Sega Nerds

Review: Iron Man

by Graham on May 5th, 2008

Unless you have been living in a cave or a small shoebox for the last few weeks, you should all know that the Iron Man movie was released at the end of last week, and just along side the movie release Sega released their Iron Man (official movie) game.

But releasing a game along side a movie can be restrictive for a developer, so was the deadline a bad thing for Sega and the game’s developers, Secret Level?

[Images courtesy of Sega]

Note: I should point out that while I liked the Iron Man cartoons, I was never a massive fan, so if my superhero knowledge is lacking, then bear with me.

Come kids, I shall read you a story:

While the game is meant to be the official movie game, in all honesty they follow the movies story quite loosely, I’m wondering if it would have been better for Sega to make up their own story for the game completely.

The movie is about how Tony Stark, a weapons manufacturer and engineering genius, is kidnapped by a group of terrorists, who order him to build a powerful weapon, capable of fighting against the world armies. But (and this is key to the story) while Tony was kidnapped, he was badly wounded and has pieces of shrapnel lodged inside his chest which are slowly making their way through his vital organs, and he will die within a week. Fortunately the terrorists kidnap a doctor too, who implants a crude electromagnetic device into Stark’s chest - which keeps the shrapnel from killing him. The magnet is running off a car battery though and will eventually run out. So Tony then creates his own little power source - one which will never run out of energy and keeps his heart running at a phenomenal rate.

After Tony finds out that his weapons are being used against the US and 3^rd world countries, he decides to build a metal suit of armour, which is powered by the energy source in his chest. And so escapes his captors in his first Iron Man suit. Then he goes on to take down the rest of the terrorists in his Mark III suit (the one you have in the game).

Right, well the game follows that story roughly. At the very start you are treated to a few cut scenes inside a cave, with a random scientist/doctor person. You see Tony build his suit and stuff, and you escape your captors.

BUT the thing is the game gives absolutely no explanation about Tony’s power source, nor the doctor. You can see the thing glowing through his vest at points (it’s a circular shape), but in all honesty I just assumed it was a pattern on his vest.

The rest of the game is similar to the movie, though rather than taking down the one terrorist group, Tony goes out and takes on large organisations which bought his weapons in the past, and who are (physically) threatening his company. But the final battle goes back to following the movie plot. So as the main filler story of the movie is completely skipped over, the beginning and end are similar-ish.

There is also a point in the game where Tony (out of suit) is electrocuted, by a small tazer, which supposedly threatens his life, and the bad guy leaves him to die (even though I’m sure those tazers are just meant to stun people). But in the movie, Tony is paralyzed by a small electronic sound emitter, and then has his power source removed from his chest - kind of different situations, no?

I’m just wondering how much information of the movie Secret Level was given, because the plot in the game veers off from the movie quite a bit. Or perhaps they intended for it to be this way.

Mission madness:

Each mission in the game feels pretty similar, unfortunately. You are set out in an open land and have to take out strategic enemy weapons, and strongholds. This is something that reviewers also complained about.

However, if you just sit back and think for a seconds. What did you expect? The idea is that Iron Man is trying to destroy large weapons (most of which he created), and take down terrorist groups. In all honesty, I am not sure how else Secret Level could have had the game play.

And when you think more about it, the game plays just like a helicopter or flight combat game, not only in flight controls, but in the missions. People never complain about the missions in the Ace Combat games, yet they are pretty much the same thing - but Iron Man is cooler.

Also Secret Level did try to mix it up a bit. One level, I thought was simply brilliant, has you taking on a flying fortress, which is about to attack a city somewhere in the US. This fortress is flying along the ocean, as Iron Man intercepts it.

So the whole level has you trying to take out the main weapons and the power sources for the fortress - all while it is travelling along in the air. I thought it was great fun, as you had to try and take out enemies and keep up with the giant fortress/ship, which was very tricky at times. Landing on the fortress, meant that you could just run along it, with no worries of trying to catch up, but also meant you were subject to barrages of enemy attacks.

Also one cool thing, is that I decided to fly across the front of the fortress, to avoid some nasty weapon placements, but accidentally flew too close to one of the engines, and was sucked through - and went flying out the back, still alive, but shaken.

The missions also have extra objectives to achieve. Like a time trial and enemy death toll. You do not need to finish the levels in these times or kill that many enemy forces, but if you do you are awarded more points. Also some levels have ‘Hero Objectives’ - like one level you are fighting a guy in a suit a bit like yours, but he needs to drain energy from the city’s power supplies. You can defeat him easier by destroying the power stations, but doing so will cripple the city. So defeating him without destroying the power stations will award you with even more points.

In the end, it would have been great if Secret Level had made more of the mission objectives a bit different, but as I say, I’m not too sure how they could have done it, realistically.

Anyway, gameplay time:

A fair few reviewers have been complaining about the game’s controls being too complex or too loose. I say, rubbish. God forbid these people play helicopter or flight combat games in their time, because I think the controls are great. As for the “looseness” well there is an option to adjust this, stop being babies.

