Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer Reviews

Probably the least rewarding game I've played on Xbox.

Power up The Thing + (RB + X) = smash everything = game over.

Graphics - yes, it's got some.

Sound - yes, it's got that too, but for some reason Invisible Woman has to bark like a dog everytime she jumps.

Gameplay is standard 3rd person-fare, and that's being over generous. Most levels can be completed by running past enemies to the next checkpoint. To add variety each character has their own mini-level. Human Touch handles like a burning log, Mr Fantastic really isn't, and Invisivble Woman's stealth level is a turd. No surprises then that Thing's level is a 10 min RB+X smashfest.

Get a guide, collect coins and Doom-somethings on your first playthrough. Rinse Military Base Act 1 for coins to upgrade all the characters. Then RB + X your way through the whole game on the "hardest" setting in 3 hours for the Fantastic achievement.

For me it's more of a stain on my gamercard than Jumper. I feel dirty.

Seriously boring, and about as challenging as serving Big Mac and fries.

Normally I would not review a game like this, but because this game
has the option to get an easy (but annoying) 1000G i will.
So if you really want to play this game for the 1000G then i will
recommend you to read this review prepare yourself for this game or
even to reconsider your thoughts about playing this game.

Story
There isn't much to tell about the story just that it is based on the
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. The big minus on this one
is that it is almost required to watch the movie in order to know about
who they are talking. For example: in some parts, the game suggests
that you use Ben's power to open a hallway. Okay nice but who the
F is Ben? You'll get no clues about the character you should use.
You will need to find out yourself who Ben or any character is.
Sometimes if you are lucky you will get a (small) hint about your
objective, but most of the time you will find yourself in a very
frustrating situation where you just can't figure out what you have to-do
to get any further in the game/story. The game is also VERY
repetitive, Almost every level has the same objective. The only difference
about these levels is the environment and how the enemy looks, the
objective/goal is exactly the same in almost every level.

The only levels that have vaiarity compared to the other levels, are the
ones where you have to play with one character instead of all four of them.
These levels are created in a way where only this character can find/fights
his or her way through. But the downside of these levels is (again), that
you get (almost) no directions towards the level completion.

Some of the levels are created in a Tomb Raider kind of puzzle way,
where Tomb Raider gave you hints about completing the puzzle, is where
F4: ROTSS completely abandons you and lets you figure it out all by
yourself. (Yes even the well known light-beam puzzle from Tomb Raider
is included in Rise of the Silver Surfer).

Gameplay/Audio/Graphics
All these three together are just very bad and oldskool, i know this is
and old game now these days, but even for a game from his own era this
is a very low quality game. This is a game that barely meets the release
requirements for a retail game is you ask me. Also in the audio effects
there is no vaiarity. For example in a specific part of the game you will
need to 'fly' trough a train tunnel and you will encounter a couple of
trains on your way trough this tunnel. The sound of these trains are
exactly the same (from all of them). It just sounds like you open a
.wav of .mp3 file from 3 seconds with your Media Player and keep
pressing the play button every 4 seconds. I can tell you that this
is very annoying. If you look at the graphics of the game, then you
should say it was taken from a game developed in the late 1990 or early 2000.
Even the game-play can't get any worse than this, because in some
parts a enemy will shoot or punch you, but when this happens you will
be knocked over. When you get knocked over you will end up in a locked
animation where your character will get up, when this animation runs
you got the chance by getting shot/punched again, causing the animation
to run from the start again. While this animation occurs you got no
control over your character. So when you end up in this loop of
shot-knockedover-shot-knockedover-shot.. etc you can only "enjoy"
watching your character die. This at its self is already frustrating,
but wait it gets worse: The checkpoint system is so bad that when
you got a little bit of bad luck (what also happens alot in this game)
you will need to replay the entire level when you die.

Multiplayer
OMG Yes this game has multiplayer, but don't get to excited because
this is only a Local Multiplayer, you can complete the game in co-op
with 2 to 4 player. But this mode contains a really terrible camera system.
I have to admit i did not use a second GamerTag to test the co-op mode
but used a guest sign in. So i don't know if the other players also
receive achievements when playing in co-op. The others here thought
the game was to terrible to have it listed in their gameslist. I also have
to admit, if i knew that this game was so terrible, i would not have
played it.

Achievements
The achievements of this game are definitely a 1000 out of 1000, but
these are a real pain in the ass. It is not the game difficultly that makes
it a big pain in this ass, because the game it self isn't that difficult at all.
It is just repeating gameplay, annoying sound effects, bad graphics and
no hints or objectives displayed that makes it a real frustration to play this
game. But if you have allot of patience and a real addiction to Gamerscore
then i would say play this game. If you're looking for a nice game that
you could also max-out to 1000G then i would recommend to look for
a other game.

Conclusion:
I have to admit i had to wait an entire day to write a review after playing
this game, just because the irritation level of this game freaked me out
so much that writing a review would end up in a bunch of trashtalking.
I Don't give up on game quick, but i only need four achievements for
this game now. These are the collectible achievements and the
achievement to play it on Fantastic(Hard) Difficulty.
Normally i don't give up on collectibles either, just to make an statement
i Shot all Pigeons and did all stunt jumps in GTA IV, found every wanted
poster and playboy in Maffia II, got all collectible types in The Godfather II
etc. But this game is so bad that i had enough for now and don't even
want to complete it any more. Maybe in a faraway future when i need
a couple of G's to complete a new milestone, maybe then i will put
this game in again. But for now i really had enough of this game and
don't want to play it again. And what i typed earlier in this review:
if i knew this game this bad, then i would have never started it.
This is by far the worst game i've ever seen.

