Sega has recently released a demo over Xbox Live and PSN for their upcoming title Iron Man. Iron Man is set to release on the same day as the film, May 2nd. Releasing on every platform, Iron Man hopes to break the mold of the unfortunate misses the movie-to-game tie-ins have suffered over the last few years. Going into this demo I, as I am with all movie tie-ins, was very skeptical at how well Sega will be able to pull this off.

So, what are they giving us?

Iron Man sheds light on some interesting new features that you will be able to play around with upon the game’s release. Gamers can expect the plotline of the game to remain the same as the movie, but with a few changes here and there to accommodate for the games structure. The Iron Man demo, not surprisingly, gives us an open world to work with on our missions and help players get used to the gameplay controls.
In just the short time you take control of Iron Man, one glaring thing you will notice is the flying ability. Iron Man’s flying ability is fun and should be very interesting once you are able to fly anywhere and complete missions throughout the story. Sega is definitely heading on the right track with this, so far.

Anything special?

One of the most interesting features of this game is the various Iron Man suits. According to Sega, as part of DLC, you will soon see some more exciting suits made just for the game going back to the classic days of the comic book series.
It is clear, browsing through the menus, that you will be able to equip Iron Man with various items and upgradeable weapons. The weapons Iron Man holds are powerful and you will be using a lot of them. Various missions will require you to be quick on your feet. You will be faced with melee combat from troops on the ground and air-missiles from helicopters around the area. Each of these situations will require the use of the varied amount of weapons that appear to be included in the final game.

How are the Graphics?

It is surprising how well Iron Man turned out to be in the graphic department. You can tell Sega put a lot of work into making Iron Man look exactly like his movie counter-part. Sharp graphics give way to excellent looking destructible environments and explosions. The game loads smoothly and textures and shading are of top notch. You won’t go wrong booting this game up on your HD set. Since this is an early copy, things can only get better.

Gameplay

Although it is unfortunate that you only get a short time within the demo to really get the feel of what Iron Man can bring, you do get to really scratch the surface with him. His control mechanics certainly felt like something you’d expect of Iron Man. The controls are not only ironclad, but take into account the weight of the suit as well with the “heavy” controls.

To go into more depth of his flying abilities, camera angles are certainly something that you will have to adjust too. The camera angles don’t seem like enough of a problem that they will make or break the game. Making the game an open-world adventure seemed to be the right choice for Sega and will ultimately be the one dynamic that will determine how this game holds in the general feel.

Conclusion

If the demo shows you anything about this title, players should expect the feel of a movie-tie in. However, there is still speculation as to whether or not this will be one of those above average movie games. If anything, one can only hope that the movie and the game become a great success. With the amount of customization, the promised DLC suit content, and the open-world flight and fight, Iron Man looks like a needle in the haystack of movie-tie games.
 

By: Jereme Puik, Staff Writer