform a combo move on that one enemy.
Below your health bar on the heads-up-display (HUD) is the Cosmic Power Bar. The Cosmic Power allows you to pull of some really insane and powerful attacks. These attacks vary between the four characters and are performed by pulling the right trigger and pressing another button. The player will then perform the crazy attack, but it is important to limit these types of attacks because they use a lot of the Cosmic Power and before you know it you will be out when you need it most.
Besides the variety of different attacks, the targeting system used to target specific enemies that you wish to attack is pretty useful. By pulling and holding the left trigger you can target any enemy that you look at. Once you obtain a target, a reticule will appear on the enemy letting you know that you have targeted that enemy. Once targeted, you will always be looking at him and this makes it easy to carry out attacks on that one enemy. This is an excellent way to pick the biggest trouble maker out of an entire group of enemies and kill him off first. You can also switch your targets by use the right thumbstick. Targeting is a neat feature to use, but it isn't mandatory.
Graphics
The visuals of Fantastic Four are never really impressive but not bad at the same time. Most of the environment is pretty detailed and looks realistic, but the best part of it is that virtually everything is destructible (within reason). If Ben does a powerful attack towards the ground, the concrete will actually look cracked. Also, if you jump onto or punch a number of things in the environment they will break. If for some miraculous reason you get bored while playing, you can pretty much destroy everything that is in the current room. Even though the game box claims "Fully destructible environments", it is, but only to a certain extent. If you happen to be Johnny Storm, you can set things on fire, but you can't set entire walls or perhaps buildings on fire. Environments range from inside a hospital, to out in the middle of a forest, and many other places in between. The animations of the characters and their attacks are also a major plus. The super attacks look the best and when done near a group of enemies it looks fantastic!
Overall
Fantastic Four is a great single player and co-op game. With the insane amount of action and the huge amount of different attacks and powers each of the four characters have, this is truly the ultimate super hero game. However, beyond that, there is not much else to do. What was surprising is that with co-op you can only co-op with one other player. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could have three other buddies playing with you and each one could be a different hero? It would also be awesome if you could play online with Xbox Live. Despite the number of extras and unlockables in this game, once you beat the story mode the game pretty much runs dry. Because of this, the best thing to do would be to rent it and play frantically to try and beat the story mode before you have to return the game to the store.
| The Core Score |
Overall
7.2 |
| Fun |
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8 |
| Gameplay |
|
7.5 |
| Graphics |
|
7 |
| Audio |
|
7.3 |
| Replay |
|
6 |
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