Spawn: Armageddon

After Namco signed Spawn up to be the bonus character in the Xbox version of Soul Calibur II they also made a deal to bring Spawn back to video games with Spawn: Armageddon. The game tells the story of a war between Angels and Hell and is based on the first 99 issues of the Spawn comic. Side stories featuring Spawn's nemesis Jason Wynn and a mysterious figure named Mammon also work their way into the story.

Even if you don't read the comics, anyone that's seen the movie knows exactly what Spawn is all about, the incredible amounts of firepower he has at his disposal. Naturally, Spawn carries around his massive cape, his axe and his chains. But in addition to the standards he has a whole arsenal of guns including pistols, shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, dual mini guns, and anti-demon artillery in the Brimstone Cannon and the Inferno Cannon. Spawn also has access to Hell Powers, which include a variety of mystical bombs, invulnerability, and a "Bullet Time" mode.

So with his arsenal, Spawn goes out into the world to fight the forces of Hell and Jason Wynn... and I end up less than impressed. Most of the game consists of the "clear all the enemies from the room and advance" type of play. And by advance I mean go through a door and wait for a new room to load. And even with all of his weapons, Spawn is a beat 'em up through and through. Your chains and your axe become the two most commonly used weapons because they don't run out of bullets before one enemy succumbs to them. It's even possible to stand very far from every enemy, switch to the lock-on, and wipe out a whole room with just your chains. Boring.

This is important because with the targeting lock on the camera will have a nasty tendency to wedge itself in a corner or slip behind a wall. And there's nothing more exciting than a brick wall. Other little control glitches abound including Spawn's supposed ability to jump, double jump, and then hover with his cape. The problem is that the jump button is very slow to respond and will often result in a single jump when you wanted a double or you'll hover when you're trying to just jump, basically anything but what you wanted to do. This is especially frustrating when you get to the Hell levels, which are one long jumping puzzle.

When not using the chains to take apart enemies left and right the game can be pretty fun. Shotgun, mini-guns and the Angel B. Good special (tm Kevin Smith) are just great. The Hell Powers are rather useless, especially the bullet time effect, but a nicely placed Hell Bomb is satisfying too. Sporadic fun with the combat obviously only happens sporadically, but it should still be noted.

The demon designs are also cause to stand up and take notice. Even your run of the mill monsters like the Flame Demon or the Whip Demon have plenty of detail and the appropriate "ick" factor for a game like Spawn. But the real coolness is in the bosses. The Spider Tank, the Bulldozer, and the Redeemer are all fantastic designs that prove that a big boss never goes out of style. The environments are also pretty varied with the basic rooftops and warehouses that populate Spawn's world, but also trips to Jason Wynn's offices, the subway, Heaven, and Hell. Nice job to Point of View on the graphics.

The sound isn't bad either. All of the voice actors from the HBO cartoon signed on for Armageddon, so you can be assured that the voice acting is top notch. Even though contrary to Namco's promises there's no real deep story here and Mammon's revealed secrets seem to be that he is like every other enigmatic Yoda figure. Or he's Hell's businessman, I can't decide. The point is, the voice acting and plot are pushed to the side. The sound effects are also pretty good. As I said, the weapon selection is pretty good and they all sound appropriately gun-like. Another good job. But there's no real background music to speak of, it just fades completely into nowhere and is a non-entity.

Spawn: Armageddon also inadvertently raises the question of how developers implement a part of a license that doesn't translate well to games. Spawn's chains are an important part of his arsenal and because of that they are very powerful. But the chains are proof that licensed games put limits needed for a video game on a character that doesn't have those limits in the original material. Spawn can only use his chains when a chain icon is on a ledge. The player should be able to use the chains to lift Spawn up to any ledge, because that's how they're supposed to work. But that would make the game too easy, so changes have to be made. In this case I think it's a change for the worse, but it leads to a very good discussion.