Iron Man Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 6 May, 2008

Wretched and clank.

Version tested: Xbox 360

They say that one of the signs of insanity is to keep repeating the same futile task, expecting the outcome to be different. I'm worried what this says about my mental state as, despite years of experience to the contrary, I still get my hopes up for each new movie tie-in. Especially superhero movie tie-ins. Maybe this will be the one, says the little voice in my head. Maybe this will be a great game and a great use of the character. This time. Maybe.

Iron Man, an abysmally implemented spin-off from the highly enjoyable movie, is just the latest game to crush my naïve hopes into so much twisted metal.

As always, the story of the game takes the bare bones of the source material and then replaces all those bits where people talk, and develop character and plot, with more shooting and blowing up and shooting. In this case our hero is ultra-rich industrialist Tony Stark, whose capture by Afghan rebels makes him change his mind about using his engineering genius to produce instruments of death. Instead he creates...well, an instrument of death. But this one is a really cool flying mechanical suit, and he uses it to destroy the other instruments of death he made, so it's sort of okay.

Here's where the gameplay comes in. After a perfunctory couple of training levels which rattle through the clunky Mark I suit in Afghanistan and the silver Mark II at Stark Industries, you're off in the familiar red and gold Mark III armour on your crusade to rid the world of the weapons you created. The game uses long-standing Marvel foes A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and organised crime network Maggia to elongate this process, each of them providing a near endless stream of tanks and helicopters to blow to bits with Stark's arsenal.

'Iron Man' Screenshot 1

Oh look, Iron Man's going the wrong way. Again.

To aid in this destructive quest your armour comes equipped with repulsor rays, a secondary explosive weapon, and the powerful chest-mounted unibeam. Meeting certain objectives in each level earns you more money with which to upgrade the different aspects of your armour, although the effects are mostly negligible and the different upgrade abilities only unlock at set points in the game. Isn't Stark supposed to be a billionaire genius? I'm pretty sure he could buy or build whatever upgrades he wanted, whenever he needed them. But then, that wouldn't fit into the linear videogame template and this clearly isn't a game with fresh thinking in mind.

To begin with, and as anyone who tried the demo will attest, it's the controls that make Iron Man a singularly unpleasant experience. You spend much of your time in the air, but the game seems to go out of its way to make movement in this space an incomprehensible fiddle. The left trigger makes you hover, but pressing it all the way down simply sends you rising inexorably into the sky. You need to press it halfway to actually maintain a steady height, an arbitrary distinction which takes some time to master. There's no way to control your descent, so you have to let go, freefall and hover again when you think you've reached the perfect height.

'Iron Man' Screenshot 2

You can catch missiles and throw them at targets, but it's such a fiddly operation you might as well just take the three seconds it takes blow them up with your repulsors.

Forward motion is even worse, with Iron Man's speed a strictly binary choice between a complete standstill and rocketing forwards. Simply navigating the levels becomes a chore, as you ping-pong wildly off the scenery, drift upwards or tumble down as you try to keep enemies in your sights. I actually found myself wistfully pining for Superman Returns, a dreadful bland little runt of a game that at least managed to get the flying part right by making it immediate and simple. Eventually, after four or five levels, you do reach a sort of grudging truce with Iron Man's controls and find a compromise that at least allows you to move about with some sort of accuracy.

Fighting, then. The right trigger handles your repulsor rays, but if you want to aim freely, you need to - yes - hold the trigger halfway. Pull it all the way and Iron Man automatically locks on to whatever is in sight and starts shooting at it. Once it blows up, he locks on to the next enemy. This means that it's quite possible to be shooting at something you're not even facing, and unlike the stupidly complex movement it renders the combat element ludicrously simplistic. Your repulsors are powerful enough to destroy pretty much everything in a few shots, even before you upgrade them, so all those additional combat options - rockets, grapples, unibeam - are left to gather dust.

The only time they prove vaguely useful is when the inevitable boss fights occur, at which point the repulsor blasts which were slicing through heavy tanks mere moments ago suddenly fail to make much more than a scratch on a slightly larger vehicle just because it's the boss and that's what boss fights are like. Even then, perseverance rather than skill wins the day.

So movement is horribly complicated and combat is laughably simplistic. It's a desperate combination of frustration and boredom, and by the time the game forces you to careen around the outside of a giant nuclear reactor, destroying waves of gunships before they cause damage, while also flying through small rings to protect the reactor from a constant onslaught of missiles...well, it's just not fun. At all. The only additional content takes the form of One Man Army, a series of simplistic arena battles in which you have to destroy 80 enemies within ten minutes. Doing so unlocks different Iron Man suits from the comics, but as these can't be upgraded and can only be used in yet more arena battles or to replay old levels, there's not much reason to bother.