In my opinion the game controls gives a great sense of flight combat, flying and hovering are easy to do and I actually find it fun being chased by planes and helicopters, and then boost off away from them. Or flying towards a row of tanks, and then letting loose my rockets of grenades, as I fly overhead and seeing them explode. Makes you feel like a superhero.

What doesn’t make you feel like a superhero is the ground combat. Punching enemies and vehicles on the ground feels very wooden. It is a few basic moves, which Iron Man pulls off, and just doesn’t feel right. In the movie, Iron Man hits a few guys and they go flying. In the game you hit them and they just sort of fall down dead, not quite as impressive.

Nor is fighting the tanks - you stand there and hit them, they don’t move at all, but suddenly explode. It would have been better if they could get dented or something. You know something to give the impression of damage and Iron Man’s strength. You can also, however, do a special melee attack on all vehicles, which brings up a sort of mini QTE, where Iron Man will get into position and you tap melee (B for 360) as fast as possible until Iron Man either rips apart the vehicle or flips it over. While this is a good thing, it also feels like it is missing something, and isn’t as satisfying as it should be.

However, back in the air, I was having great fun with some of the special moves. Flying along you can barrel roll to avoid missiles. You can also grab missiles and throw them back at them. Throwing back can be tricky, but is great when you succeed.

How polished is that armour anyway?

Graphically I think Iron Man is pretty sound. The levels are big and open, and Iron Man looks very good, and shiny - though as you get damaged you do see his armour getting worn, and I thought the water in the game looked great.

Also you have tons of enemies on screen at times, and can be overwhelmed by the amount of forces you are fighting against. Some vehicles look kind of basic, though, but still nothing in the game looks terrible. Hard to describe I guess, but I had no issues with visuals, but I do think it could have been a bit better all round, especially for the 360 and PS3 versions.

However, while the levels are open, you do sometimes think that they don’t have enough detail in them. Like not enough objects in them, not enough trees or random towns, in the countryside or desert-type levels. Pretty much each level will have a few enemy settlements/bases dotted on the map, and enemies around them, but the surrounding level is dead. It kind of reminded me of the original Delta Force game on the PC. You had these massive, open-ended levels to roam around in, but all the action was focused on a few small areas, and the rest of the level was wasted space.

Something that I thought was just ridiculous is the city levels. You play in a cityscape in a few levels the city is quite small, but looks good, with plenty of buildings to fly through. However, there are no, absolutely no, cars or traffic or people, or any city life of any kind in the levels - just you, the buildings and the enemies. It’s kind of crazy, because one of the side missions is to protect civilian life… what civilian life?!

The unfinished article:

I think many people can agree that the game is missing something. While I enjoyed playing through it, I couldn’t help but say “Really good attempt, but something’s missing.” And I think I know what it could be. Secret Level forgot to put in many needed special effects. Now this is all superficial, and won’t affect gameplay at all, but should look good. And one thing about being a superhero is looking good.

If you let Iron Man fly high and then just fall, he will fall to the ground quite fast and land, with a bent knee and his fist slamming the ground. This move can be used to damage enemy vehicles, as it sends out a small shockwave.

But the shockwave is invisible, and the ground remains completely intact. What Secret Level should have done is to make the ground crack when Iron Man hits. It’s not even that hard, it could just be visual damage the ground doesn’t need to have a hole in it or anything. They have done it in other games before, Crackdown is one game that springs to mind. If you jumped off a building in Crackdown, you character would fall to the ground with a mighty crash, and crack the pavement below, or destroy any car you landed on. It felt and looked damn cool.

Secret Level needed to do more stuff like this in the game, to give the real superhero feeling. One other idea would be to have more destructible objects. Also putting cars and the like in the city levels, and allowing Iron Man to throw them.

None of these ideas are new or unique to games these days, yet they would have made the game feel that much better.

Pushing to the limit:

One thing that was kind of crazy is the difficulty. The easy mode is just about right I think. The first levels are very easy, but then they do get much harder, with tons of enemies on screen. And you can feel the tension at times.

But crank it up to normal and the game is just too hard, for me at least. I did the first 3 or 4 levels and then could go no further - and I had all the suits unlocked, none of them helped, the enemies were too accurate, and dodging endless missiles became a real bitch to handle.

Summary:

This review could confuse some people, because I have moaned about most of the game. Nevertheless, I did actually enjoy the game. For what it essentially is, a flight combat game, it is good fun and it has some moments where you do think “Oh cool!” It is just missing some things which prevent it from being truly great.

Although be warned, the game isn’t that long. Maybe 5 hours gameplay, on easy, and unlocking all the suits, though harder difficulties will take longer. I should also point out that Iron Man’s quips during gameplay get tiring quick quickly.

Final Thought:

A solid attempt. But not the killer superhero game many were hoping for.

6/10 - GOOD

~G~

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POSTED IN: G, Microsoft Xbox 360, Review