Poor old Spawn. As a human he loved his darling Wanda so much that, when he was burnt alive during his day job as a government assassin, he made a pact with a demon to see her again. In short, he swapped a peaceful afterlife for a gig as one of Lucifer's tortured generals, and for what? Wanda had already shacked up with his best mate and was expecting a child. Cheers love.

Thankfully for action fans, by the start of this mildly entertaining hack and slashery spin on Todd McFarlane's grumpy comic-book creation, Spawn has quit moping about his room, has come to terms with his fickle ex and is well up for a bit of inter-demon argy bargy.

From a gameplay point of view this is very similar to Devil May Cry, right down to the demonic locks on doors, gun and blade weapon split and upgrade orbs. You traverse the demon-infested Rat City slicing meat puppets, bersekers and the like into gobbets of flesh. There are weapons to collect and upgrade, necroplasm to lob at enemies, as well as a defensive shield and, of course, Spawn's living cloak (perfect for gliding) and projectile chains.

It's gory fun for a while, but sadly the hack, slash, shoot, hack, slash, jump, shoot gets stale pretty quickly. There's no complexity to combos and the camera often becomes possessed just when you need to get a clear shot at a rampaging Violator. Frankly, for top underworld murderising you'd be better served by Devil May Cry or even Chaos Legion.

Graphics 50%
Decent enough but won't have you gasping

Sound 60%
Goth rock and lots of bloody squelching. Nice!

Gameplay 50%
Standard hacking fare with no fresh ideas

Lifespan
50%
Kill, proceed. Kill, proceed. Kill, proce... (Zzzz)

Overall 50%
While competent enough, Spawn Armageddon is an uninspired Devil May Cry clone. Stick with Dante's original outing, just £20 on Platinum