While leaving a bit to be desired Icon still provides some memorable moments.

User Rating: 8 | Def Jam: Icon X360
By celtic1962 | Review Date:
GAMEPLAY (8) - First of all I should mention that I never played any of the previous Def Jam games so I can't compare this one to those. I'm under the impression that the older games had more of a pro wrestling style of combat, while Icon goes for a street-fighting type of game. The basic single-player game is the Build-a-Label mode. In this mode you'll create a character who will become a producer managing a roster of talent that's trying to make money and eventually achieve Icon status. As you play through the story you'll do favors for rappers and help to fight off paparazzi or off-duty cops in an effort to get them to sign with your record label. Once you've got them under your banner you can eventually produce CDs, with the goal of getting them to go multi-platinum. Another element of improving your "status" as a producer are the various clothes you can wear. There is quite a large selection of clothes you can buy along with accessories. More expensive items means a better status, but buying too much can end up being bad in the long run since you might not have enough money to be able to push the next CD your artist brings out as well. I enjoyed the story mode and just wish the game had given me the option to get a bit deeper into the producer side as it basically limited me to just deciding how much I was going to initially invest in a rapper's new song. The game follows a pattern where every time a problem arises it can only be settled by a fight. Light and strong, high and low regular attacks with the face buttons provide the usual combat options. Less orthodox are the many uses of the R-stick. Press it one way and you grapple, press it another and you launch a much stronger attack. Environmental hazards are an important part of the game. The background of the level pulsates to the beat of the rapper's song that will be playing while hazards like cars, vault doors, and flaming subwoofers slam and crash with the base. If you toss an opponent next to something dangerous you can pull off a "DJ move" to ensure the bass beat hits while your enemy is lying there. The result is pretty impressive as your enemy gets launched across the screen from the force of the hazard, giving him considerable damage. This ends up being quite a bit of fun, but it does get repetitive eventually as for the most part I followed the same fighting patterns throughout the entire game. There is the variety in the fighting environments but after countless battles the six or so different areas give that "been there, done that" feel. Still, by the time I started feeling that I was near the end of the game so it worked out pretty well.

GRAPHICS (8.5) - Icon is a very good looking game. The characters are done well, having tons of detail with lifelike facial and body features along with generally fluid movement while fighting. The fighters accrue visible and accurate damage, and every environment is full of little details that match the music, like rising and falling drapes in the penthouse level or skyscraper windows that jump like equalizers in the rooftop level. It's in the battle arenas where this becomes a game to show off to friends. They're not very large, but each arena is magnificently rendered with tremendous detail in every corner. They are pretty diverse, including spots in a club, on a rooftop and at a gas station, among others. I only wish there had been even more areas as they will start to repeat before long. Fire effects, explosions, and glass breaking are all done very well and create a great sense of carnage as the fights go on. In the story mode there are numerous cutscenes using the in-game engine that look very good, and even an occasional "news flash" that uses live video similar to an MTV update that relates to events going on in the story.

AUDIO (8.5) - Considering this game is based around the rap industry one would expect the audio portion to be above average, and ICON does not disappoint. There is a large library of music as each rapper will use one of his songs during a fight. One word of warning, the lyrics are uncensored so you'll hear quite a bit of cursing though surprisingly there's very little of that during the cutscenes. Speaking of which, all of the voice acting is well done and sounds realistic. You'll hear the different characters not only through the cutscenes but in frequent voicemails as well. Fortunately most of the rappers in the game do their own voicework to give the story authenticity and other actors do a good job as well, especially Anthony Anderson who voices villain Troy Dollar. Explosion and destructive sound effects are plentiful during the battles and sound great as well.

VALUE (7.5) - In addition to the Build a Label campaign, which should take 10 hours or so, there are the multiplayer modes which are pretty much standard one-on-one exhibition matches that can either be online or with a friend with another controller. The bonus with this is that you can play custom music either from your hard drive or a MP3 player and the environments will respond as though it were part of the game's original soundtrack. As you play through the SP mode you'll unlock characters that you can then use in the exhibition matches. This offers some replay value as during the Build a Label mode there will be times when you'll have to make a decision as to which of 2 or 3 different rappers you want to support and eventually unlock, so you can go back and replay it to unlock other rappers. Considering how affordable the game is now it's not a bad deal.

SUMMARY - Overall there were a number of things I liked about Icon, and my general feeling was that I just wished there had been a bit more to it. Get a little deeper into the producer aspect (or at least give the option to get more involved), offer a larger variety of battle arenas and have the combat evolve so that you're not basically doing the same moves at the end of the game that you were doing at the beginning and you could have a top notch sequel. As for this game its still a decent effort and it was able to keep my interest despite not being a fan of either fighting games or rap music so that's saying something. If it seems interesting then I'd recommend at least renting it or taking a chance and buying it as you can probably get it for less than $15 now.


Other Helpful Reviews for Def Jam: Icon

Load Comments (0)