14 DAY TRIAL // 
The iconic Marvel character, Iron Man, breaks from the big screens and comes to Xbox 360 consoles, giving fans a taste of the action.
Published by Sega, the game had the same launch date as the movie, delivering fans a double dose of adrenaline and steel. More so, the in-game voices are those of Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges, who also starred in the movie.
Will the game be able to match up the success of the blockbuster and satisfy fans all over the world? Stick around and you'll find out!
Story
The story changes a few things, compared to the movie. While the first and the last mission are the same as in the motion picture, the rest were just inspired from the motion picture. You'll mainly be playing an armored avenger that travels around the world destroying weapon stashes and nuclear silos.
Right from the first mission you'll take on the role of Tony Stark, as he escapes, after being kidnapped by a terrorist group. Instead of building them a powerful missile, you'll construct an almost invincible suit that will help you break out of prison.
Inspired by his mentor, Yinsen, Tony realizes the horrors that his company has caused and then decides to upgrade the power armor and stop producing weapons.
While stopping an attack on the Stark facilities, Tony sees the potential of the iron suit and decides to take matters into his own powerful hands and stop the use all the destructive arsenal, created by his company.
Across all thirteen action-packed missions you'll be facing Maggia, Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), the Iron Monger (Obadiah Stane) along with some of their minions (well, a lot of minions to be more precise).
Gameplay
When I took the iron suit for its first flight, it felt very clumsy, hitting almost everything in front of me, but with a little practice I started to get the hang of it.
The hard part comes when you have to fight and fly at the same time: your fingers just aren't enough and when your weapons system finally focuses on a target, you'll only have two or three shots before you lose the lock. You encounter the same problem with planes, they're just too fast to follow and if you wait for them to come to you, you'll only get a couple of shots before the lock disappears again.
Now about the difficulty of the game: while I found that the first missions where extremely easy, even for someone with absolutely no experience, the first time I died it completely took me by surprise. So, if at first you can go head to head with almost everything that looks like a threat, later missions will have you feeling like Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell’s main character). Well, I don't want to sneak up on three tanks and 2 soldiers; I'm wearing a freaking iron suit!
The mini-map is quite useful as it works like a radar with you in the center and orange dots (the main targets) surrounding you. The downside is that it makes almost every level the same: go for the orange dots while dodging missiles, and after you've completed wiping out all of them, guess what? More orange targets will pop up.
Boss fights aren’t very different. They start after all the targets have been destroyed and to kill a boss you just have to shoot, and shoot and shoot... you get the idea.
A very annoying problem about the game was that in some missions, you can't get rid of some opponents. There are several scenarios where planes, helicopters and even transport ships will respawn every time you kill them. That would be a good thing if IronMan were a role-playing game and you'd get money and experience, but, clearly that’s not the case here.
A nice addition to the game is the upgrade system that makes the suit highly customizable. There are five suit elements that can be upgraded: Core Systems, Repulsors, Power Core, Auxiliary Weapons, and Mobility Enhancements.
To buy these upgrades you'll have to complete various objectives and if the first time playing you'll miss some of them, as I'm sure you will, there's a replay option.
Video and Audio
During his fighting, Iron Man will travel through various landscapes: from the urban environment with really tall skyscrapers, to the barren wastelands of Afghanistan and, finally, to a place that’s as cold and white as it is deadly: the Russian tundra.
The scenery is fun at first, but it becomes uninteresting as you approach it. Trees, houses and even tanks look chunky. All this is underlined by the fact that firing powerful missiles and lasers onto other surrounding elements has literally no effect.
The grappling animation looks cool at first as you stop rockets and tear tanks, helicopter and planes in half. Unfortunately, the animation is the same throughout the game adding to the overall monotony.
Using the voices of famous actors like Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and Shaun Toub, is a plus and draws an invisible line between the movie and the game. It's too bad that the person who wrote the in-game script didn't possess the same amount of talent. Repeating a mission, even three times, will have you going Postal on your speakers.
Conclusion
While filled with action, the game is a bit disappointing especially after seeing the movie. Still, the gameplay will give you a feeling of superhero-like power as you fly around destroying rocket launchers, powerful tanks, turrets, planes and helicopters.
The lack of multiplayer is another downside to the game. With the special appearance from War Machine, you'd think that at least a co-op option would be available.
Overall, this game looks like a big shiny diamond, but if you get close to it you'll find just a flawed zirconium stone. If you're a hard-core Iron Man fan, then I recommend that you don't just stick to the movie and the comic books, and give this game a try.
