Iron Man is just the same old movie rubbish.
There is, at first glance, a lot to like about the Iron Man video game in an ironic way. For example, Iron Mans voice actor sounds less like Robert Downey Jr. and more like someone doing an impression of Sean Connery with surgical gauze lodged in their throat.
However after a few hours of enduring the games numerous other flaws the terrible voice acting becomes just another bad thing about this frustrating and boring game. At this point the game stops being “funny bad” or “so bad it’s kind of good” and just becomes another piece of shit movie memorabilia.
The game gets things off to a markedly poor start with an appalling third person shooter sequence in one of the only levels that has any relation to a scene from the blockbuster film. Way to choose the only scene where the suit can’t fly guys.
The games game play after this point takes the form of flying around various levels taking out set targets while listening to stilted and badly acted voice transmissions between the characters. I think it was about level 3 before the fake RDJ voice stopped being funny and started grating on me.
The shooting is poorly implemented and enemy destruction animations are laughable. I was constantly reminded by the animation and visuals of Japanese shooter Earth Defence Force only Iron Man has the marked disadvantage of not having the same insane scale and ridiculous fights that EDF does.
The game plods along for the first few levels until a massive spike in difficultly is thrown up for really no reason at all. In particular a contrived boss fight set around a nuclear power station is needlessly difficult. This in combination with a lack of checkpoints does not make for an enjoyable experience.
Its graphics look dated, even in HD, with nothing ever standing out from the empty environments and blurry models. The music is also completely unremarkable but is preferable to the risible voice acting.
Another feature that snuck its way into this disaster is a halfhearted attempt at a morality system. It basically boils down to completing minor side goals in exchange for extra cash to upgrade at the end of the mission and has no effect on the game past this.
This weak assed morality system summed up everything I hated about Iron Man. Absolutely everything wrong with the game can be blamed on laziness. The developers have made a bad game no question but with a little more imagination and effort could have created something of far more entertaining.
However this is not the case and we end up with yet another bad movie tie in game. There is nothing to recommend here and very little to get worked up enough about to tear the game apart completely. The voice acting and plastic looking cut scenes are about the low point but make no mistake the game play is dull and frustrating. You would be much better off renting the excellent movie.
