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Spawn Armageddon Review: By Nathan and Nick
Official Site

As a lot of people may know Spawn is already a decade old, unbelievable isn’t it? As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been one good video game based after this demon like character. In Spawn Armageddon, you are Spawn and the goal to the game is to pass certain objectives for Malebolgia. Malebolgia is in charge of the 7th level of hell, he is as close to pure evil as anyone you may encounter. The job of Malebolgia is to pick some human from earth who hasn’t lived an earnest live and then to make a deal with this being that he cannot refuse. The latest “human” Malebolgia has receive is “Spawn” (Mr. Simmons ). He makes a deal with him that Spawn can’t refuse. Spawn is now sent back to earth to fight for Malebolgia in the final battle.

There is a problem that lies in Spawns combo system. Spawn Armageddon allows you to get by with the same two attacks for the majority of the game. Which got old rather fast. Spawn doesn’t have much attack moves, which is really quite disappointing. Although he doesn’t have some pretty nice attacks there is just not enough. But the moves he can do are: use is trusty axe, his hell power attacks, his ever so popular chains, or just artillery. The axe is the most useful in the game, and why wouldn’t it be, it can dominate and slice his foes in two. The axe is used for any close up combat. The axe can also be used to do combos, the moves include an uppercut slash, a forward flip attack, and a jumping axe slam attack to make it more interesting. But now his chains on the other had are for more far away creatures. They don’t do a whole lot of damage but can reach the creature at a farther distance. His hell powers are basically his magic attacks and the meter by Spawns health bar is how much he has stored. The heavy artillery does the most damage they include a basic shotgun, a rocket launcher, and even a pair of dual-fisted miniguns, which come in handy.

Now as I aforementioned there are not enough attacks, they get pretty old relatively fast. Axe combat is pretty much the same combos over and over and over again. Which hurts the gameplay extensively. The hell power attacks are effective but difficult to aim accurately. The chains hardly do any damage, which makes the artillery the best to use in the game and how often you get that is not enough. As you can see they could have immensely improved on the attacks for spawn. Another thing is the enemies are really not that difficult, that’s why it was a good thing to have bosses.

Graphics The graphics are not one of the games strong points. The graphics are far from the Xbox’s potential. I would say they are about average, although Spawn’s character model looks pretty good, but the environments could use some more touch up work, more textures etc. The enemies also could look a little better, they are kind of flat looking; I don’t mean, “flat” literally, I mean they don’t have much texture and so forth. The blood that spews out of the enemy’s insides is a nice addition. The graphics do however look as how the comic books looked, such as the Spawn and the environments, so this is done well. When Spawn walks he seems stiff and non maneuverable. There are some nice animation work done with Spawn, but there are so few animations it makes the animations seem old. Spawn is rendered pretty good, and I definitely like his cape, when it comes popping out. The levels present an eerie appeal, which is good for the environment for Spawn. The cut-scene transition are very well done, it transfers nicely. It is good that Namco/Point of View made sure there was a wide screen option, this fares over well with wide screen TV owners.

The audio is great; there is nothing a gamer will find wrong with the music. Although it’s not to impressive. Goes great with the eerie levels etc. The sound effects are just average, nothing that special, their just blaa. The best sound effects are the kung fu type whooshes and such. The sound track is a little on the spooky side, which is a nice change. Although the HBO animated series was quite a bit better. The sound overall is sadly average. The soundtrack just doesn’t give that “Punch” to the game, although its not bad, but its not good ether.

Overall Overall Spawn Armageddon is an average game. This game will get most of the attention because of the comic books and so forth. Everybody likes Spawn right? Probably not, all like Spawn, but still who doesn’t like a cool looking evildoer. If you are against anything evil I would suggest you not play this game, but if you aren’t go for it, you will find yourself having hours of enjoyment.