Spawn: Armageddon review (PS2)

I can’t really make up my mind when it comes to Todd McFarlane’s comic book, Spawn. I love the artwork, that’s for sure, and I also really like the basic premise. Al Simmons, a government agent, gets executed by his own men, and Malebolgia (a master of hell) uses Simmons’ deep love for his wife to trick him into an agreement. Simmons is allowed to return to Earth – but things aren’t what they seemed to be, when he cut the deal. He is now a Hellspawn and Malegolgia wants to use him as a general in the coming war against Heaven. So far so good… However, when it comes to the comic books’ stories, I am not that captivated. Often they just aren’t as good as I had hoped they would be.

However, the basic premise is strong, and the artwork is fantastic. And that’s more than enough to make me look forward to a good Spawn game. So far we’ve only had bad and mediocre games like Spawn the Eternal and Spawn: In the Demon's Hand. However, Namco’s Spawn: Armageddon has finally reached Europe and my expectant PS2.

I'm a Soul Axe

Spawn's living chains are a powerful weapon.

The game’s basic story is of course that hell and Heaven are fighting each other, and Spawn gets drawn into the mess and ends up saving the day. Let’s keep it that simple - the story hasn’t got that big an influence on the gameplay anyway and we are by no means talking Max Payne style here (although that style would actually have been a good way for Namco to incorporate McFarlane’s artwork into the game). Actually Spawn Armageddon can be boiled down to two major elements: fighting and platforming.

Spawn has three sorts of attacks: melee, ranged and hell powers. Melee is handled via Spawn’s axe, Agony, that is actually a physical manifestation of Spawn’s own tormented soul. Don’t expect combos a la SoulCalibur II, as you actually have less than a handful of melee attacks available with a three-point axe attack as the highlight. There’s more variety in the ranged attacks as the game features eight weapons including Spawn’s living chains. Finally the hell powers work like magic in other games and provide Spawn with extra armour, bullet time, powerful beams and so on.

Jump, Spawn, jump

I bet Spawn didn't expect to end up on an Angel Space Station.

The game takes you through seven different environments, from the Warehouse District of New York to an Angel space station. Sadly the designers have not done a good job and most of the levels’ designs are either uninspired or downright confusing. They leave very little room for you to take the initiative and most of the time you move in one straight line dictated by the level design. That’s not the worst thing, though.

Within two or three missions it also becomes very apparent that the game relies heavily on platforming as you have to jump around an awful lot. Some of the most challenging parts in the game are the extremely long jumps you have to perform with perfect timing. I thought those kinds of obstacles were a thing of the past, but alas I was wrong.

Hell is repetition

You'll meet many familiar faces like the Violater.

I would much rather have seen real puzzles in the game in order to challenge Spawn with some of the mysteries and tricks that the comic books are full of. Maybe I could have forgiven the game its platform reliance if the fighting had been top-notch, but that’s not the case, either. At first it’s quite fun to run around as Spawn and kill hundreds of foes, but his limited moves never propel the game past ‘quite fun’ and in the end condemn the game to stay for an eternity in hell’s repetition level.

For some reason some game elements seem old-fashioned – like the fight against Violator (the first boss fight). Here you are up against a huge boss and yet you have to run on an elevated platform, which the boss slowly destroys making it more and more difficult for you to manoeuvre. While the Violator is very well animated and modelled, the fight reminds me of so many other boss fights in other games. It's not that it's a very bad thing, but a little more innovation wouldn’t have hurt Spawn at all.

Marilyn Manson meets Spawn

Spawn Armageddon is after all a decent game, which should please Spawn fans for awhile. But we want more...

Spawn: Armageddon is graphically very well done and Spawn looks as great as you might expect it on a PS2. Demons, monsters and other foes are for the most part very decent as well, but most levels are below average and only really make an impression when they turn really gory. Marilyn Manson’s ‘Use your Fist and Not Your Mouth’ is the highlight of Spawn: Armageddon’s audio repertoire, which is otherwise very anonymous. I couldn’t really find any bugs apart from the sluggish and at some points annoying camera system. It seems that the first game designer to create a really good third person camera is going to be heralded as a god in the gaming industry. Certainly that person hasn’t been working on this game.

The other irritating factor is the way you have to change weapons. It’s handled by the d-pad, and it’s nearly impossible to change weapons effectively in-fight because you have more than enough on your hands just trying to manoeuvre around and hit the enemies.

Despite all these factors Spawn Armageddon remains a quite decent game and will provide Spawn fans with the first enjoyable gaming experience so far. It’s sad that the game doesn’t use Todd McFarlane’s artwork more effectively, because a Max Payne approach to the story telling would definitely have resulted in a better score. Extras include comic book covers but the low resolution of TV’s prevents the covers from really being impressive.