After picking up this game in the bargin bin for $5, I came home and read these other 2 reviews and was discouraged to say the least. But after completing this game on normal & hard. I can honestly say these reviews do not do it justice. While this game is not great, it is certainly not the worst game you will ever play.

If have played Ultimate Alliance 1 or 2, you will find the gameplay similar. Frequently switching characters and upgrading base abilities and one or two powers will make the combat of this game pretty easy. If you use the guides on TA to get the doombots & 4 symbols (thus unlocking the ultimate suits), even your Fantastic playthrough will be fairly simple.

The Cons:
Graphics are not great.
Story is not great.
Some puzzle areas can be a bit confusing and frustrating (but hints and puzzle repetition counters this to an extent).
Gameplay is a bit repetitive throughout the game.

The Pros:
Easy 1000GS with relatively few collectibles compared to other games.
Fun game to coop with a younger player.
Character upgrades make combat quite easy, even on hard difficulty.
Character regen is fast, making survivabilty fairly simple - you will only have to replay levels to boost your stats or find collectibles.

Personally I like to hit the bargin bin during the summer and catch up on some games that dont require a whole lot of effort. This game is just that. Bottom line is that this is a good game for an easy 1000 GS, and if you don't expect a whole lot and just want some laid back smashing of bad guys (not to mention if you are fan of Marvel, the FF, or superhero genre in general), then this game is for you.

Having played quite a few movie titles before, (Enter the Matrix, Blade etc). Some of them were amazing, but most were horrible disappointments, so I understandably went into this game with very low expectations.

I would love to say that I was surprised and Fantastic Four turned out to be the best thing since sliced bread. However, unfortunately I would be lying. For this game was painfully below average.


First up a very quick summary of the story-line for those of us who haven’t seen the film. The Silver Surfer has come to earth as a herald for our planets destruction, he is soaking the world in cosmic energy to allow Galactus (the devourer of worlds) to come forth and munch up our planet.

It’s now up to you and the rest of the Fantastic Four to stop him and save the day…


Throughout most of the campaign you will play as one of the members of the Fantastic Four. You can choose between The Thing, The Human Torch, Invisible Woman or Mr fantastic. If you wanted to, you could also bring in up to three buddies to play with you as the game is local co-op, all players share the same screen so like all similar games it’s a confusing mess. It isn't something I’d subject my friends to, but then I like my friends.

The actual levels where you are part of the team are really, really poorly designed and very linear even though you do require to use all characters at least once in the game, throughout you’ll regularly get a feeling of deja’vu. It has a very simple pattern, the more you play the more you’ll begin to notice it. Cutscene, go through a door, fight hordes of exactly the same looking bad guys, activate a button(s), activate an elevator(s), move on, more cutscenes, rinse and repeat until you get to a sub-boss or mini-game, kill him or fumble through and return to the previous formula.

There are also a few flying mini-game sections which I would assume were put in to break up the monotony of the elevator formula. but these are somehow far, far more tedious than even that. You play as Johnny and spend up to ten minutes flying through exactly the same two sections of tunnel over and over again until you have finally caught up with whatever you’re chasing.

The final type of section happens once for each character (with the exception of johnny, who has the mini-games.) You have to solo for a few minutes. The characters end up being pitched against enemies that they are entirely ineffective against and will knock you flat and stamp on you, pretty much taking all of your life away.

The game play is really underwhelming, it’s almost impossible to die even on fantastic difficulty as your characters will revive themselves within a few seconds, rendering the difficulties useless (unless in solo section). Although If you do die as your main, just move to a different one and go hide until he’s back.

Everyone except Ben is pretty much useless, the handful of powers that actually seem useful are rendered useless because of the horrific aiming system. Playing as Ben however will make you almost invincible as almost nothing except the bosses can actually hope to knock him down. The higher up his levels go the less skill required to play. Why use skill when button bashing works so much better?

The boss fights themselves are pointless, they feel more like puzzles than actual battles. you go in expecting a epic battle versus a supervillian and end up having to arrange lasers. Not quite what I had in mind when I picked up an superhero game.

The graphics aren't spectacular although they aren't awful. They are pretty much average. Though as the cut-scenes load up you’ll quite often see the details slowly appear on the character.

The game actually has collectibles and extras which are made nigh on impossible to locate because of the repeating backgrounds, Every level seems to just be the same one or two screens looped over and over and over and over and over. They also feel as though they were added as an afterthought since most are directly in the open.

The extra’s add some cool concept art and the ability to watch the cutscenes again but nothing too special.

The achievements for this game are pretty easy to obtain and most will unlock within the first playthrough, though you will have to go twice if you want to get 1000G. And once you've done them it really doesn't feel as if you've achieved anything.


However on the plus side, lest this become just one long compliant. the controls are relatively simple to work with and master. The powers are varied albeit they’re a bit lacklustre. The cutscenes are fairly well animated and contain a lot of the same humour as the films, though that’s probably because they are ripped straight from the films. the game loads quite quickly so you’ll have no issue getting into the "action", and experience was plentiful so the characters will rise in level pretty quickly.


To summarize.
This game is a rather poor movie tie-in which plays much like Marvel Ultimate Alliance except with a lot less variety and fun. It does require previous (albeit minimal) knowledge of the Fantastic Four as it will often give you a name but never show you which character to select. There are much better comic book games out there (the Punisher for PS2 springs to mind). Depending on what you’re playing it for depends on if it’s worth it. If you’re looking for quick easy gamerscore then go for it. if you’re looking for a fun co-op to waste an afternoon with your friends, don’t bother. Even though at this point it's dirt cheap, it's still barely worth it. It really does belong where I found it; the bargain bin or for that matter any bin.