- Time To 1000 - 6-10 Hours
- Ease Of Game - 3/10 (Easy)
- Number Of Playthroughs Required - 1 (although 2 playthroughs are HIGHLY recommended)
- Total Number Of People Needed To Boost Online Achievements - no online achievements
Iron Man 2 is a third person action game released by Sega. It is the utter definition of why most movie based games are hated, as it feels very cheaply made on all fronts (especially the camera). However, it is also one of the easiest and shortest 1000s of 2010 and due to the fact it has
NO collectibles we must consider it an early contender for Game of the Year
Notes:
*While this game can be completed in one playthrough, it will be very difficult as you will have to start on the Hard (called Formidable in this game) difficulty with no upgrades. If you do a playthrough first on Easy difficulty, you can carry all your upgrades over to Formidable and make the game laughably easy. Difficulty related achievements DO stack, so you will also unlock beating the game on Normal when you beat it on Formidable
*Every level has a level-specific objective to complete for an achievement. Thankfully this game has a level select so nothing is missable
*Every level also awards you a new suit of armour (and in turn an achievement) for getting a high score on each mission. To earn a high score basically kill everything in sight and don't leave a single enemy alive. If you complete a level and don't get an achievement for unlocking a suit of armour, play it again and be very thorough with destroying your foes
PLAYTHROUGH 1 - EASY
MISSION 1
Begin your first playthrough on EASY difficulty and ONLY use Iron Man for the missions (as basically you have to do a playthrough each with Iron Man and War Machine). There are a few missions where the game will make you play as War Machine, but this doesn't count against you. The mission begins with you having to escape Stark Tower and functions as the tutorial for the game. Upon exiting the tower you will earn the:
-Shake It Off (3g) - Recover from the Roxxon EMP attack achievement
Now outside, you have to defend the tower from attacking dropships. The second you gain control of Iron Man, fly straight ahead and destory the dropship in front of you as fast as you can before it can deploy any troops. Once it is gone turn around and destroy the other approaching dropships. As long as you can destroy them all without them deploying a single troop you will earn the:
-Not In My House (15g) - Prevent the first wave of Roxxon dropships from deploying their drones achievement
You will battle a few more waves of attackers, upon killing them all the level ends and you will earn these achievements:
-Access Denied (10g) - Prevent Roxxon from stealing the Stark Archives
-Mark VI (10g) - Unlock the Mark VI Iron Man armor
Inbetween Missions
After every mission you are awarded points which you can spend for weapon and armour upgrades at Stark Tower. I recommend saving all of these for your Formidable playthrough so you can buy the really expensive upgrades right from the beginning and breeze through the game. Since you are on Easy currently you will have no problems killing things with your default weapons
Note: DO NOT buy the Melee Combat upgrades, these are a complete waste of credits and have nothing to do with achievements
MISSION 2
This mission has you protecting a fleet of 6 SHIELD transports. Fly ahead of them (not too far ahead or you automatically fail the mission for abandoning them) and kill everything in sight before they can hurt the transports. After you pass a checkpoint one of the transports is automatically destroyed, but don't worry about this as it's part of the story. As long as you can reach the end of the canyon with the remaining 5 transports still alive you will earn the:
-Full Flight (15g) - Only one S.H.I.E.L.D. transport lost in the canyon run achievement
The next section has you entering a warzone where you now have to defend ground based SHIELD units. Kill everything in sight as fast as you can so that no harm comes to the majority of the units and you will unlock the:
-Area Secured (20g) - At least 10 S.H.I.E.L.D. units survive the battle for the docks achievement
Also as you are killing the ground enemy troops, you will see several soldiers not in vehicles. Kill one of them with your Unibeam Attack (hold and release both Triggers at the same time) for the:
-Unnecessary Force (7g) - Defeat a soldier with Iron Man's unibeam achievement. If you happen to accidently kill these footsoldiers before you can Unibeam them, there are more in later levels
Continue through the level. Upon completing it you will unlock the achievements:
-Deportation (15g) - Prevent the Russian separatists from deploying Roxxon Armigers
-Mark II (10g) - Unlock the Mark II Iron Man armor
Note: From Mission 2 onward, Iron Man now has the ability to go invincible for a short amount of time. Press down on the D-Pad to activate this, however it can only be done ONCE a level. Anytime you're on a level surrounded by a lot of enemies it's a good idea to activate this and melee kill them all, as this will work towards several of the kill related achievements in the game
MISSION 3
More robot killing. Early on one of your objectives will be to destroy a Tesla reactor in a room. To do so, you must destroy the four stabilizers in each corner of the room. Ignoring the enemies, blow all four of these up in under sixty seconds and you will unlock the:
-Pulling The Plug (15g) - Destroy all four Tesla reactor stabilizers in under 60 seconds achievement
Continue on through the level until you get to the base of a man named Shatalov. You are given a series of marked buildings on the screen you have to search to find a console. Kill everything on the base and destroy every building, silo, and structure you possibly can (including ALL roof panels on the marked buildings) until this achievement pops:
-Anger Management (15g) - Destroy most of the structures in Shatalov's base
Soon you will enter into a boss battle with the Crimson Dynamo atop a tower. When it begins, blow up the three marked points on the tower to cut off his super powers and then just keep shooting him until he's dead. Completing this level will earn you the following achievements:
-Power Outage (15g) - Defeat the Crimson Dynamo
-Classic Mark I (10g) - Unlock the Classic Mark I Iron Man armor
MISSION 4
This mission begins with you having to descend down a massive elevator shaft full of laser beams. Move up against a wall as far as you can and SLOWLY descend down (taking care to watch out for the few moving beams) until you hit the bottom. As long as you hit the floor without touching a single laser beam you will earn the:
-Entrapment (15g) - Reach the bottom of the elevator shaft without touching a laser tripline achievement
Soon after you will enter into another boss battle, this time with the Protean. In the room there are three energy terminals you have to charge up by rapidly pressing the B button. In order to full charge them without being interrupted, keep shooting the Protean until he goes into a state where he doesn't attack you and recharges his health. Once all three are charged up, shoot him again until he goes into his recharge state and then quickly dash into the next room and activate the console.
As long as the Protean is outside the doors when you activate the console, it will flood the room with energy and kill him to end the level. You will then earn the achievements:
-Anti-PROTEAN (20g) - Destroy Project PROTEAN
-Extremis (10g) - Unlock the Extremis Iron Man armor
MISSION 5
-This mission has you defending the SHIELD helicarrier in the air from an onslaught of attacking robots. As always, kill everything in sight as fast as you can. Also when you damage an enemy enough, a B icon will appear over their head. If you approach them and press B, you will hack them so they fight on your side. As long as you kill everything quickly without the helicarrier getting damaged you will unlock the following achievements:
-Defensive Player Of The Year (20g) - Save all four repulsor lifts and all four stabilizers on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
-Improvisation Under Fire (20g) - Save Rhodey and the Stark mobile armory from the A.I.M. attack
-Mark III (10g) - Unlock the Mark III Iron Man armor