StridentUK

Everyone knows that movie licence games are usually pretty awful. It’s been the same since developers first took inspiration from films in the 1980s. For every gem like the original Ghostbusters there were hoards of titles of the same standard as ET.

At least these days, thanks to the availability of playable demos and advance reviews, it shouldn’t be possible for any Internet savvy games player to accidentally stumble into a store and randomly buy a title just because they enjoyed the film on which it is based.

I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for when I bought Iron Man. I had played the demo on Xbox Live. I had read some of the previews. However, the offer price was good and, as a fan of superhero games, I thought I’d probably get enough enjoyment from it to justify the purchase. And I did. Just about. I think.

Let’s be honest. You don’t get a lot for your money. There are 13 missions of varying length, several of which use the same map. There are five “defeat X amount of enemies” challenge modes. These also use the same maps as the missions. You can unlock different Iron Man armour by completing the challenges but you can’t use this equipment in the main game until your second play through. I think I “finished” the game in 6-8 hours.

So, it’s not the biggest of games. What about the quality?

There’s not much quality in the truly awful cut scenes. The developers should be applauded for getting some of the film cast to reprise their roles but their average delivery is made worse by poor, wooden animation. The choice of content is a little strange. The cut scenes don’t really explain enough of the story for those, like me, who haven’t seen the film. Although the game is meant to expand on the movie by including other villains from the Iron Man universe, you really aren’t getting any foes with the same sort of star power as those included, say for example, in a Spiderman title.

The game is a bit of a mess really. This is a shame as there are some really nice touches. Once you get the hang of controlling your suited hero you actually feel pretty powerful swooping around the map taking out enemies. Unfortunately, getting to that stage took me about half of the game. I found that when I inverted the y axis it became a lot more natural switching from hover to flight mode.

What is also nice about the game are the different ways that you can choose to fight. You have multiple weapons at your command. You can choose to attack from the air or on the ground. Enemies can be grappled and, on occasions, you can even use their own firepower against them. Your Iron Man armour can be customised to match your playing style. I did notice that I ran out of additional upgrade options pretty early on, despite the fact I will still earning cash. Perhaps more would unlock playing on a higher level or during a second play through?

Achievements are certainly fairly easy to obtain. I make no secret of the fact that I played through on easy. Even with leaving some of the trickier objectives I picked up 690 points, that’s 32 of 39 achievements. Anyone looking to boost their Gamerscore might find it a worthwhile purchase just because of that. There is quite a lot that will put people off getting the game though.

One of the main problems with Iron Man is that often feel so far removed from the action. The game is a lot better when you’re fighting up close and personal, punching, grappling the enemy and running along the ground. Most of the time, though, you won’t even be able to properly see the enemy. You’ll be flying hundreds of meters away watching the, admittedly impressive explosions. You even end up fighting many of the game’s bosses from a great distance.

The missions are really quite samey. You fly and have access to the same sort of powers in all but one of them. All of them are outdoor. The maps are certainly large, rarely does it feel like you are bouncing off an invisible wall because you’ve strayed out of the mission zone. Perhaps the addition of some smaller, confined maps might have added a bit of variety. Even an indoor section, where your powers were limited due to plot reasons, might have broken it up a little.

Iron Man, as a character, deserves better than this game. The difficult controls and the poor value will put most people off. As it stands though, this game is okay as a throwaway cheap thrill. If you are a diehard comic book fan it’s one to rent or pick up from the bargain bin. Anyone else would be better off getting their Iron Man kicks from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Tags: Iron Man

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