The un-Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four PS2 game is another game based on a movie and comic. It uses the popularity of the comic and the marketing of the movie to sell.

Instead of living up to expectations, it is a cheap attempt from the developers to fill their pockets.

The game consists of 10 main missions, each comprising various tasks and on-going bombardment from enemies.

While there are four different characters to choose from, the lame storyline often sees the group parting ways at the beginning of each mission, meaning choice is often reduced to one or two character.

Each character possesses distinctive powers that are handy throughout the adventure: Mr Fantastic can stretch to the degree that enemies can be attacked and objects can be reached from a distance; the Invisible Woman can, evidently, become invisible and cast a protective shield; the Human Torch is extremely fast and can torch his enemies; while the Thing is quite powerful in hand-to-hand combat.

To use these special abilities, cosmic energy must be built up, which can be restored during the heat of a battle and is relatively easy to obtain. If used tactfully, a constant combination of cosmic attacks can be performed allowing the heroes to escape unscathed.

Even if cosmic energy is depleted, heroes can complete any level by breaking and smashing their way through.

Combo moves are simple to perform and become particularly effective when strung together.

Developers attempted to bring variety to the game through "minigames" which pop-up occasionally. These require that tasks, such as rotating an analogue stick or pressing a button repeatedly, are performed, and are as bland as the rest of the game.

The game would be a bit more interesting if it was more than a chain of meaningless beat-downs similar to those in mid-eighties arcade games that had characters knocking out anything in sight just for the heck of it.

After killing hundreds of foes with the same attacks over and over again, there is no sense of accomplishment. The moments of any real challenge are rare, the majority of the game being dreary and humdrum.

Despite the minigames (which at times leave the gamer wondering around confused), the characters don`t feel at all powerful. Instead, they feel very light and tend to drift across the levels - even The Thing, instead of packing a hard punch, feels like a little paperweight hero.

It does not take long to realise that the level designs are monotonous and cause confusion due to their similarity. Although the different missions come with different enemies and environmental hazards, there is too much uniformity within each level.

There are weak attempts to make Fantastic Four feel like a more involved button masher, but everything is out of place.

The entire production value is also missing anything impressive; the character models and most objects have dreadfully rough edges and low texture resolutions.

The special effects are also minimal and not very well used - even the lighting effects are plain. I thought the Human Torch igniting himself would have me move my butt... alas it`s all made to look so uninteresting.

The voice actors include the same cast from the movie, which is sadly the only notable audio feature. The soundtrack isn`t inspiring and the sound effects are weak.

Both modes of the Fantastic Four (cooperative and a one-on-one arena mode) could use a lot of improvements. The cooperative mode allows a friend to join the adventure. What are the benefits of having two characters under human control anyway? Every once in a while a fancy two-player combination attack can be pulled-off, but for the most part, it is mindless button-mashing as usual. The arena mode is equally dull. Battles are far from enjoyable.

Fantastic Four is disappointing. With that title, there was potential for a top-notch game, filled with an assortment of lethal superpowers. It scores a tedious and dreary 3/10.