REVIEW: Iron Man 2
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Posted in Reviews by Jim Plachy
The first Iron Man movie-game was an absolute, unplayable disaster. I should know, I tried to stomach it and couldn’t get past the second mission. The controls were broken, and it was hard just to tell where enemy fire was coming from, let alone how to attack back. The good news is that these two problems were fixed; the bad news is that almost everything else sucks.
Let’s start with the game’s story, which doesn’t try to follow the plot of the movie. Anyone who played last year’s stellar Wolverine game knows that not following a movie’s storyline can definitely help a movie tie-in game. I had high hopes for the story especially after finding out it was being written by current Iron Man comic book writer Matt Fraction. To be completely honest, the story isn’t actually that bad. Tony Stark’s computer assistant JARVIS is copied and uploaded into a massive suit of armor called ULTIMO who of course must be destroyed. What really drags the story down though is the terrible dialogue at every turn. The game stars Iron Man, War Machine and Nick Fury, and Fury must ALWAYS talk in as much military jargon as possible. So he constantly says things like “you’re danger close” and “that’s a direct order soldier!” You eventually roll your eyes anytime it happens. Meanwhile, Tony Stark/Iron Man is like a hyper-concentrated version of Robert Downey Jr’s version of Iron Man. He speaks almost exclusively in one-liners. The dialogue got so irritating that I had totally checked out by the end of the game.
In the end, you no longer care about the story or why you are even in certain locations. All you care about is getting to the final fight with ULTIMO. The only other boss fights in the game are with these battle platforms. Think of platforms with four legs, surrounded by missile launchers that come in both big and little sizes. Other than that, you’ll fight one other named Marvel comics character, but I’ll let that one be a surprise should you dare to play the game.
For the most part, the game lets you choose to play as Iron Man or War Machine. Except for a couple of missions that force you to play as Iron Man. The good news is they play almost exactly the same. The only real difference is that Iron Man uses energy weapons, and War Machine uses bullets. Lots and lots of bullets. As I said before, controls are definitely improved over the previous game, but they do make some new mistakes. Iron Man can fly and hover, and in the first game, switching between the modes was a pain in the ass. In Iron Man 2, the controls have been simplified, and Iron Man is much easier to control. So where did they go wrong? Targeting. As the characters dance around each other during melee combat, the camera will try to snap to the enemy you are targeting, and more often than not, it will completely lose track of you. If you get attacked by more than one enemy, you will most likely die.
When we took part in a Q&A with the developers last month, they were really excited about the customization part of the game. The idea is quite simple. You earn points at the end of every level, and those points can then be used to create improved weapons, new ammo types, new melee types, and even improvements to the armor. It would be a lot of fun if it weren’t so cumbersome, the menus take multiple sessions for you to figure out. The points system is also a mess and seems arbitrary. When you finish a mission, you have no idea how you earned the points. You also seem to conveniently get enough points to make all the upgrades you want as you progress through the game.
Graphically the game does alright. Scenery and backgrounds look good. The controllable Iron Man and War Machine models look great, but the in-game cut scenes are horrendous. Humans look terrible, especially the female ones who just look like men with breasts and long hair. It’s pretty laughable. There’s some pretty noticeable screen tearing, as well as lots of bad collision detection between characters.
Iron Man deserves a great video game, and unfortunately, he now has two strikes against him. One of the signs of a great licensed game is that it makes me feel like the character, and I never felt like War Machine or Iron Man. The missions are short and unsatisfying, and the targeting system is a mess. Melee combat is clumsy and awkward, and the game’s finale is beyond underwhelming. Charging $60 for this game is a crime, as I can’t think of a single reason for you to own it. In fact, I don’t know why you would even play it. Rent it if you must play an Iron Man game, but I say you shouldn’t even bother with Iron Man 2.
PROS:
Improved controls over the first Iron man game
CONS:
Terrible mission structure
Wonky targeting and camera
Feels rushed to tie in with the movie
Final Verdict: Don’t Bother
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http://fourplayercoop.com/news/2010/12/11/thor-coming-may-3rd-vgas/ Thor Coming May 3rd [VGAs] | Four Player Co-Op