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XBOX 360: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Players that previously played the Xmen game or Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox 360 are going to feel at home playing Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Of course they may also feel very bored, or feel shorted (cheated) on the game play when they play through the game in just a few nites (or just a few hours for some gamers).
The game looks and plays a lot like these earlier mentioned games. So much so that anyone that has played the earlier games will find the game over almost as quickly as they started. Or at least that will be the case if they are at all skilled in button mashing, and/or button mashing tied with trigger pulling.
On the plus side there are more enemies and more combatants in the game than the movie that the game takes its name from. That does seem strange, but it is a fact that including a few cartoon/comic type characters in a video game is much easier than putting those characters into a movie, especially if the movie will end sometime within a reasonable period of time. (As opposed to a movie like Spiderman 3 that just seemed to keep going, and going, and going....)
On the down side, the actions required to beat the enemies in this video game are repetitive. Very repetitive, and eventually quite boring if you are hoping for any sort of long term gaming value.
Ooops, did I mention long term gaming value? I really shouldn't have because the sad fact is that there really won't be much long term value in the game, if any at all. The game plays through a fairly linear story line, and though you can unlock extras and bonus content along the way, there is one story, one ending, and only so many ways to get there.
The graphics are reasonable, but not overly impressive. Sound effects are the typical booms, bangs, oohs and ahs. The voice work is reasonable, with the characters sounding close enough to those in the movie, but again nothing really to stand out in this game when compared to others that are available.
Worth a rental: yes. Worth a purchase? Sorry, but I'd say save your money and give just a small portion to your favorite gaming rental store/business.
