Fantastic Four
Absolutely nothing about this game is fantastic.
Published: July 21, 2005
7 Studios, I love you. You were the first guys to ever give us an interview now almost eight years ago. It's why I absolutely hate seeing you trip and fall so many times. You guys are talented goddammit, but you're not making the games your pedigree says you should. Defender was certainly a passable effort, but everything else hasn't just been bad, it's been littered with examples of what you shouldn't do in a game.
When 7 snagged the Fantastic Four gig for Activision, I can only imagine everyone around the office was doing backflips. Licensed game + big summer blockbuster = instant paycheck. Despite what I'm going to say in this review, I'm sure the game will pay everyone's salaries for the rest of the year because the gaming press doesn't mean a friggin' thing, and all six people that read this site probably aren't going to go spreading the word about a bad game.
Still, they got, and were coding a game for Activision no less. The problem is, the movie had about six bajillion rewrites, and at at one point was completely scrapped and restarted as a project. For a developer, it can be the kiss of death. How do you reverse direction after building in months of assets and change core parts of the story and characters when the source material keeps changing?
The easy answer is that you can't. It's just not a request that's fair for the couple dozen people working on all parts of the game. The solution, then, was to build in half of the levels and then, once the studio had finally agreed on a shooting script, hire some of the writers from the film to help whip up a story that links the old levels and assets to the new levels based directly on the movie bits.
The result, not surprisingly, is an experience that is almost tangibly subdivided into two games. I didn't understand why it felt like the game used two sets of assets and jumped all over the place yet never really had any sort of cohesive polish until I unlocked the interviews with the writers a couple levels into the game. I can only imagine 7 Studios were way too under the gun to meet the same release date as the movie, because the lack of finish in the game is glaringly apparent.
One of the game's biggest features, the co-op gameplay, falls apart almost instantly, with a camera that refuses to cooperate in tight spaces, and wonky tag-teaming. While playing with my girlfriend at home, we managed to destroy an object and pick it up at the same time. My character was stuck holding an invisible barrel that actually impacted and broke apart into visible pieces when I threw it. In another instance, characters there were supposed to be triggered as part of a scripted event got stuck behind walls.
When it's not falling apart (and I'll nitpick a bit more in a second, but I do want to actually explain the core gameplay), the game more or less follows the basic flow of the movie with the four characters; Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Ben Grimm (The Thing) and Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) all heading into space to conduct research with their egotistical benefactor Victor Von Doom (who eventually becomes Dr. Doom).
An energy wave released into the space station after a meteor storm damages the defenses changes the DNA of all the people on board, giving them unique powers. Reed becomes ultra-stretchy, Sue can become invisible and use telekinesis, Ben becomes an ultra-powerful orange rock-man, Johnny can light his entire body on fire and fly and Victor can unleash massive bursts of electricity.
Because the movie is about two hours long, and the game about five times that, quite a bit of filler from the comics was used to, in theory, thicken up the backstories of the characters and expand on how each is dealing with their powers while they slowly discover just how egomaniacal Von Doom is becoming before a final confrontation. This gives the game a chance to introduce some enemies from the comics, like Diablo, The Moleman, Blastaar, The Puppetmaster and so on. It's a nice touch for comic nerds like me, but there isn't too much effort spent on explaining the bad guys in a way that would give newcomers an idea of who they are or sate comic fans' need for a little info.
It is rather obvious that an effort to appeal to the comic loving masses was put forth here. The game borrows heavily in gameplay and interface from X-Men Legends, utilizing the same combo attack system (use two powers or grapple attacks and you're rewarded with a special name for them), as well as the simple d-pad selection method to switch characters on the fly.
During certain parts of a level, a particular character's powers may be needed, facilitating a quick press of the circle button to drop into a short mini-game. Most are simple timed button sequences, but Mr. Fantastic's little hacking game can be fun when there's enough time to puzzle things out. The others feel a bit too gimmicky, but it is a nice way to break up the action for a few seconds.
Combos are a simple matter of tapping a combination of light (X button) and strong (Square button) attacks or launching into the air and dropping with another attack. Holding the R1 button will activate a more powerful attack that will drain the special meter. As you progress through the game, particular combos' abilities (like stunning, knocking back or area attacking enemies) is made more clear. Building up successful three- and four-hit combos also builds your special meter, allowing for a massive screen-clearing attack.
While the game certainly has the same ingredients as Raven Software's fellow Marvel beat-em-up, the mix itself is far too sloppy to be fun for very long. The mini-game distractions are nice, and they even add a decent cooperative element to boss battles, but the actual combat is just too repetitive and clunky to be fun for long. The grapple system is incredibly finicky, removing the whole "grab anything and use it" aspect of the more interactive parts of the environment, an issue of balance and timing comes into play, further showcasing the game's overall lack of polish; it's entirely possible to get caught in a constant loop of being hit without being able to react, and this becomes an increasing problem later on in the game. It's cheap, and, worse, it's incredibly frustrating.
