14 DAY TRIAL // 
Iron Man was received with mixed reactions, but Sega promises a new gaming sensation with the release of Iron Man 2. The challenge is to “port” Marvel's successful comic book to the console gaming world.
Featuring a plot written by the famous comic book writer Matt Fraction and backed up by a long list of improvements, Iron Man 2 tries to be exactly what its predecessor wasn't.
With a franchise as big and famous as Iron Man, fans will continuously take sides and argue which Iron Man is better (1 or 2), but the fact remains that both are, at the core, a tribute to their comic book roots.
Story
First of all, you should know that the Iron Man 2 game does not follow movie’s storyline. The action is a follow-up to the motion picture and it is the result of a collaboration between Matt Fraction, creator of the comic book The Invincible Iron Man and Sega's creative director, Kyle Brink.
The game has a cool story with Tony Stark/Iron Man as the protagonist. A good surprise was the appearance of James Rhodes aka Warmachine, bringing diversity to the story and, at the same time, keeping gamers anchored in the movie’s story.
It all starts with Iron Man and Warmachine trying to keep Dataspine, an archived version of J.A.R.V.I.S., from being stolen. Of course, they fail and here's the main plot of the game: billionaire seeks to destroy powerful weapons that were created using Stark technology.
To aid Iron Man is his noble quest are James Rhodes (Warmachine), Nick Fury at the command of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Natasha Romanoff, Pepper Potts and, of course, everybody's favorite, the mechanized, omnipresent J.A.R.V.I.S.
The "mastermind" behind the Dataspine theft and the creation of ULTIMO (J.A.R.V.I.S.'s evil counterpart) is a former Stark employee, Kearson DeWitt. His evil, yet short plan is supported by General Valentin Shatalov, who later becomes Crimson Dynamo.
Gameplay
One thing that surprised me about this game was its length. Having played Iron Man 1, I expected to see at least 12 levels, but, instead, Sega decided to cut it short, to 8 missions, so just when you’ve started to enjoy upgrading the suit's weapons and inserting different modules, you'll be left high and dry staring at the credits...
A very pleasant surprise came right at the beginning of the game, when, after getting familiar with the new controls for Iron Man, I was placed in the shoes of Warmachine. Heavier and better equipped for fighting, this guy can take almost anything head-on (well, except maybe the bosses). Throughout the campaigns you'll mostly be able to choose between one character and the other, although there are certain missions that require a specific hero.
Not only does Iron Man have a partner, but during a later mission you'll also team up with a reprogrammed Arc Armiger. This steel, remote-controlled beast is, of course, more powerful than the enemy's Arc Armigers and will prove to be a precious ally.
Keeping up the positive streak, I was amazed to see that Iron Man 2 features an autosave function that will allow you to load from key points during a mission, if you manage to get yourself killed while saving the world.
This is a handy feature, especially when you encounter bugs, like the one in the power plant, where I was left with no target in a small dark room. After several minutes of discharging my weaponry into almost everything that looked like a door or a switch, I finally realized this was a bug (not a feature) and tried again from the last checkpoint.
The reward system is comprised of 50 different achievements. Most of them can be earned rather easily and after each mission everyone should have at least three or four. There are still a few that require more skill, like defeating ULTIMO with no armor damage.
Iron Man's flight system has also been reworked. If in the first game you have to fly a lot between mission objectives, now flying is optional. Most of the missions require hovering while protecting various allies. When there’s nothing to protect and you are allowed to explore, you'll be quickly shown to an underground bunker that just needs exploring.
You do have some sense of freedom to experiment, because with credits earned after a successful mission you'll be able to mod, upgrade your ammo and even invent new weapons. The downside to this is that, no matter how much you upgrade, the gameplay isn’t visibly affected!
To spice things up, you'll also be allowed to customize suits from several previous Iron Man attempts (like the Extremis Iron Man armor or the Ultimate Iron Man armor) to several War Machine suits (like the Silver Centurion armor), and you’ll also equip them with your preferred load-out.
Overall, the gameplay has been considerably improved, but it's still kind of dull and repetitive. The poor animation that's supposed to unwind and diversify, only amplifies your frustration instead.
Video and Audio
Graphics are much better, compared to the first game, but character models could still use a little more work. Besides Nick Fury and maybe the Black Widow, they all seem snatched from a cheap wax museum.
Fighting opponents is a real threat as they come in all shapes and sizes: from the small and annoying drones to the crab-like Arc Armigers, and way up to the two bosses in the game (Crimson Dynamo and ULTIMO).
The terrain and the surrounding environment look nice, but nothing stands out. As a relatively new game I expected a lot more destructible areas and finer attention to details.
I've found the in-game voiceovers to be rather convincing, even though Robert Downey Jr. is no longer among the cast members. The only actor voices you'll hear will be the ones of Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson that reprise their roles as War Machine and Nick Fury.
As for the script, even though the entire voice cast tries to take things to the next level, it's often put down by long and boring dialogues. If at first you'll be slurping the words from every cinematic scene, wondering what comes next, by the third mission you'll be pressing the skip button like a rabid monkey (and no, I’ve never actually seen one doing that).
Conclusion
If you're searching for a game that features one of the coolest Marvel superheroes, that has two playable characters and that's only based on the Iron Man 2 movie, then you've reached the right place. On the other hand, if you want a game with value on par with the financial investment, that has cool and smooth animation while providing exciting and addictive gameplay, then you should keep searching.
I'm not saying that Iron Man 2 is a bad game, just that it's unexpectedly average. So, even though it benefits from several improvements, it doesn't rise much higher than its predecessor. I recommend it to casual gamers with time to spare, Iron Man fans and mostly kids under 15 years of age.
