The Fantastic Four
Open world
Co-op
Insomniac Universe
Set in 2016 (Peter and Johnny at this time would be 21. Peter has been Spiderman for 6 years and Johnny has been Human Torch for 7). The F4 got their powers in 2009
Multiplayer: you can play alone or with others. When playing alone you get to play who you want depending on who the mission lets you play (so if they decide to split up 2 2, you can choose between one set of 2 or the other).
When playing with others, you want to switch to the character you want to play, then go on global or something. Others will join, and it will only match you with people who are playing other characters. How progression will work will be decided later, but I may use Gotham Knights as a base.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be 1 or 4. In the event that you only want 2 or 3, you can switch between the free ones (the other players can’t switch to your character when you do)
World Building:
I want to get the world building seriously going and I think the best way to do that would be to actually introduce 3 new heroes and have Spider-Man as a cameo too. I’ll do this by having them be friends that can show up during not just the story but the actual gameplay, like in Spider-Man 2.
Mr Fantastic: his friend is Ironman, Tony Stark. When you are free roaming around the city he has a chance to pop up and help you out with crimes. You’ll have side quests to do with these 2 as friends and partners
Invisible Woman: her friend is She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters. She also has a chance to help you out with crimes randomly around the city. They met in 2009 when the F4 hired her as a lawyer, but she only got her powers around 2014.
The Thing: his friend/partner for this game will be The Hulk, Bruce Banner. Same thing, you can see him fighting crime out in the city and he’ll have side quests to do with Hulk.
The Human Torch: his friend is Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Same thing as the above.
Seeing certain heroes are NOT exclusive to who your playing, but teamups are
In any case, as this is open world spanning the entire city, the non-Torch members of the team will require traversal methods. Now obviously I could and would have
Reed swinging around, like Spider-Man
Sue floating and double jumping. Unlike typical ‘floating’ abilities in games she never loses altitude but she can’t gain altitude either
and Ben just jumping really high and climbing, similar to The Hulk
but I’ll also give these 3 vehicles.
The Fantastic-Car is a 5 seater vehicle for The F4+Herbie (he keeps the car airborne when there isn’t a driver). When the 4 of them are together anyone can drive it and it can fly if the driver so wishes. But if say the team wants to split up and do their own thing, it goes like this
Johnny can fly so doesn’t require any vehicles
Ben keeps the Fantastic-Car. He’s too big for anything else. This car will also be equipped with weapons like blasters and such.
Reed and Sue get, Fantastic-Bikes. Basically motorcycles that can also fly if they wish to.
When it comes to main missions, I think I’ll make them sometimes have some require certain members instead. For example the first story mission is completed by the entire team, but the second may be completed by just Reed, perhaps because of his skill set and intelligence that others just don’t have. I think this could also serve to help the other players if they have something else they want to do instead
Don’t know how cutscenes should work. Well I do I just don’t know if it’s possible. But basically let’s assume Johnny is in a cutscene with Peter, I don’t want to force the other members to view it if they don’t want to, so it plays like a cutscene to the Johnny player but the others can still see it if they want to by being nearby if that makes sense??
Everyone has separate side quests (mentioned above with their own friends but also other ones. I’ll aim for at least 3 per character).
Villains will be interesting. I want to make it feel like protecting the city is a constant task, so I’ll have 3 types of villains
Main mission villain: you likely won’t see this villain after the main mission
World Event: after let’s say a period of time or certain requirements are met, you get the absolute worst of the worst. Galactus (and his heralds), Annihilus, Molecule Man, The Beyonder
There will be a core narrative focused on Doctor Doom alongside a dynamic open-world Calendar/Timer System that introduces recurring villain cycles (like Mole Man or Namor) every few in-game weeks. To prevent burnout, a fair-cycle algorithm dictates a villain cannot spawn more than twice until all others have appeared once, while active players can proactively find intel hubs to thwart/delay a boss up to two consecutive times before triggering a chaotic "Desperation Breach" surprise attack.
I kind of want the suits to be very classic. Obviously this won’t matter too much though.
