Fantastic 4

The skies opened up over San Francisco, but that didn’t stop it from being an evening of cosmic proportions.

Activision and Seven Studios moved into the Cartoon Art Museum for a night to show off the pending Fantastic Four title for the PlayStation2, GameCube and Xbox console systems. The game will also release on the PC (by Beenox Studios) and the Game Boy Advance (by Torus Games), with the expected release dates for all titles later this month. 

The media even showed off only the PS2 and Xbox versions, with some level play in single-player mode as well as some co-op play available. The game will allow for multiplayer co-op but only on the same machine. There will not be online play featured for this title.

At its core, Fantastic Four uses some of the same gameplay and RPG (role-playing game) advancement system that X-Men Legends used. However, the game itself is a visual treat and is a much more personal experience. Why? In Legends, players are allowed to select a team of four from many different mutants. In Fantastic Four, there are always just the four members of the team – though sometimes the game advances with only two members of the team involved in the mission. In Legends – which, make no mistake about it, is a wonderful gaming experience – the story line is an overlay for the purpose of directed combat. Yes, you do have to accomplish tasks, but it is not a personalized storyline that truly takes on the urgency of aiding the individual team members. Rather it is a story that embraces the group as a whole. In the Fantastic Four, the storyline follows the movie and there is that sense of urgency in trying to help Ben Grimm past his mutation while thwarting the machinations of the various evil masterminds thrown in the path of the superhero team.

And what an amazing team it is – Ok, it is ‘fantastic.’ Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm are scientists and astronauts mutated by cosmic rays to become The Invisible Woman, the Torch, Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, respectively. Sue can use her powers to shield the others, to turn invisible and penetrate enemy defenses unseen, or as blasts of sheer force/energy. The Torch flies and employs his abilities with fire; Mr. Fantastic can stretch his body and assume a variety of shapes, but Reed also uses his amazing intellect to create ‘toys’ that can be employed; and the Thing is the ultimate tank/melee machine, long before the concept of tanks became the norm in RPG games.  

The villains thrown at them are varied and embrace many from the Fantastic Four/Marvel universe, including Diablo (sporting a new look), the Puppeteer and, of course, Dr. Doom. There is a multitude of surprises spread out over the 40 or so levels. There are 10 main level loads with each level broken down into several sub-missions. You may take on Horus, and actually have to fight him twice in the way the game stands now.

The look of the game is marvelous (pardon the ‘Marvel’ pun). The particle lighting and dynamics of the lighting and shadow system give the game a rich look, and with the ability to swap controlled avatars on the fly, the game allows for plenty of opportunity to explore and fight from the perspective of each member of the team.

The control scheme is similar to X-Men Legends, and so was somewhat intuitive. As for the audio – well, the music in the museum was a little loud, as was the buzz from the journalists gathered for the event to actually hear the game’s sound, so no comments on that would be of value. 

Each level has main goals and bonus goals – and accomplishing the missions translates into the points used to level your avatars. And leveling them up is crucial to succeed as you progress through the game.  

Fantastic Four is an entrancing gaming experience, a comic book come to life that should thrill and delight gamers and Marvel comic book fans, alike. Not all the levels were available for this look at the game, simply because some contain some movie spoilers. However, thankfully gamers will not have to wait until July 8 when the movie opens to experience the wondrous delights of this title.