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F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Review
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RRP: £24.99-£39.99
Out 15 June
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After disappointing efforts from other movie licence games this summer, such as the woeful Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, we didn’t have much hope for this tie-in. There’d be some fighting, a few flying levels for the Human Torch and pitiful stealth levels for The Invisible Woman, right? Well sort of. Admittedly there are stealth levels for Sue Storm and indeed you’ll have to take to the air as Johnny Storm, but there is a bit more oomph to Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer than we expected.
Playing out like X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, you have your team of Mr Fantastic, The Thing, The Human Torch and The Invisible Woman. They work together, each using their abilities to bash enemies and solve puzzles. You can switch between them using the d-pad or have up to four players all playing together. Anyone can join the game or drop out at any point. The characters have super moves and can combo with other team members using, for example, a stretch move of Mr Fantastic with a ground-pound of The Thing to create an earthquake-like move.
There are a few individual levels where each character gets to hog the limelight and this is where the more traditional gameplay comes in, with the stealth and flying levels used to fill out the story from the movie. They don’t work nearly as well as the team levels but it breaks up the action and provides a little variety, even if it is a bit plodding and obvious. You can also build up your characters’ stats and special powers between levels by assigning attribution points you’ve gained by smashing up crates.
Despite a complete lack of online play, the four player drop in/out element provides some fresh gameplay and overall there’s enough variety, good controls and smooth camera movement to make this a movie tie-in game that will satisfy both fans and gamers in general. Not quite fantastic, but it’s not four of out ten either. Let’s call it a seven.
7/10
Review by Kirsten Kearney
