Day 80: I AM (a preview of) IRON MAN.
I played the new Iron Man demo available for download on Xbox Live, and the game is a short demo, so some features aren’t in place yet, but it looks like a really fun, if not spectacular game.
It’s a lot of fun to just fly around shooting helicopters with repulsor rays, and firing micro grenades at tanks. However, the ground game needs a lot of work. There are some clipping issues, and it’s hard to use things as cover because sometimes they’re solid and sometimes bullets and missiles come right through them. I realize this is silly, and might just be nit-picking, but Iron Man runs like a bitch. It’s just lame that he looks so cool flying, but is the opposite of awesome when he starts jogging.
The flying however is pretty spectacular, and I wish the demo didn’t have a time limit, because I can’t enjoy casually flying around and distributing destruction. There’s a melee button, but it’s dumb when your palms shoot lasers. However, getting close to a vehicle (for the tanks, you have to jump on them) and turrets then tapping ‘B’ lets you grab them. After vigorous thumbing of the ‘B,’ Stark tears the vehicle apart with his hands.
Except the fucking Osprey. I spent forever flying around, getting shot at trying to catch thing to shoot it down, or see what happens when you grapple it, and you can’t. The repulsor rays all miss, and you just fly into it or awkwardly reach at it. What the hell, bros?
After talking it over with Steve, it’s possible some features got cut, and I hope that’s the case, because what’s the point of wearing a 90 billion dollar suit that shoots lasers if you can’t blow up stray boxes, or shoot through chain link fences? Given that the new Hulk games promises the entirety of Manhattan to destroy (UN, here I come) something like invincible boxes and magic fences, especially given the power of the latest generation of consoles, is lazy.
In a perfect world I’d be able to destroy everything, because, this may surprise you, but I could easily spend hours wiping away every last hint of civilization in every level.
Look for a full review when the game comes out and when I rent it, but if flying and lasers is your thing, give it a download.
Matt