spawn armageddon is a DMC style action game that always interested me, i had a disc-only gamecube copy as a teen, one of the first games i ever got from a thrift store and i still have that copy, albiet it doesn't work super well and never did, i was never able to progress beyond the warehouse as i kept falling through the floor. a little while ago after seeing it mentioned i ended up picking up a ps2 copy just to really give it the time i wanted to, and i was happily surprised with how good it was! mostly anyway. the game itself plays really interestingly, it's a dmc clone but its one not based on melee combat, you only have one weapon with at most 4 moves to it, a jump stinger style attack, a different jump plunge, a backswing that can stun and your standard combo, the axe is not the games combat focal point, the guns are. i think this is super cool for an idea as it plays super differenly to almost any other game in the genre, bar maybe dirge and lady's sections in dmc4 and it does feel like an early rendition of both of these! you get a ton of guns too, your duel chains that work a little like your standard DMC pistols but with a very limited range, a shotgun thats actually somehow less effective than the chains, some pistols and machine guns, a rocket launcher, duel miniguns and even a few horrory weapons like the hellfire cannons and a BFG style charging inferno cannon. it all means you tend to play it very differently, focusing more on ranged and only using your blade when you need to, but i did find myself being more conservative with ammo and using the blade a lot, though the lack of moves for the blade did make it a little boring at times. you also have more than just combat, like platforming! the platforming is not very good though, it expects too much precision from you and is far too difficult especially in the, quite honestly bad, later levels and it does ruin some parts of the game, the grappling especially which only worked for me maybe 3/4 of the time and if i had a weapon equiped while doing it, the weapon would fire and waste ammo, but at least you have a cool cape when you glide, again very dirge to me :)

the story is a little basic but the cutscenes all look very cool, especially the opening and there's tons of recognisable voices in there to spot, they're presented super well too! the game looks great in general, it has a very DMC2 vibe with the gothic city atmosphere and soundtrack, there's even an infected tank boss too! i mean that as a complement too, ps2 cityscapes just hit different and dmc2 has a nearly unmatched atmosphere imo, it's one of my favourites (i like it more than 1 and 5 even) but spawn can kind of capture that vibe. there's a decent variety even in the city, streets, big money buildings, a park, an opera house and a bunch of other places like a dock and a warehouse, it gets good use out of the setting, you even go to both hell, which is the games low-point aesthetically and to an angel space station which looks super cool, though it's an awful maze level that's prone to freezing. the music is also pretty good, there's a lot of metal tracks that didnt do much for me and a marylin manson jumpscare in the credits, but the games more ambient tracks, like the first level theme that uses a sample i also remember capcom using a lot in deadrising.

the game has a good vibe to it overall, it's a certain brand of early 2Ks edge that's not overtly dark, it's charming! though i havent seen any of the movies or the comics so i don't know weather or not those are a bad kind of edgy. but the game is just adorable, spawn is like a grumpy angry dad that just wants to be done with it all and all the enemies and weapons are overly designed in a way that i think is kind of cute, i like it though there is a lot more blood compared to most games like this, it's probably the edgiest in terms of theming, one room even had actual gore which was wild to see! on the length side the game is pretty short, which is nice, it's a maybe two or three session game depending on how you feel, but you can maybe do it in one since it's only about 4 hours long, 3 if you're good, but there isn't much replayability, no unlockable characters or weapons sadly, just more difficulties and comic covers, which are still nice, though those last few sections were so difficult i cannot imagine myself replaying on hard or above.

the game would sadly recieve no sequels or continuations, even though the ending kind of leaves it open for the possability of one, spawn would show up in other games though, like soulcalibur 2 and mortal kombat 11 and had his other games on older systems like the dreamcast. the devs themselves (point of view) would go on to make some personal favourites of mine like freaky fliers and damnation, both of which you should check out for both good and bad reasons, damnation especially, sadly though they would seemingly stop making games after 2010's TNA impact, a wrestling game i have just no interest in. spawn was flawed but also just a really good, edgy time and i'd absolutely reccomend it to anyone looking for a DMC style action game that plays a little differently to other games on the market.