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Iron Man 2 (PS3)
Also available on
PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP
Iron Man 2 The Video Game is a single player that again places the
player in the armor of Tony Stark. This time around though there is a
little bit more to play with by way of the War Machine armor as well. If
the Iron Man armor is a Ferrari then the War Machine armor is a monster
truck maxed to the teeth with fire power. Thankfully the player can jump
into the armor of either Iron Man or War Machine right from the start.
Battles take place in the air and on the ground with
various human and a plethora of mechanized baddies. Comic fans will of
course recognize some of the players such as the company Advanced Ideas
Mechanics (A.I.M), and the Crimson Dynamo armor.
The game story is written by Iron Man comic writer Matt Fraction, though
the story and line delivery earlier in this tale are extremely confusing
and the player is left with a “What the hell is going on?” feeling. Some
of the plot for the game story concerning Jarvis is wonderful and builds
a lot into the Marvel Universe. But some of the confusion is there with
the interaction between characters and event....This may not be the
fault of the story in it self, as much as what visuals are married to
it. The game was of course developed to coincide with the movie release,
though the title and some of the characters are the only things the two
have in common. The story is different so no spoilers here really. So
that's cool. Tony Stark is of course continuing his quest to make things
right in the world.
At times it's difficult to know where to go next. There
are times even with the radar showing relative locations of where you
need to go, the way just can't be found. The graphics and levels
particularly interior can become confusing on where the player needs to
go since some of the visuals are a bit on the low tech side and muddy
looking. So a hole in the ceiling or floor where the player needs to go
to continue, may not be noticeable unless they are right on top of it.
There are a couple of locations where a clipping bug made it impossible
to continue. Particularly when having to baby sit and stay close to a
kind of walking tank, this huge tank walked into the graphic of a
building and got stuck there, twice in a row. Now here's the problem, in
that particular mission the player is supposed to stay close to this
walking tank, so when it get's stuck you can't go forward and finish the
mission at all. At this time the player has to end the mission somehow
and start it over.
Now here's the thing with some of the new missions, and
responsibility the game designers are thrusting at the player here. I
get the whole escort mission thing, but there are way too many of these
protect and stay with such and such. I'm in a freaking flying suit of
armor here people. I want to fly around. Not be stuck in a hover,
slowly, agonizingly moving fore ward and only flying in short distance
bursts... because if you leave the craft too far behind the whole
freaking mission is a fail and you start over. So much for feeling that
freedom of flight.
Now there are parts of the game that are still fun of course. Blasting
the crap out of stuff never get's old. Buildings blowing up and other
collateral damage takes place as well so that's a nice inclusion in the
game play. This is a short step in the right direction, for the graphics
of the game just destroy this. Characters are bug eyed caricatures of
who they are supposed to represent. The only saving grace is some of the
sound and music tracks are pretty decent, and the voice acting of samuel
L. Jackson of course. Other voice actors have a fair to flaming crash
and burn outcome through out the game. Part of acting is re-acting to a
situation or giving back to your fellow actor from what they give you.
In the voice acting department, Samuel L. Jackson is the shining star
here, his manifestation of Nick Fury brings out the super spy and
director of S.H.I.E.L.D and you just know Fury is on the scene.
The game play is mission based, and is also tied to the players
abilities to upgrade weapons and ammunition and armor battle programs.
During missions, the number of enemies and various other things
including least amount of armor damage gives points to the player. So
this field data collected turns into points. These are research points
really, and are used to update armor and equipment.
The controls are a little cumbersome at the start but slowly but surely
the player will get used to them and make them work. Transition from
hover to flight is a double tap away, but due to the mission areas and
events, the player never really get's the feeling of flying around
freely as Iron Man. The first game was spectacularly fun during flight.
Flight boosters sending the player forth like a human missile and doing
various maneuvers was a blast. Gone is the excitement and freedom of
flight.
Plus the ability to catch incoming missiles and hurl them
back at an opponent was fun and satisfying. You just don't get the
feeling of Iron Man in flight this time around. Plus grabbing missiles
has been replaced with a kind of deflection ability. This still get's
good results by sending the missiles back at the enemy, so this at least
is a nice step.
The game has a short life span, maybe five hours if you really take your
time. The over all equation for game re playability here is zero. This
is where the One Man Army options from the first game should have been
utilized. Extra levels or even the ability to replay levels and gather
more points for upgrades would have been nice. As it is, it just feels
like Iron Man 2 was designed as a throw away game.
Iron Man 2 limps onto the scene for several game platforms and is a
rusted heap on arrival. The bit of fun to be had does not out weigh the
not so fun aspects of the game.
Have fun, play games
Edwin Millheim
U.S Editor
Impulse Gamer |
