Iron Man 2
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: SEGA San Francisco
Platforms: Xbox 360 
Release Date: May 4th, 2010

Story
“In Iron Man 2, play as Iron Man, or for the first time ever, War Machine in this brand-new story which thrusts you deep into the Iron Man comic world adding to the excitement of the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie. Battle epic enemies, like the classic Iron Man villain Crimson Dynamo, only featured in the game, and an incredible final boss of truly staggering, skyscraping style. In the end, the fate of the world will be left in Iron Man and War Machine’s powerful hands and they must battle to save it from destruction.” [via Xbox.com]

A whole new story was developed by the renowned MARVEL comic writer Matt Fraction to bring an entirely new story apart from the movie. It is a story full of peril, enemies, and friends. This is a classic comic book story in the skin of a badly put together game. The story revolves around the enemy trying to steal a copy of Tony Stark’s AI butler, Jarvis, and using it to create Ultimo which is a giant robot that can meld with humans and regenerate health.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Iron Man 2 consists of a hovering around and repeatedly pulling the trigger to shoot off a whole bunch of smaller shots. The reason the trigger is spammed for smaller shots is because the larger shots have a hi chance to miss and they need to be charged, the damage the stronger shots induce also doesn’t warrant an increased charge time with a chance to miss. Smaller shots get the job done much faster and give you some exercise.

I also said hovering and not flying, because a majority of the game you will be hovering. Flying around is both worthless and a headache. The flight controls are annoying and overly complicated with single buttons doing multiple things. The button to execute a simple dodge maneuver also makes you fly if you double tap it. So while you want to simply dodge an opponent you may dash towards your enemy and hit him head on causing your utter demise. Add on a control switch when entering the flying mode and you get a whole bunch of messed up launches.

General combat either consists of ranged attacks or close range melee. Ranged combat requires you to get pretty close for it to be effective and then you might as well initiate in melee combat because you are close enough and melee does more damage. Melee consists simple button mashing and just randomly pressing X with no sense of control. The character will automatically jump between characters without you knowing what is happening and when you finally stop the camera will be at some weird angle forcing you take control and figure out where you are at. Which brings me to the camera controls and aiming both of which seem to have a mind of their own. You’ll be focused on one guy and the camera will move because everyone is flying around you and then your target will change before you kill it, leaving you with a whole bunch of enemies all with minimal health.

Before every mission you can customize your weapons and armor based on field data you gain for completing missions. Once you get passed the overly complicated menu system and take the time to figure out what you are actually doing, this little feature becomes one of the best parts in the game. There are tons of different weapon types, ammo types, and upgrades you can research. Once you finish researching you can customize up to four loadouts per weapon and before starting a mission customize it accordingly. There is no distinct difference between parts besides price, but within game it is noticeable. This feature is very nice and pretty cool, but it isn’t necessary. You can beat the game without even touching this feature. The feature just makes it easier and by the time you finally get the perfect loadout you have already beaten the game.

There are a handful of missions that you will play while progressing through the story. The missions are all relatively the same, and either require you to turn off a switch or defend some form of AI. The AI can be a human or some form of machinery that you must keep from being destroyed. Almost every level consists of some form of objective that requires you to protect something. At first it is manageable, but it gets increasingly annoying as you progress through the game. The enemies get stronger, they focus heavily on the AI you are supposed to protect, and they use cheap moves to keep you from completing the objective. There is already minimal fun, and these repetitive objectives sucked the last little bit of fun out of the game. Half way through the game, it feels more like a chore rather than a fun piece of entertainment.

Audio & Graphics
The graphics in Iron Man 2 are below average and the textures are blurry. At times you would be amazed that it is even in 1080i. The cutscenes are choppy and the characters are both badly designed and badly lipsynced. The audio is also below average, with all the sounds seemingly muffled. Huge explosions aren’t awe inspiring, bullets and other shots seem pathetic. Even the soundtrack, which had many moments to shine and increase the tension of the game, fell short of amazing. A majority of the time, the soundtrack is barely audible. Voice acting was also poorly executed and the good voice actors were few and far between.

Achievements
The achievements in Iron Man 2 seem pretty straight forward at first. A majority of them will be unlocked just for playing the game on the hardest setting. There are a few that may require you to go back and finish certain miscellaneous tasks, such as passing the security grid without touching a laser or completing a certain task without being damaged or in a certain time frame. Once you get passed these achievements you will find out where the true annoyance is and that is found in the achievements where you have to kill so many enemies with a certain weapon or using certain abilities. There are so few levels and each with a small amount of bad guys that you will have to grind levels over and over again just to meet the quota. The game is bad enough the first play through, playing levels over and over again just to kill people is even worse. The achievements are easy in a general sense, but they simply aren’t fun to get. If the game was longer with more opportunities to get the achievements without grinding it may not have been bad, but no one likes excessive grinding and that is exactly what the achievements call for in this game. Not to mention the first achievement you unlock is a 3 point achievement which screws up any achievement hunters list. Luckily the counter achievement worth 7 points isn’t that hard to pull off.

To View the Achievements Click Here

Overview
Movie based games are stereotyped as being rushed works that don’t turn out as good as it could have. The game Iron Man 2 doesn’t help in the attempt to remove the stereotype. The story is different from the movie, while fitting in directly after the second movie it reveals no spoilers. With repetitive and dull gameplay, terrible aiming and camera controls, and one of the best parts of this action game is an overly complicated weapon upgrade system; Iron Man 2 takes all the fun out of flying around and being the invincible Iron Man.
I give Iron Man 2 The Game

Pros

• A bunch of different armors to unlock and use
• Customize weapons to help you play through the levels
• Play as iron man or war machine to match your play style

Cons

• Protecting AI on almost every level is a little excessive and annoying
• The controls and the Camera are annoying
• The game is short, and only lasts for about 4 hours