The fantastic Iron Man movie lead us to hope that an Iron Man game could be good; and after the first very bad try Iron Man2 is huge improvement and actually good!
*Disclaimer*
This game was played on the Xbox 360 and it was installed on the HDD. Any loading\frame rate issues that might be noted maybe because of this and may or may not be present if the game was not installed; same goes for sound syncing or anything else.
Presentation:
While I really enjoy the story and the use of the narrative that is based in the movies, some of the dialogues for Tony Stark are not really fitting. But beyond a few hick-ups, the different story to the movie actually works. Interesting characters, fantastic variety of suits and really cool enemy and armor design help the Iron Mam universe to stand out with its set-pieces. On top of that Iron Man 2 also has quite a lot of depth to the features regarding character suit customizations, different elements that are upgradeable and really cool weapon system that works on the narrative with the different suits; both for Iron Man and War Machine.
Visuals:
Good looking environments and superb enemy and suit design help the un-polished face models and some weird cut-scenes that does not look very sharp or detailed to look good and fitting. Cool looking weapons and vehicles with great sense of speed and scale make the explosions look really good. Pre-mission suit-up look really cool as well, cut-scenes detect which suit you have and visually adapt to it, which you can take for granted, but I’ve seen it in games where the second\third suit did not show up in cut-scenes.
Sound:
Really good voice-overs overall, as mentioned, but some are not really fitting; and some does not feel that they are delivered very well, but overall really impressive work on that aspect, exquisite work on the weapons, suit and bullets sound design that really put you in the game, along with some really heavy metal riffs and just good music overall that mostly fit.
Gameplay:
As a 3rd person action game with heavy flight and combat mechanics, the game works well overall, the shooting feels accurate and different with each weapon, but the combat mechanics does not work very well, whether its the actual fighting, or just the animations, something does not work well, but the flight controls really put you in an immediate immersion with the easy to control mechanics, along with some really cool and different weapons, also the two weapons for each “side” controls work really well, and you can on-the-fly change them to your needs, and at some points, use that to your advantage even more with other AI characters that are with you.
A big but depended on your end element is the upgrading, inventing and researching elements into your current arsenal, whether its to research new ammunition types, creating different modules for different effects or performance, or just to add more ammunition capabilities to your aresenal of weapons, and even though after the half of the game or so you will have enough resources, narrative wise it does not makes sense (besides the fact that Stark is working for someone for payment, he is already a wealthy man) that we need to “work” for money, especially since the really amazing stuff requires alot of resources.
Playing as both Iron Man and War Machine can be played on a on-the-fly basis between each mission, but for the achievements or trophy gamers, playing as both characters through the entire game is the big potential here, mainly since you’ll have anything you’ll want resource wise the next run, and also to unlock both character’s suits.
Replay Value:
If you have any interest to play as both characters, you might get the length that you would want from that type of game, but if only one run is your thing, Iron Man 2 is not very long, and with no Cooperative capabilities or Down-loadable Content, the game is very short on value.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Enemy and suit design make this game a true fan service (at least for my view).
Great story and voice-overs with a proper cut-scene style.
Cool upgrades and evolution to almost everything involved in the game.
Cons:
Annoying loading times, even if the game (Xbo360 version) is installed.
Excruciating checkpoints with some weird design to them, frustration can become a reality pretty quick, mainly at boss levels.
Protection and escort missions are not very fun, even if they are unique.
Scoring:
Presentation:
9.3 Besides a few hick-ups with the dialogues, the story and characters are really good, good voice overs and cool art-style and fitting also good style to the cut-scenes helps a lot.
Visuals:
8 While I really dig and love the enemy and suit design along with great visual effects, the cut-scenes looks blend even with the sci-fi look that fit the universe and in-game facial models that looks really bad, along with some really un-inspired areas with lack of sharpness to them.
Sound:
9.4 Besides a few small issues, the game sounds great, weapons, voice-overs, explosions and really good music.
Replay Value:
7 The potential for playing as both characters can help, but if there is no interest on your end, the game is a one go, even if there are some good set-pieces to play with the second character.
Final Score:
7.8 Iron Man 2 is a good game with great elements that work well and besides the air-combat and some weird animation glitches and weird dialogue decisions involving Tony Stark, this game is fun and unique with its premise regarding the gameplay, the potential to play as both characters can only be driven by the cool set-pieces and moments.
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