Man of Steel Review

You'd think it would be a simple task to make a great game based on the latest Superman film, what with all its high-flying action and superhero awesomeness. Sadly, Man of Steel is a bland, repetitive, and weak (though ultimately competent) Infinity Blade knock-off, minus the exploration. You'll fight one Kryptonian after another, going through a Story Mode of loosely-connected scenes based on events from the movie, all while leveling up your skills along the way and watching a handful of neat comic-style cut-scenes that hint at the presence of a plot.

Fighting involves a mix of taps and gestures. Swipes left, right, or up each correspond to a punch in that direction, while a well-timed tap parries the enemy’s attack and a tap-and-hold maneuver blocks them. You can also dodge, grapple, or use one of two special attacks – super speed or heat vision. "Break" a foe and you can knock him into a nearby vehicle, fling him into the air, or send him on a quick cross-country flight via one serious wallop. Opponents follow patterns and have their own tells, but you can get by on just speedy reflexes and a willingness to grind. There are six character stats and six ability stats to level up, but these exponentially rise in cost at a far greater rate than you can earn experience points to spend on them.

The core of Man of Steel is well executed, if unoriginal, but the game suffers tremendously from a dearth of environments and enemy types – which are cycled through ad nauseam in both the story and survival mode. And your total lack of freedom to explore or fly at will grates against the idea of playing as Superman. Fighting Man of Steel’s horde of near-identical baddies one at a time starts out fun, but with little variation and few touches of personality, it gets old fast.

The bottom line. Man of Steel offers decent Infinity Blade-style fighting, but not even Superman can save its shallow depth, pathetic plot, lazy repetition, and unoriginal gameplay from certain destruction.