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Iron Man
Marvel Comics has really been going strong
over the past several years with some really cool licensing of their
iconic characters, such as The Hulk (Which will have another game
sometime soon that looks pretty freaking awesome so far more on that one
when it comes out.), Spiderman, and dozens of others in the Marvel
Universe. Now come the one man army himself Iron Man, and life is good!
Based on the film of the same name Iron Man in game form relays the
story of a man on the road to self redemption. While the games cut
scenes that move the game story along cannot relay this as well as the
performances of the live actors of the film, it serves its purpose to
set the tone of the game story and rocket the player along for some
chaotic battles.
While the game does
follow along in some points to the film, there are other plot points in
the game that do not. These additional sub texts to the over all story
line include other characters from the Iron Man Comic Book World that
are not featured in the film, but represent very well in the game.
Let's get a few things out of the way as Shael and I often like to do.
First the game has some pretty good size environments to run around and
yes fly around in. Often the missions are such that rushing off at full
thrusters in the Iron Man armor is the only way to get to some of the
points of danger that our hero has to take care of before all is lost.
Many times the odds just seem to be over whelming, but as long as you
configure the armor just right you will find your way to over coming the
waves of danger that are thrown at you.
Flying, ah yes, flying, Iron Man can hover by use of one control, and
then also fly by use of others. Many people have griped about the
controls in flight that they cannot handle our hero and soon find
themselves overwhelmed or worse yet, a lawn dart (CRASH) right into the
ground or some other obstacle. Well I have to tell you. Iron Man is a
lot like a self contained fighter jet in that armor and the controls can
be a bit touchy, it requires a light touch and not any fast hard over
compensations. If you have a light touch you will find that the armor
fly's just fine.
As the game progresses
upgrades to the armor and weapons systems become available. Upgrade and
spend wisely. One of the great things is that you can actually play a
past mission and try to reach all of the goals and use the resources it
bestows upon you, with out any ill effect to you progressing game. In
fact replaying missions may give you that extra cash to upgrade to pulse
repulsors which come in handy later when multiple missiles are heading
towards a target you're trying to protect.
Power Control is also the key to winning in these missions. Directing
power to different systems as needed on the fly (no pun intended).
Directing power to different systems in battle actually creates some
rather unique attacks. While the game can get repetitive regardless of
the enemies at hand, it is a fun past time of a game, with unfortunately
no real re play value to be had here. Does that make this game a pass?
Not by any means, Iron Man for any hard core or passive Marvel fan is a
must have as it simulates our hero very well indeed. As the game goes on
repetitive is something that just sort of happens. After blasting your
way past countless enemies, there is always some super duper boss
waiting in the wings after you have been worn down a bit by the minions,
in true super hero fashion.
Back to Boss battles, let's see, some of the boss battles are pretty
interesting when it requires some figuring out just how to beat them.
There are not many of those mind you. Most times it's stay out of range
and blast away at each other till one of you drops. It would not be so
bad if there had been some kind of midway save point, but no.the super
baddie or super weapons usually clobbers our hero in a couple shots if
you're not careful. (You get three chances and then its mission over and
failed) Then you have to start all over again. Nice huh? This is when
you may well get tired of fighting for ten minutes or so over and over
again with the same mission.
Note: While some of the
tasks are darn hard no matter what level you're playing the game at.
they can be accomplished. For instance taking out the nuke missiles
before they launch can be done. But oh boy, what a chore.
Graphics between systems such as PS3 and the Xbox 360 are pretty
noticeably different; I tend to like the PS3 version a little better as
some of the explosions and graphics just look better to me somehow on
the PS3 version. So this article is mostly on my fuller experience with
the PS3 version of Iron Man the game.
As noted the graphics are pretty nice, nothing stand out as a game
really. Voice acting is ok and does not seem to rise to the level of the
film. But when do any of these games actually bring out the acting chops
for voice overs? Not many, but when they do, oh boy do you take notice.
Iron Man unfortunately is not one of those. The other sounds in the game
are not bad at all. Explosions and repulsor blasts all sound very
satisfying to some degree. The music is at times on an epic scale and
lends itself very well to the subject matter; often times a feeling or
an emotional response may bubble forth due to the games well done music
tracks.
Iron Man the video game is a pretty cool game for the first several
missions and of course for any of those hard core Marvel Comics fans,
but for the average gamer, the armor starts loosing its shine after the
first 5 or 6 missions.
Have fun, play games
Edwin Millheim |
