Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Everyone loves movie tie-in games, let’s face it. We know that 90% of the games will disappoint and yet will still buy. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer is based on the recent Hollywood movie of the comic book characters. Before we get too far in the review you should know its not on PC. Why review it then you ask? Simple, it really should be and if you have a console it’s enjoyable. For this review we played the game on 360.  Out on every format you can think of but PC, the title is heavily reminiscent of the recent Marvel Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends games. In the game, you play as the four members of the Fantastic Four fighting their way though the sequel movie’s plot and against comic characters. When playing, the game takes a third person brawler style identical to X-Men Legends with the same controls for the most part too. This is not a bad thing as the controls are simple to use and effective. Mission locations are varied and include not just team missions but ones which require you to play solo as a single character completing objectives. Each solo mission is set to use the characters unique abilities like Sue Storm’s Invisible Woman playing through missions requiring stealth and the Human Torch flying, chasing the Silver Surfer.  Combat is simple and button mashing for the most part. Apart from the solo missions, you could play through most of the game without needing to change character unless you want to. Combo attacks are also in use and work well. The only problem with Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer is that when playing through the game, you gain xp to upgrade or ?level up? your characters. The problem is at the highest level the main powers of the F4 are time limited, even though in the movies there is no time limit. It’s so bad that at the highest level the Invisible Woman can only be invisible for about 10-15 seconds a time. This, plus the game’s quick completion time are the only downsides to a very enjoyable title. One good thing is the up to 4 player co-op although it’s only on the same console and not online. As one of the movie to game tie-ins of the year, so far it’s the best one of 2007 and well worth trying. Which may not say much it does make it worth merit in any bargain bin for the future.