'Iron Man' Screenshot 3

The hovering effect frankly looks like local pantomime Peter Pan wirework, but this is how you'll spend 97% of the game.

Iron Man himself looks decent enough, if stricken by that weird luminescence that lazy developers slap all over metal objects these days, but the rest of the visuals are of a consistently shoddy quality. The cut-scenes are routinely awful, spoiling Robert Downey Jr's wry voiceover with a Tony Stark character model that looks more like a tribute to Jeremy Beadle constructed from papier mache and balloons. Levels are large but entirely featureless, while the generic enemies all bear the low-detail appearance of cheap assets designed to be used across all formats. Animation is rudimentary, and especially poor should you try battling on the ground. According to the loading screens, the game allegedly uses the Havok physics engine, though I have no idea where. Cars parked on streets are glued to the floor and the only things you can destroy - enemy vehicles - all explode in exactly the same way. When even the most hurried superhero games can at least offer a certain amount of scenery destruction, this fake unmoving gameworld feels outrageously cheap.

And so rather than allowing you to feel like an armoured avenger, Iron Man's videogame outing merely offers the chance to lurch awkwardly around the sky like a drunken wasp while holding down a button to blow stuff up. The idea that people might turn to this ham-fisted misfire in order to relive the boundless fun of the movie is quite depressing. What's the next big movie game? Hulk? Hey, maybe that'll be good...

3 / 10

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (58) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • syphaa #1 4 years ago

    The demo did make me weep.
    It could have been so much better!

    3/10 is very generous I feel!

  • Garulon #2 4 years ago

    Dreadful movie-tie in shock!

    Days after GTA IV pushes the format forwards, along comes the movie companies to remind us that video games are thought of in much the same way as McDonald's Happy Meals. Cheers guys!

  • Mr_Dodger #3 4 years ago

    Such a shame, a game with this character could have been - should have been - really good.

    Did NOBODY in playtesting mention the controls, when pretty much every single comment on the demo was "Looks ok, controls are terrible?"

    Damn it. Hopefully the movie will be better.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 11:25

  • urban #4 4 years ago

    aye.

    generous.

    MAKE DECENT FILM TIE INS!

  • drumbaby #5 4 years ago

    Yep, the controls are for shit. I couldn't hit anything in the demo...awful awful awful.

  • Quint2020 #6 4 years ago

    FUCK

    I thought this one might be good.

  • Darkedge #7 4 years ago

    The Film is EXCELLENT. Shame this sucks.

  • Carlo #8 4 years ago

    LOL

  • jonsaan #9 4 years ago

    lol at the tagline:)

  • aidey6 #10 4 years ago

    I echo the sentiments about the controls utter utter gash,dont waste your bandwidth or time on getting this, I also tried the demo (from US PSN)It is up there with The Collectives Revenge of the Sith game

  • The_Inquisitor #11 4 years ago

    Hollywood movies are also going down the same road, great eye candy but lacking where it counts.

  • Vice.Destroyer #12 4 years ago

    Have any comic book fans watched the Iron Man - Stan Lee video? Just below the review? Stan Lee only says about 3 sentences, but that is all he needs to say. He is a legend. But there was a little bit from Robert Downey Jr, that made me laugh. Apparently his son picked up the pad, played it and after 10 seconds said "This is cool".

    No comment.

  • Pirotic #13 4 years ago

    Such a shame to see this was developed by SEGA. You would have hoped they at least could of made it average.

  • DFawkes #14 4 years ago

    I loved Superman Returns(yes, really), so had high hopes for this. How could they change it so much they'd break the flight controls?

    Oh. Like that.

  • Darren #15 4 years ago

    Hopefully the movie is better then...

  • peteb #16 4 years ago

    The movie is great.

    I would have thought it would be hard to mess this one up.

  • JediMasterMalik #17 4 years ago

    I think all sub-4 reviews should be comedy reviews. I skimmed most of that cause it was quite mechanical. I WANT TO FEEL YOUR FRUSTRATION! ;)

    I did like the link between your opening paragraph and your last line though. :D

  • thewolfiv #18 4 years ago

    cheap tie in for a good film = lots of cash sad but true even Sega can't resist (although i blame the parents who don't have a clue and buy this stuff for their kids, if you ask me this does more damge to the young uns than GTA anyday)

    Only good tie in i can think of at the mo is LOTR online, when was the last 9/10 movie tie in anyone?
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 11:58

  • BlueDot #19 4 years ago

    I'll bet it will still hit number 1-5 on the sales chart. People are stoopid.

