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When it was announced that SEGA had attained the rights
to produce games based on the Marvel universe’s movie adaptations –
the first of which being the May Bank
 Holiday blockbuster, Iron
Man – much delight amongst fans was evident. Not only Iron
Man fans, who had possibly one of the greatest chances of having
their favourite comic book series become a worthwhile videogame in
recent years, but also British SEGA fans could rejoice at the
continuation of the company's western-orientated portfolio.
Starting the Current-Generation with high-profile titles
such as
Condemned and
Full Auto, recent offerings including
the likes of
Viking: Battle For Asgard,
SEGA Superstar
Tennis and
The House Of The Dead: 2 & 3 Return only seem
to further enforce SEGA’s determination to become the industry’s
major publishing power, across the globe. And with the quality of
the majority of the line-up ranking alongside the top-draw releases
of the console generation thus far, very few could claim this as a
bad situation. But how long will SEGA manage to please not only the
fans, but the shareholders too?
Enter Iron Man; the unfortunate cataclysm
resulting from marketing colliding with heritage. As a movie-based
release, Iron Man checks all the right boxes – as opposed to
the ‘90’s tradition of releasing half-baked Platform titles with
Hollywood taglines attached, Iron Man have taken the modern
route of doing the same with an Action title set in Sandbox Arenas.
Similar to
Destroy All Humans!, but distinctively lacking any
of the soul of THQ’s humorous invasion adventure, the bulk of the
gameplay takes place across a handful of Maps, upon which a single
Mission takes place. However, unlike Destroy All Humans!, or
pretty much any other title that allows a free-roaming element to be
an intervening aspect of the game, Iron Man offers you no
alternatives to the current objective, nor any rhyme-nor-reason as to why you should explore the Arenas to
any
extent.
In-fact, there simply is nothing to explore. If
launching a Sandbox-orientated title in the wake of
Grand Theft
Auto IV was always going t o be a considerably bad move,
releasing said title with a distinct lack of alternatives to the
main Mission is simply ludicrous. While SEGA are undoubtedly pinning
their hopes on the licence being strong enough to generate the
required revenue – which, having been granted the quickly becoming
traditional tagline of "The Official Videogame Of The Movie", surely
shall do so – the situation doesn’t look too bright for SEGA’s
forthcoming Marvel releases; namely this summer’s
The Incredible
Hulk: The Official Videogame.
The storyline is incomprehensible at the best of times.
Flitting back-and-forth through timelines, touching on alternative
subplots to that of the movie then once again confusing them with
inexplicably vague FMV sequences, Iron Man can be followed by
fans of the comic books who can fill in the gaps, but few else will
take anything worth of note from this example of the medium’s
capabilities for storytelling. In the face of recent releases such
as
Mass Effect,
Blacksite and
BioShock, wherein
plot is paramount, it would be easy for the developers to admit they
missed the bar somewhat; especially when having a perfectly realised
plot already established to work alongside.
The gameplay incorporated in the title is basic and
repetitive, requiring the player to defend Power Stations or assault
weapons caches, and little else. The incorporation of classic
villains omitted from the motion picture, akin to that of the
Previous-Generation’s Spider-Man 2, opens nice avenues for
alternative gameplay that are never even remotely explored, and
their arrival is ill-explained at best. The Control System appears
rather over-complicated at first, using the Left Trigger to hover
and Left Button to fly, and it’s most likely that the player will
not become fully comfortable with the set-up until long after the
game’s completion. Options to upgrade Iron Man’s suit seem to have
very little effect realised in-play, and only when unlocking
different suits upon completion – and through the title’s One Man
Army Mode, a carbon-copy of
Resident Evil 4’s Mercenary Mode,
without the replay appeal – will the player find themselves with the
option to change the order of proceedings, should they still wish to
by this point.
Iron Man is basic graphically. While featuring
the gloss coat and well-realised Character Models of the
Current-Generation, here’s where the spark ends. Lighting effects
are clearly of PlayStation2-hampered development and the enemies are
basic and monotonous. The design is so artistically flawed that is
quickly becomes apparent that the developers never expected players
to run on-foot for more than a few seconds, as doing so will result
in objects and enemies moving or re-shaping when on approach, and
even entire buildings jumping several feet back.
Iron Man is a title that could be considered
short at best, and artificially inflating the length with such
ridiculous devices as having to beat more than five Health Bars from
the final Boss without dying will only further enrage both SEGA and
Iron Man’s respective fanbases. As far as Licensed titles go,
Iron Man is far from the worst on the Xbox360 – the likes of
Jumper: Griffin’s Story and
Lost have
already lowered the bar for such releases – however, with such a
high profile licence attached to it, very few will be able to say
they weren’t expecting more from one of the most revered publishing
houses in videogames. |
