Iron Man (Xbox 360)
By MikeD (11th May 2008)“Iron Man: the official videogame of the movie” hit the game-stores with a soft, wet, thud on May 2.
“Iron Man: the official videogame of the movie” hit the game-stores with a soft, wet, thud on May 2. Given the long awaited arrival of GTA IV, just three days earlier, it’s not surprising that Iron Man didn’t really cause much of a stir upon its release. I’d like to say it’s a shame that the anti-terrorist antics of Tony Stark were overshadowed by GTA but I can’t.
GTA aside, it’s pretty clear that, in developing the game, Sega have assumed the player has been to the movie. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s understandable (it is a game based on a movie!) but I tend to expect a game to be able to stand alone. None of the cut scenes let you in on Tony Stark’s millionaire playboy past; you’re not even let in on the little secret that he’s a weapons designer and arms dealer until after the first mission. Even the small matter of why he has a glowing circle of electronic gadgetry embedded in the centre of his chest is left completely unexplained (it‘s actually a miniature version the “arc reactor” that Tony invented for Stark industries; I went to the movie). There’s a general air of laziness about the whole thing. I can just picture a hand-full of execs sitting around a table saying “Why put too much effort in, the movie’ll sell the game!” Twenty years ago it would’ve been the best game ever made. In 2008 it’s mediocre at best.
The game begins in the Ten Rings terrorist encampment where Tony Stark is being held captive to build a high-tech weapon for the evil terrorists. Crafty Mr Stark, however, uses the materials and equipment provided to build some crude yet effective body armour to aid his escape (more info from the movie). As Stark/Iron Man, your first mission is to escape the Ten Rings encampment. Armed with only your robotically enhanced strength, and a convenient flamethrower, you must defeat the guards and assorted troops to make good your escape. The mission ends with a fairly standard “super bad-guy”--a massive armoured tank in this case--that you must defeat. Apart from gaining the ability to fly, the following missions repeat the “fight grunts, then beat something big and terrifying” format.
The first and third missions are, fairly much, straight from the movie; escape the Ten Rings, destroy Stark weapons belonging to the Ten Rings. Mission two is really just an excuse to learn how to fly, with a bit killing thrown in for good measure. Mission four makes a complete departure from the movie; you’re fighting a completely new enemy; the Maggia. At this point it becomes a bit disjointed; there\\\\\\\'s no explanation of where the Maggia fit in. It certainly doesn\\\\\\\'t add much to the game. Each mission is just a repeat of the previous one; different scenery, same old story. You earn cash after each mission, which you can use to upgrade your suit; fairly standard. You don’t even have to figure out what you need to do in each mission, as you have your computer talking in your ear telling you what to do. The game fails to have any of the complexity of games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, GTA IV, Halo 3. It’s all fly around, shoot the enemy, go home. Iron Man makes no mental demands upon you whatsoever.
Even though I had the difficulty setting at easy I was still surprised that I didn’t die until mission four. It was really just too easy. It does get harder when you increase the difficulty level, although the increase in difficulty is achieved by giving you more enemies to kill, rather than improving enemy response/tactics. It would have been more interesting if you were expected to improve your own tactical response to the increased challenge. The game is designed to obviate any need for tactics at all; you get good killing results just running around shooting without having to take cover. Again, there is very little challenge provided.
Ok, so it’s a fairly standard game-plan; one I’ve been exposed to regularly since my arcade days in the mid-80s. What about cut scenes, gaming scenery, character graphics, controls? The cut scenes are acceptable. They don’t give enough background information, so it’s never completely clear why you’re doing what you’re doing (go see the movie dumbass). They do give you just enough info for the game progression to make some sense. The background scenery is fairly run-of-the-mill, it’s nothing special. Iron Man looks like Iron Man. The enemy soldiers and vehicles are ill-defined, even up-close there’s no whites-of-the-eyes-as-they-die excitement. The flight controls are quite good, although tricky to use at first. Being able to upgrade the Iron Man armour between missions is hardly innovative. The game controls are actually quite good; there’s no need to go through menus or pause the game to do what you need to do. Everything you need is available through the buttons, triggers, and bumpers on the control pad.
A simultaneous movie/game release will always run the risk of smelling suspiciously like a mercenary money making machination. The best way to avoid this is to make sure that the game version is well thought out, well designed, and offers something new and exciting for the gamer. “Iron Man: the official videogame of the movie” fails on all of these counts. Yes, in the cut scenes Tony Stark looks just like Robert Downey Jr from the movie; sounds like him too. Even the back cover blurb is uninspired; “Go beyond the movie and take on enemies in the air and on the ground…”, “Take on tanks, fighter jets and massive weapons with you high tech suit of armour.”, etc. It’s all true; it’s just not all exiting. The biggest difficulty I found with the game was a general feeling of boredom. That said, I’m off to play GTA IV.