  • Laika #20 4 years ago

    Hulk could be good...

    Ultimate Destruction was...

  • DFawkes #21 4 years ago

    @thewolfiv

    LotRO isn't a movie tie in, it's a book tie in. That's why nothing looks quite like the films, although to say they were "inspired" by the movies style would be an understatement.

    Oh, and I thought Spiderman 2 on PS2 was the best movie tie-in for a while.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 12:06

  • JediMasterMalik #22 4 years ago

    I did quite like Spidey 2 actually, for a while at least, was even looking forward to 3. Shame about that one.

  • JediMasterMalik #23 4 years ago

    News just in: "Poor Iron Man the Game reviews blamed on success of GTA IV!"

  • Artemus #24 4 years ago

    Damn I was expecting this to compete with GTAIV for GOTY.

  • Vermillion3000 #25 4 years ago

    Movie licenses are totally poisoned chalices. Drop dead release dates, probably a shifting target in the form of script changes and lots of outside pressure to this and that with the game and exactly 1 million different versions worldwide. I don't envy the guys who made this...

  • captainrentboy #26 4 years ago

    Played this in work, and turned it off after 5 minutes, once I'd seen that my Mark 1 suit's fiery rays of destruction only resulted in the numerous enemies clutching their heart and dropping to their knees, I'd seen enough.
    ''Ohhhhh I'm on fire, be still my beating heart''
    Film's amazing though, and talking of comic book movies, any of you seen what Two Face will actually look like in The Dark knight? It's fucking disgusting :)

  • r3n #27 4 years ago

    people will still buy this because they liked the film. i wish more people played demos and read reviews before spending £40

    film was good for what it was trying to do, but X2 and batman begins are better. the dark knight should wipe the floor with it

  • asphaltcowboy #28 4 years ago

    It's a shame it didn't turn out as well as it might have - I think they deserve a bit of praise for actually trying something a little different (kind of open-worldy, do things in any order) - but they should have made it more like Crackdown... and sorted out decent controls (like Crackdown).

  • actionfitz #29 4 years ago

    idd.
    the xbox 360 demo made baby jesus cry.
    trying to shoot AND fly was impossible.
    'ping-ponging off the scenery' lol yeah me too.

    One "great big pair of Custard-filled pants" / 10

  • Nilsy #30 4 years ago

    Does whatever an iron can?

  • mingster #31 4 years ago

    sounds good

  • DanWhitehead #32 4 years ago

    I think they deserve a bit of praise for actually trying something a little different (kind of open-worldy, do things in any order)

    The last three Spider-Man games, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Superman Returns and Transformers all had more open environments than Iron Man.

    This really isn't an openworld game - it just has very large levels. Being able to choose what order to blow stuff up in is only deserving of praise if it actually alters the course of the game. I mean, you chose which alien to shoot at in Space Invaders, but I wouldn't call that a non-linear game.

  • Arcadiian #33 4 years ago

    @ Pirotic.

    Well, Secret Level developed it. Although I suppose they are owned by SEGA now. And SEGA were stupid enough to let them develop it in the first place. At least it wasn't one of the main SEGA studios that developed it though. Gah! I'm trying to find a way to make this better but I can't. Awful game. :(

  • glaeken #34 4 years ago

    Funny I did not think the controls in the demo were that bad. In fact it very much reminded me of Amored Core.

    It's not a game I would ever buy though as I was bored by the end of the demo.

  • asphaltcowboy #35 4 years ago

    The last three Spider-Man games, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Superman Returns and Transformers all had more open environments than Iron Man.

    This really isn't an openworld game - it just has very large levels. Being able to choose what order to blow stuff up in is only deserving of praise if it actually alters the course of the game. I mean, you chose which alien to shoot at in Space Invaders, but I wouldn't call that a non-linear game.

    True... you are right :(

  • Vin #36 4 years ago

    The next project from the devs is Golden Axe.

    Collective sigh from all and sundry.

  • byron_hinson #37 4 years ago

    TeamXbox gave this a 7, surely we should take their expert word on it as final!

