Any experience VR brings with it something innovative: if the game mechanics that appear in the videogame panorama are in fact now often hybridized with each other to create new ideas, playing the same concepts with virtual reality leads to the breaking of many barriers, and consequently, proposes a unique gaming experience. We tried platformers, shooters, simple adventures with puzzles and some jump scare, but to judge a VR title well you need to understand the experience behind it, and what it can bring that is unique that a pad can hardly convey. Marvel's Iron Man VR, developed by Camouflaj and exclusive to PlayStation VR, aims to bring a gaming experience that simulates every movement of the famous hero. Between various limitations imposed by the game system and the technology, as functional as it is still immature, let's discover this game.
The experience of a real Iron Man
To understand what you can try to be Iron Man, unfortunately the comics are not helpful: over time we have seen a Tony Stark who is getting closer and closer to science fiction (as he was at the time), even with liquid armor and many gadgets, and although it is really fantastic to see him at work, it is a bit alienating compared to reality (but there it is, they are comics). The first film, unlike the others, has a more realistic and down-to-earth approach: wearing the armor takes time, the details of the movements are fantastic and to fly a simple thought is not enough to allow Tony to whiz across the sky. Marvel's Iron Man VR takes its cue from that: the two PlayStation Moves will be your hands and, with the thrusters, you can move freely in space. This, of course, eliminates every single thought related to Motion Sickness, resulting completely absent (your brain will think that you are stuck inside a flying armor, so it will not cause you problems). On balance, the game will let you experience what it means to fly, save lives and fight like Iron Man in a dozen missions and over a duration of about 8 hours, not bad time for a VR game.
Marvel's Iron Man VR will make you live the best experience dedicated to Iron Man, letting you try something unique.
The game system will take advantage of the rotation with the press of a button to make you turn, without having to do it in reality (unfortunately the Sony viewer is not so good as to work in this way) and the movements of the hands will have various functions that will activate some of the Iron Man attacks: with open palm you will shoot with the blaster, while lowering your hand you will activate the weapon placed on the forearm. There will be punches, the famous Unirection (which comes out directly from the chest) and, of course, all the mechanics that will require quick movements to manage with the thrusters in the hands. The fantastic thing about the game that you will perceive immediately, or rather after about half an hour, is the ease with which you can move around the maps. Each thruster of the hands acts as a motor, and therefore by moving them in space you can move in a certain direction quickly: the interesting part comes, however, when you will be asked to do more things: here your brain will automatically start to manage the two engines autonomously, giving you the ability to fly with one hand while shooting enemies with the other. In short, everything will aim to make you live the best possible experience dedicated to Iron Man, a curated and exceptional adventure that you will hardly find boring, but that will make you try something unique.
Unfortunately this fantastic experience crashes into two big limits. The first is due to the recycling of locations: the chapters exceed 12, but unfortunately the locations will not be more than 5 or 6, taking advantage of the plot to make you go back into landscapes already seen, with only the different sky. As for the rest, unfortunately there will be only 6 enemies in the game (approximately): these will obviously give you a hard time, but once you understand how they work it will be easy to get rid of them. It would certainly have been more intriguing to discover some terrestrial enemy instead of simple drones. To bore even more the loading of the levels: capable of exceeding the minute, this will be the real showstopper of the experience. In fact, you will find yourself several times, after seeing a moment full of adrenaline, having to wait to be able to leave, which is not too welcome. Another thing that finds little sense in the game (although we understand why it was included) are small phases rich in jump scare: either for the character of Ghost, or for the VR, sometimes you will happen to jump (in the armor ), just enough to ask you if it really was necessary.
The story of a real Tony Stark
The game will let you experience what it means to fly
Behind the gameplay hides - not so much - a really interesting story: the writers behind this original plot were inspired by enemies, arguments and many easter egg dedicated to the Golden Avenger, bringing to the game an interesting plot (which is lost only on some details such as the incessant desire to want to tell how, with every enemy attack, fortunately no human being was killed) and, despite the its banality, a development that is not bad at all. Marvel's Iron Man VR will make you live the story of Tony Stark starting from his stop in the production of weapons, then making you move towards the clash with the enemy of the moment - in this case Ghost (you will recognize him because seen in Ant-Man & The Wasp, although this is a classic enemy of Iron Man) - and not only that, and then even pay homage to the editorial history of the character with a really interesting mission (which we will avoid spoiling you). For the rest, the fidelity to the character is there and it shows, the concept behind the Tony we know (especially in the comics) is present and peeps out in many dialogues: in fact, he will not fail to talk about his habit of drinking, his old mistakes and of many other details that we will let you discover.
Finally, strong i recalls to some interesting runs of the hero, going from Extremis to Superior Iron Man, without missing famous guest stars, some well-placed easter eggs and an interesting exploration of some locations of the character: the Malibu villa will in fact be open to visitors and you can explore both the upper parts and the garage, going through some interesting details and systems to analyze well-made enemies, 3D models and so on. As for the armor, Tony will be able to modify some components by adding different types of weapons, each one perfect against a specific enemy: the aesthetics instead will be given by colored skins that, once unlocked with objectives, will be activated on the armor . Despite the intriguing plot, the game offers the possibility of replaying the missions and making them optional, both to unlock all the components of the armor, and to test yourself: here Marvel's Iron Man VR finds its function "Arcadian", which definitely lends itself more to a VR title.
