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Let’s just get this out of the way right from the start – the first Iron Man game in 2008 was not a high mark for gaming.  It featured unyielding controls and was absolutely lacking any kind of fun in the package.  With that in mind, we knew that Iron Man 2 did not have to do much to raise the bar to becoming a great game in the short line of Iron Man dedicated titles.  And yes, Iron Man 2 does improve on its predecessor in many ways.  That said, Iron Man 2 still has numerous flaws and technical hurdles that preclude it from breaking out as a good game, let alone, a great game.

Iron Man 2 breaks free from the tradition of most movie tie-in games by creating a new story for gamers to experience.  A company by the name of Roxxon has decided that the best way to compete with Stark Industries is not so much by building a better product, but by stealing a product from its competitor.  The item in question is the artificial intelligence that Tony Stark has created, J.A.R.V.I.S. to power its own army of power suits.  Iron Man and War Machine are both tasked with stopping Roxxon, and all the super powered beings that have been employed to steal the A.I.  The story is somewhat interesting, but it never really grabs you at any point, and while it is a separate entity from the movie, it does mirror it on several levels.

A huge flaw in the first Iron Man title was the flight mechanics required to navigate Iron Man through the environment.  The flight played out like a flight simulator, and it was easy to get confused in where you were supposed to go.  Thankfully, these mechanics are improved, so movement on the ground and in the air uses the same control scheme.  However, while the controls were simplified, it was still difficult to navigate flight and combat enemies at the same time, leading to a lot of fly, hover, combat, fly, hover, combat changes over and over.  It does not help that Iron Man seems to be a game conflicted over whether to be a melee fighter or a flight combat fighter.  The developers have stressed that they wanted to keep combat open for those that prefer flying and fighting from a distance, or getting close in to battle toe to toe, as Iron Man does in the comics.  The problem is that neither one of these combat modes feel all that good.  Many times, I just spammed my repulsors, as I would repeatedly get hit with a missile attack when I tried to get in close to an enemy to engage melee combat.

Visually, the graphics for Iron Man 2 have been improved, with the suits and the enemies looking a lot better.  As you play through Iron Man 2, you unlock a number of new suits of armor that each has their own look and style, with each being represented in a high rate of detail.  Main enemies also look pretty good, again sporting a lot of detail.  The actual characters themselves look pretty ugly however, with Don Cheadle’s character looking like he has just been beat up in a fight.  Scarlett Johannson should actually file a lawsuit with the horror that is her character in this game.  The environments when outdoors look well done, but fall apart when you go indoors as every building looks like it was made from one of three models.  It just reeks of a lack of polish when you compare Iron Man and the enemies to the rest of the cast.

Most of the actors from the movie skipped over being involved with the voice work here, with only Sam Jackson and Don Cheadle lending a hand to the production.  While Don Cheadle does some admirable work in Iron Man 2, the same cannot be said for Sam Jackson or the rest of the voice crew.  Sam Jackson sounds as if he was counting money while doing his voice work and the rest of the crew just seemed uninspired with the dialog they were reading.  You just expect more from a game that is tied into such a huge license, and you never get any of that excitement from any of the characters.  The sounds of battle are much better however, with each missile and repulsor blast sounding really good.

A lack of polish showed up during my play of Iron Man 2, including right from the first level of the game.  Five minutes in during my first battle, I found myself clipping right through a piece of rubble in the game, and was stuck, requiring a restart from my last checkpoint.  Back into that battle, the same thing happened again at the exact same spot.  I experienced this issue at several points, which led me to believe that the team just did not have their hearts in the production of the title.  It also did not help that the game just never kicked in with any sense of fun or excitement at any point.  I mean, there were some great set pieces, like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, and Stark’s Data Spire, but nothing interesting was done with any of them at any point in time.  Iron Man is a character that has such a rich ability, and I would love to see him have some legs in a game, but he seems so confined and dull here.

You can play through the entire storyline as either War Machine or Iron Man, but even here we end up losing out on a huge selling point for Iron Man 2, as you have absolutely no co-op play in the game.  There were many times where I was grinding my way through the story, and I would think to myself that this could be a lot more fun if I could team up with a buddy playing as War Machine.  Sure, it would have added some complexity to development, but it just seems like it would have been a natural progression, considering you can play as either character through the main story.  Co-op play would have made the game more fun, and this oversight just reeks of pushing the title out the door for the quick money grab.

At the end of the day, Iron Man 2 does improve on his initial visit to the current generation of consoles.  But the consistent lack of polish, major bugs and an uninspired movie leaves me wanting so much more from an Iron Man title.  Fans of the series may find some fun with the different costumes and expansion of the lore, but really, there is so much more that could have been with Iron Man 2.  As it stands now, I would just steer clear of it and just watch the movie instead, which is leap and bounds ahead of this title.  Iron Man 2 gets 1.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out Iron Man 2 other Xbox 360  reviews at Test Freaks.