Iron Man VR review: “It could have been a great superhero experience”

There are times when Iron Man VR nails the feeling of ‘oh yes, I can fly’ by testing Stark’s techno powers. Things like directing repulsive jets from the palms of your hands with PSVR Move controllers to fly, or flipping your wrist forward to unleash a swarm of small guided missiles feel incredible. When he does it right, the Iron Man experience translates well. But “experience” is the key word here, because while some parts work wonderfully, the attempt to extend it throughout a full game is less successful.

The opening offers the best implementation of an Iron Man experience: After a flying tutorial running through the checkpoints, you get a taste of the hero’s work trying to save a crashing plane. It’s an exciting few minutes of flying around the plane, shooting at attacking drones, or having to match their speed to repair damaged parts like the landing gear and wings. I got a great kick just by matching my speed to ‘land’ on the plane at full speed and stay there doing hero poses as I fell to the ground.

Moments like this are exciting, showcasing the ability to gain superpowers throughout the game, but Iron Man VR struggles to get it to work in its entire 8-10 hour duration. Part of that comes from the control scheme: You can fly around by pointing your ‘hands’ and firing repulsive jets to move, but just rotate using the square and triangle buttons. In general, it favors two things: fly fast forward or face something. The airplane section works very well because you are doing both, following a clear path with a focal point that is impossible to miss. Chases also work well for the same reason. However, a more open combat area turns into a sweet, high-speed movement oriented in one direction, as you click the buttons to track numerous targets that effortlessly fly around you.

It’s obviously VR, so in theory you can freely rotate to follow enemies as they pass. But there are plenty of caveats for you not to turn around completely and for the cables to tangle around your feet, and the flashing arrows in the game to remind you where the camera is. It suggests that the developers were aware that fast, free 360-degree sky combat had some issues that couldn’t be completely solved. You can rotate the head as much as you want except the Iron Man body, and the flight path will only rotate with the face buttons. And without the smooth spin option enabled, it will do so in fade-to-black increments that almost require you to memorize things to help you guess where everything will be when you’ve spun.

I am Iron Man?

It means that for every level that seems designed to work with the controls and make you feel like Iron Man, there’s another one that struggles against limitations, leaving you feeling awkward and trash, battling enemies that exploit Tony Stark’s greatest weakness: seeing things that they fly by. he. Something shorter and tighter would probably have worked much better by focusing more on strengths. Games like Star Wars: Vader Immortal and Batman Arkham VR are good comparisons here. Each lasts about 90 minutes, but each second shines in terms of realizing your dream of world or character wish fulfillment. Iron Man VR tries to make it work in 12 chapters and, as mentioned, around 8-10 hours of in-game time. That includes a couple of forced tests of time and combat, and many visits to Tony’s workshop to expand the story, play with armor upgrades, and make virtual reality staples like ‘eat things’ and ‘pick things up’.