  • Kiigan #38 4 years ago

    The demo was fairly decent I thought - more than I expect from film license tie-ins, and it looked good. Controls were a bit mad though.

  • muscleblade #39 4 years ago

    Hulk must be better than this. What took you so long with the review btw. The game has been out for 6 days now. Glad i didnt buy it, i almost did but i figured i rather get more in to GTAIV before starting anything new.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 14:16

  • DFawkes #40 4 years ago

    Did anyone else see the review on Gamer.tv? I'm sure it got a high score, which of course can be taken as a guarentee of quality!

  • Quak #41 4 years ago

    > Such a shame to see this was developed by SEGA. You would have hoped they at least could of made it average.

    You have clearly mistaken the Sega of today with the Sega of 10 years ago.

  • solidSnake04 #42 4 years ago

    Dan Whitehead did a great job of ripping this game to pieces.
    Thats how it should be done to games worth piles of crap, so that next time maybe the developers will present something worth investing 40 bucks.
    Well done.

    by the way : it would be nice to have a hall of shame to put games rated 3 and below, in fact, i also back the introduction of the "none/10" rating, for utter garbage games
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 14:54

  • Nithron #43 4 years ago

    Now, if we're lucky, they'll reuse the same engine to make something reasonably cool, but nothing to do with the movies, further down the line.

    Remember Ultimate Spider Man?

  • Artemis_Matsas #44 4 years ago

    Nooooooooooo...

    I've seen that coming after the awful demo...

    Even though i am an Iron Man fan, i'll wait for this to be heavily discounted before i buy it.

    Damn f@%#^%# lazy movie tie ins :(

    Edit: The movie really IS great though!!!
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/08 @ 15:03

  • viper_h #45 4 years ago

    Goldeneye was a good movie tie in!

  • HyperShadow #46 4 years ago

    Tried the demo after watching the awesome movie, really disappointed. Guess I'll wait for a heavy price drop and a lull in quality releases.

  • Waffleaber #47 4 years ago

    It took 50 posts for someone to mention Goldeneye in a crap videogame/movie tie-in thread?!

  • Scoops #48 4 years ago

    @ DFawkes

    I think he was talking about the LOTR hack and slash style games from EA. I think they are probably the best movie tie-ins with regard to making a playable game and using the assets available from the films. By EA too, who would have thought it possible??

  • BOFH_UK #49 4 years ago

    Umm, I admit I haven't tried the full game but I actually enjoyed the demo once I'd got used to the controls. Flying seemed easy enough, movement simple and the various weapon options bloody useful when you had to start playing with the energy allocation. The thing that took me a while to get used to was the links between hover, flight and the dash attacks / evasive stuff (A on the 30 pad). Once that clicked it was pretty easy to do some impressive stuff. Not a GTA beater by any means but worth picking up once the price drops a bit.

  • Bloodloss #50 4 years ago

    I also somewhat enjoyed the demo. I don't think it deserves a high score at all, but 3/10 is a bit too harsh.

  • MrChallacombe #51 4 years ago

    Demo was awful. wanted game until that point.

  • septimus #52 4 years ago

    The Ultimate Alliance game is still the best for messing about with these characters. Just use which ever character is out in a film at the time to get the same atmosphere.

  • DFawkes #53 4 years ago

    @Scoops

    He did say online, which I would've though was online, but I guess I could've been wrong - plenty of online movie based ones, like Battle for Middle-Earth. Which reminds me, Battle for Middle-Earth is awesome. That was EA too. And I loved LotR Tactics on PSP. I don't think even EA could break Lord of the Rings!

    I can't see how EA could've done worse with this. Heck, just release Fifa with Iron Man as all 11 players on your team and it'd probably have sold and been okay to play, albeit just Fifa.

  • metalmonk #54 4 years ago

    SEGA should start digging a grave for the HULK game next to this one!

  • Ryze #55 4 years ago

    Idiots for messing this game up - it's because regardless of the game quality, loads of stupid kids will get Mum/Dad to buy it anyway.

    No incentive.

  • Hypercube #56 4 years ago

    I can't believe people liked the movie! Seriously, I thought it was an over-blown hollow experience, with a couple of flying bits being the only parts where it perked up.

    If the game is worse than that, it must be a real stinker.

  • reality_cheque #57 4 years ago

    Played the demo last night, and it was the voice acting that put the final nail in the coffin. And this is a well nailed coffin, considering the movement, the combat and the script are also fucking appalling.

  • mukki #58 4 years ago

    yikes too bad an other bad tie-in...