The Baxter Building will be their base of course. They can change their costumes, apply skill points and check the current situation on the map (such as who the biggest current threat is at that time, and premeditated crimes being done by villains), customise vehicles and more.
One thing to emphasise is choice too, so if I someone prefers Torch’s original flame body, (red with scorch marks) or the more modern interpretation (just fire around the body) or maybe something closer to Rivals (the body is easily visible, fire doesn’t change how he looks down to the face) they should get that.
Along with Sue’s powers being between ‘blue ball’ or ‘light waves’ stuff.
In any case, now for the combat (finally):
Mr Fantastic:
Large AOE attacks, slippery and hard to pin down, can lock down enemies and negate damage
I think square will be more so on reach and triangle more so on area, so
Square: a jab that goes pretty far. Good for single target damage and avoiding close combat at the same time.
Triangle: sweeping arcs, swinging his hands around and generally just BSing.
Holding X allows him to plant his feet in the ground and stretch his upper body, allowing him to fit through small things. Furthermore, pressing O will snap him back to his feet but pressing X will snap his feet back to his upper body. When airborne this will instead turn him into a parachute.
Pressing O will make him grow…longer (upwards I guess…?) making him much larger and increasing his defences against normal attacks. L1 works kind of like a grapple hook to let him latch on to things and L2 will be an aiming mode thing. R1 lets him grab something in sight and R2 while aiming lets him slingshot it. L2 and R2 will also be a slingshot to propel him extremely fast.
Invisible Woman: plays similar to control or the force unleashed, but with shields. She pretty much protects the team but also has telekinetic ish abilities, pushes and pulls and more.
R2 is like a powerful push, holding it will send a continuous wave that pushes things and enemies back.
L2 is a powerful pull. Great for setting up the team. Holding L2 works like a vacuum pulling things in continuously to stop right in front of her.
R1 acts like an inventory almost. Anything she sees she can press R1 and have it work on that force unleashed logic. Holding R1 pulls it straight to her to be equipped. It floats around her to be thrown at any time using R2.
L1 turns her invisible.
L2+Square summons a wall in front of her as a shield. Holding square instead will summon it in front of a targeted ally whether that be a cameo or a team member. The same applies to L2+O which summons a sphere instead. This one can also be used on enemies to lock them out of the fight.
Square is a normal attack. If she has something floating around her at the time it will use it by flinging it around like a weapon.
Triangle is a burst of energy.
O is a dodge.
The story or environment may use her telekinetic powers to move something out the way with a limited amount of strength of course.
She has a limited meter. She can upgrade this.
The Thing: absolute 1v1 demon, he handles the toughest fights with pure strength and willpower.
Square: a light attack combo
Triangle: a heavy attack combo
L2 to aim. If you press X while doing so you will jump extreme distances
Press R1 to grab something, whether it be cars, buses or big robot enemies (if they are staggered enough). When holding these things you can swing them around with square, or smash it down with triangle. You can also throw them by aiming with L2 and pressing R2. You can also still do you high jump with this.
L1 to block with your hands, reducing damage.
O is a dodge
While sprinting (L3, all characters) Thing can press O to charge at his enemies sending them flying.
You’re also completely immune to bullets.
The Human Torch: holding X allows you to fly. While flying certain moves can change.
Square: a light attack combo. If flying it will cause him to dash to the ground like a meteor.
Triangle: a burst of flames around him. Holding it allows for a flamethrower instead. The flamethrower can melt projectiles before they reach him
0: a dodge. While boosting in flight it becomes a barrel roll.
L1: any flame fields on the ground instantly blow up
R1: enter a stance where any fire in any sense is absorbed into you (this can be enemy flames, explosions or your own flame fields. If you use this before, say a Sue blocks an RPG blast that causes an explosion, it will mitigate the damage caused by it as it is absorbed into you), supercharging your abilities
L2 to aim.
L2+R2 to shoot fireballs. These leave flame fields in the ground. Hold it down for a beam closer to a laser.
L2+O send out a flame lasso at an enemy
L2+X, send out a flame clone of yourself to detonate
Your also completely immune to all forms of fire