Iron Man VR
PSVR
We never would have guessed: it turns out flying around in a gleaming metal suit is a wonderful fit for virtual reality. As you beeline past structures sporadically dotted across the ocean surrounding Stark Mansion, your world fuses seamlessly with the fictional plane where personalities such as Captain America, Black Widow or, indeed, Iron Man crop up on television, their benevolent deeds marking them out as warrior, vigilante, hero and – occasionally – comedian.
As a result, it’s somewhat deflating to discover that Iron Man VR is terribly basic. Although PS Move controllers are limited in comparison with conventional gamepads, Iron Man VR doesn’t even exploit the few buttons you have at your disposal. The small number of mechanics available to you are excellent: monoeuvrability in flight is tied to your physical actions, and punching through things not only results in a lifelike forward propulsion, but also looks and sounds so explosive you can almost taste the dust as whatever you’ve hit splinters into smithereens. However, battering things – inconsequential drones in our demo – can only take you so far.
The time trials throw Iron Man’s mechanical simplicity into – apologies – stark relief. Perhaps the demo build is deliberately focused on three simple mechanics, perfect for a ten-minute virtual escapade to build hype on the EGX show floor. Maybe, given the mass-market allure of the figure on the box art, simplicity is precisely the point. Regardless, if the hypothetical punter is to exchange a chunk of their hard-earned income for a brand-new PSVR headset specifically to feel like a shiny, red, dryly witty superhero, they’re going to really want that purchase to be justified. One demo later, we’re unconvinced.
The world looks gorgeous. It is easy to overlook the significance of decent visuals in VR – or at least, easy to excuse the games that don’t have them. It’s usually when you get a game such as this, in which you can skim along the ocean’s surface without disturbing the water below, that you are reminded not only of the beauty it’s possible to create in VR, but also how much it adds to the overall experience. If only the action on offer in our demo could live up to the same high standard.
It’s entertaining enough, nailing the basic power fantasy, and is clearly well designed. But Iron Man VR is sparse and, although we expect superheroes to be strong, capable fighters, it’s also a bit too straightforward. Obviously you want to win and save the day, and see your avatar smugly accept the oversized key to the city. But you don’t want to win so quickly and effortlessly that you come away with barely a scratch on your gleaming armour. The best superhero battles are fought against seemingly impossible odds, victory clinched at the last moment like an injury-time goal. On this evidence, Iron Man VR is a 10-0 stomp against a pub side. Fun, sure. But with no danger, there is little room for drama.
As mentioned, however, this was only a demo, and given developer Camouflaj’s pedigree, there’s certainly room for optimism. We’re hoping this is only the beginning of a game that steadily increases in difficulty and mechanical complexity, slowly stacking the odds against you and eventually having your response require the use of more than three buttons. Sony, for its part, does promise “ever-escalating stakes” as Stark fights to thwart Ghost, an anti-corporate hacktivist; hopefully that will involve more than loosing off repulsor beams and punching stuff to bits. Satisfying as they are, and thrilling as it doubtless is to zip around Tony Stark’s private island at sunset, a game needs more to truly excel. Star power alone will likely propel this higher in the charts than any PSVR exclusive to date, but if it is to be the mass market’s gateway drug to virtual reality, it needs more than simple thrills. With great power, and all that.
It turns out flying around in a gleaming metal suit is a wonderful fit for virtual reality