When 7 snagged the Fantastic Four gig for Activision, I can only imagine everyone around the office was doing backflips. Licensed game + big summer blockbuster = instant paycheck. Despite what I'm going to say in this review, I'm sure the game will pay everyone's salaries for the rest of the year because the gaming press doesn't mean a friggin' thing, and all six people that read this site probably aren't going to go spreading the word about a bad game.
Still, they got, and were coding a game for Activision no less. The problem is, the movie had about six bajillion rewrites, and at at one point was completely scrapped and restarted as a project. For a developer, it can be the kiss of death. How do you reverse direction after building in months of assets and change core parts of the story and characters when the source material keeps changing?
The easy answer is that you can't. It's just not a request that's fair for the couple dozen people working on all parts of the game. The solution, then, was to build in half of the levels and then, once the studio had finally agreed on a shooting script, hire some of the writers from the film to help whip up a story that links the old levels and assets to the new levels based directly on the movie bits.
The result, not surprisingly, is an experience that is almost tangibly subdivided into two games. I didn't understand why it felt like the game used two sets of assets and jumped all over the place yet never really had any sort of cohesive polish until I unlocked the interviews with the writers a couple levels into the game. I can only imagine 7 Studios were way too under the gun to meet the same release date as the movie, because the lack of finish in the game is glaringly apparent.
One of the game's biggest features, the co-op gameplay, falls apart almost instantly, with a camera that refuses to cooperate in tight spaces, and wonky tag-teaming. While playing with my girlfriend at home, we managed to destroy an object and pick it up at the same time. My character was stuck holding an invisible barrel that actually impacted and broke apart into visible pieces when I threw it. In another instance, characters there were supposed to be triggered as part of a scripted event got stuck behind walls.
When it's not falling apart (and I'll nitpick a bit more in a second, but I do want to actually explain the core gameplay), the game more or less follows the basic flow of the movie with the four characters; Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Ben Grimm (The Thing) and Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) all heading into space to conduct research with their egotistical benefactor Victor Von Doom (who eventually becomes Dr. Doom).
An energy wave released into the space station after a meteor storm damages the defenses changes the DNA of all the people on board, giving them unique powers. Reed becomes ultra-stretchy, Sue can become invisible and use telekinesis, Ben becomes an ultra-powerful orange rock-man, Johnny can light his entire body on fire and fly and Victor can unleash massive bursts of electricity.
Because the movie is about two hours long, and the game about five times that, quite a bit of filler from the comics was used to, in theory, thicken up the backstories of the characters and expand on how each is dealing with their powers while they slowly discover just how egomaniacal Von Doom is becoming before a final confrontation. This gives the game a chance to introduce some enemies from the comics, like Diablo, The Moleman, Blastaar, The Puppetmaster and so on. It's a nice touch for comic nerds like me, but there isn't too much effort spent on explaining the bad guys in a way that would give newcomers an idea of who they are or sate comic fans' need for a little info.
It is rather obvious that an effort to appeal to the comic loving masses was put forth here. The game borrows heavily in gameplay and interface from X-Men Legends, utilizing the same combo attack system (use two powers or grapple attacks and you're rewarded with a special name for them), as well as the simple d-pad selection method to switch characters on the fly.
During certain parts of a level, a particular character's powers may be needed, facilitating a quick press of the circle button to drop into a short mini-game. Most are simple timed button sequences, but Mr. Fantastic's little hacking game can be fun when there's enough time to puzzle things out. The others feel a bit too gimmicky, but it is a nice way to break up the action for a few seconds.
Combos are a simple matter of tapping a combination of light (X button) and strong (Square button) attacks or launching into the air and dropping with another attack. Holding the R1 button will activate a more powerful attack that will drain the special meter. As you progress through the game, particular combos' abilities (like stunning, knocking back or area attacking enemies) is made more clear. Building up successful three- and four-hit combos also builds your special meter, allowing for a massive screen-clearing attack.
While the game certainly has the same ingredients as Raven Software's fellow Marvel beat-em-up, the mix itself is far too sloppy to be fun for very long. The mini-game distractions are nice, and they even add a decent cooperative element to boss battles, but the actual combat is just too repetitive and clunky to be fun for long. The grapple system is incredibly finicky, removing the whole "grab anything and use it" aspect of the more interactive parts of the environment, an issue of balance and timing comes into play, further showcasing the game's overall lack of polish; it's entirely possible to get caught in a constant loop of being hit without being able to react, and this becomes an increasing problem later on in the game. It's cheap, and, worse, it's incredibly frustrating.
