Iron Man the movie has been quite successful and so a videogame conversion was bound to hit the PS3 soon after the films release. Now if you read our Wii review of Iron Man recently then you will no doubt know what is coming even before you begin scrolling through the paragraphs below, however we will continue.
Iron Man on PS3 basically follows the same story as the Wii version, you play as Tony Stark as you don the Iron Suit and take out all in your path. The story is pretty basic and at the beginning sees you imprisoned by a group of militants who have captured your industries weaponry and are determined to make you build them the ultimate weapon, however with the help of your fellow inmate you construct a powerful suit that will help you escape from their grasp.
The first few missions are basically a tutorial which will help you get used to the game and the controls, however once these are out of the way the fun (or lack of it) begins. To help your in your quest against the terrorists you armour comes armed with a nifty range of weapons such as a repulsor ray, missiles and a powerful chest cannon, these should help you tear through the enemies easily enough and hey, if they aren’t powerful enough for you then you also have the option to pay to upgrade these, which can be achieved by completing certain objectives within the game to earn cash.
Controlling your character is probably what lets this game down most, everything about the layout of the controls just feels awkward and wrong. First off it’s hard enough to fly, using the left trigger you can send your character into the air, however it is hard to find the perfect balance as pushing the trigger all of the way in will send you way up in the sky, meaning that you then have to let go of the trigger until you descend to the correct level and then try to hit the left trigger again until you get to where you want to be, sounds complicated doesn’t it? As if all this wasn’t enough just wait until you try to actually moving whilst in the air, there is no real set speed you go way too slow or way too fast thanks to the suits afterburners, it’s just awkward and rather annoying.
Unfortunately the combat doesn’t make things any better, you are constantly bombarded by Tanks, Helicopters and Ground Troops, none of which seem to have any real intelligence other than to figure out who you are and blast at you with their weapons. To make matters worse the controls for combat are again quite suspect, to aim freely you are required to hold the right trigger halfway down, or to lock onto the nearest enemy pull the trigger all of the way down and then gamble as to what enemy it has actually locked onto, be warned half the time it won’t be the one you thought it would.
One bonus is that once you eventually manage to get a grip of the controls you should be able to blast your way through the enemies fairly easily, even your non upgraded weapons can cut through nearly every enemy without much fuss, the only resistance you will come across is when you face the end of level bosses, which at least provide a decent challenge.
Graphically the game is a big letdown, the cutscenes although voiced by Robert Downey Jnr are completely awful, the levels feel featureless and do not provide any type of interactivity, in fact the only saving grace in this department is that Iron Man looks quite good, however that is hardly going to save this game from mediocrity.
Perhaps it will come as a surprise to no-one that yet again a movie to videogame conversion has once again failed to provide any level of entertainment, perhaps one day someone will get it right, but I tell you one thing for sure, I ain’t holding my breath.
