Spawn Preview

Todd McFarlane's Spawn really can't catch a break. The tortured antihero has arguably the most messed-up origin for a modern hero to date. For those unfamiliar with Spawn's roots, the angst-ridden one was once a soldier/assassin (depending on his mission) named Al Simmons who met with an untimely end at the hands of his own men. However, thanks to the surprisingly accommodating powers of darkness, Simmons was reborn as Spawn, a creature gifted with superhuman strength and mystic powers whose role is to serve the forces of evil. Unfortunately, Spawn chose to go against the grain and fight against the forces of evil, becoming an unlikely warrior in the fight for good and generally ticking off the demon world. As a result, Spawn leads a tortured existence that finds him shunned by demons and not exactly welcomed back to his old life, due to his unsightly appearance. To add to all the aforementioned trauma, he's had to star in some sketchy games over the years. An uninspired side scroller on the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Color, a poor 3D adventure on the PlayStation, and a gorgeous but uncontrollable third-person shooter on the Dreamcast did little to capture the character's appeal. Granted, the titles certainly nailed the feeling of a living hell, but they weren't very fun. Fortunately, it looks like 2003 may finally see things take a positive turn for the hero, thanks to Namco and developer Point of View. The duo is working with McFarlane on a multiplatform 3D action title that could be the best Spawn game to date. We recently had a chance to check in on the game, which met with a rather lackluster reception at E3, to see how it's coming along.

The game's story presents a mystery for Spawn to solve. The game opens with the antihero going about the business of fighting evil. However, in the course of his daily routine, the hellacious one stumbles onto a plot by the angels to wipe out hell. While this sounds pretty good on paper, there's one hitch--the earth will be destroyed in the process. Discovering the specifics of the plot and preventing the earth's destruction are Spawn's main goals in the game, which will be spread out over roughly 30 missions. Uncovering the mystery and stopping those involved will require you to travel to six major locations, some of which should be familiar to fans of the series, and lead to encounters with friends and foes, some taken from the comic book, and others created for the game.

The gameplay in Spawn borrows liberally from Capcom's first Devil May Cry and casts him as spry, gun-toting, axe-wielding, spellcasting action hero. While the work-in-progress build shown at E3 came across as derivative, the team is working to ensure that the game takes better advantage of its license. Spawn's core abilities will be fairly straightforward. You'll move around, lock on to your enemies, and perform combos by alternating between your guns and your axe. You'll have three varieties of jumps--a normal jump, a regular jump, and a wall jump. In addition, you'll be able to glide at the top of a jump. You'll also be able to use Spawn's chains as grappling hooks to reach new areas. Besides Spawn's physical attacks, you'll have access to spells such as a destructive necroplasm ball or a time spell that triggers a bullet-time effect.