Iron Man is a very mixed bag.
Some of the features are wonderful.
Some are very bad.
And sadly, when you look at all this game offers, most fall into the later category. Iron Man has a lot of good stuff going for it, but can’t escape the movie game stereotype. It’s just not much fun, other then as a small joy for Iron Man fans.
Iron Man is full of high points. Chief among those is the main character himself. Tony Stark and his metal-clad alter ego have been stuck as side characters for most of comics book games history, and never had the limelight. That may be for good reason. Being a very complex, only semi-action oriented character doesn’t lend itself terribly well to the thrill-oriented world of video games.
One thing the game nails is the tech behind the suit. You will get a whole swath of upgrades to toy around and switch out to adapt to your play style. You’ll be upgrading the repulsors (main weapons), Power Core (energy efficiency), and secondary weapons, as well as a few other things. Hit and run tactics? Switch to faster thrusters and speedy repulsors, and zip around the battlefield like a missile. Or if you wanna pack a little more power, go for some heavy defenses and mini grenades. Add to this a half dozen unlockable classic armors, and you have all kinds of options to play around with. I was just a little sad to not be able to use unlocked armors until I beat the game.
You’ll get about a dozen missions, including some that take from the movie, and a few extras against a few classic foes from the comics. Some additions will have you squaring off against Whiplash and Titanium Man. These missions feel a bit outta place if you’re looking for more action revolving around the movie, but on the other hand you don’t want an hour and a half game. Along with the unlockable armors, these missions serve as nice bits of fan service and nods to the character’s comic heritage.
Along with the general tech, the way the suit works is wonderful. The flight does feel a bit touchy, and has a little learning curve, but feels very natural in a very short time. Kicking in the afterburners and rocketing across a desert landscape has a nice sense of speed. The areas you’re zipping around look good and are pretty varied, even if they all are home to some kinda military base you have to attack. A few areas stand out as highlights?most notably a battle over the ocean that has you flying around to attack different points on an enormous flying fortress.
The first big issue that pops up is what you’re doing in these nice, big levels, which is to say, not much. Every level unfolds the exact same way: Go to this location, blow up the marked objectives repeat, a lot. You’ll encounter huge swaths of respawning enemies with amazing accuracy and outlandish fire power. Sure you can catch a missile but that dose no good when a cluster of 15 comes screaming at you. On higher difficulty settings, running into a fight can result in almost instant death. You’ll have all the abilities of the Starktech suit at your fingertips, but more often then not you will settle into a pattern of hovering around a target in circles, holding down a trigger to fire and dodging behind some cover to regain health.
Even thought the producers went the extra length to get 3 of the film’s stars (Terrance Howard, Shaun Toub and Robert Downey Jr.) to do voice-over work, all their performances fall flat, and come across as bland and phoned in. The presentation fails at almost every point. Cutscenes look drab and the characters look downright ugly. However, the menus do a fine job of expressing the technological feeling of the suit without being overly complex.
In the end it’s definitely for comic fans or someone looking to kill a little time. It really doesn’t do much to expand the film in any way. It does do a bit more then a typical movie licensed superhero game does, but in the end it’s still not enough to make it a very compelling game. To many issues leave Iron Man covered in rust.
+ Great upgrade system
+ Good unlocks
+ Flight feels good with a little practice
- Ugly Cutscenes
- Overpowered enemies prove frustrating
- Frequent respawning enemies
Grade: D+