Marvel’s Iron Man VR Quest 2 Review

I am both cursed and blessed with a bloody awful memory. I’m cursed because I forget everyone’s birthdays without the post-it notes in my office, I’m blessed because I can leave a game, return a year later, and play it again like it’s the very first time. Well, that’s not always a blessing – it’s a bloody bane in MMO’s – but I digress. My time with the original PSVR version of the game is one I look back at fondly as arguably single best experience I had on PSVR (seriously, Superhot is very very close) but it wasn’t without its problems. Booting it up again on the Quest 2, I had only one question: Could they fix that bloody loading time?

Marvel’s Iron Man VR promises players an action-packed campaign adventure in the booster boots of everyone’s favorite genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist superhero Iron Man. This 5-10 hour campaign is split between action-packed missions, time and combat trials, and an intriguing narrative that sees lesser-known villains Ghost and The Living Laser – with some creative changes to boot.

I have a lot more VR experience under my belt since the original game and something I often feel quite lacking is the attention to the story. So many games seem to concentrate on the exciting new tools VR brings to the table, but they seem to overlook the basics. Thankfully, that’s very much not the case with Marvel’s Iron Man VR. The story still takes a very clear second place to the adrenaline-fueled combat sequences. Honestly, that’s not through any fault in the storytelling.

And then there’s that scene, that one scene. In my review of the PSVR version I sang the praises of an early mission in the game where Stark and Penny get attacked mid-flight by some mysterious drones. Despite my failing memory, it’s a scene I remember vividly and one I still consider to be the most fun I’ve had with a VR strapped to my face. Stark jumps out of the plane, summoning the various bits and pieces of the Iron Man suit as he falls, Penny in constant peril overhead, drones flying in from all over. It would be right at home in any Marvel movie. And it was even more fun than the first time I did it. The freedom of movement and perspective on Quest 2, as opposed to PSVR’s awful bloody wires, just feels made for exactly this type of game.

The main plot follows Tony Stark and his trusted AI Friday as they battle against a hacker called Ghost, a mysterious figure hellbent on a twisted justice that demands Stark pay for his crimes against humanity through Stark Industries’ selling of weapons. It’s a typical superhero plot as Stark faces his past demons that materialize through Ghost and The Living Laser, but it’s one that compliments the game perfectly and is well worth the ride.

The combat, however, is anything but typical. So much care and attention have gone into the control scheme and you feel it with every shot of a blaster, every twist of the wrist. While I forgot much of the game in the two years since I last played, thankfully my muscle memory is a little more reliable. The controls are incredible, only taking a few minutes to get the hang of, but with the time I spent in the last game, I was performing feats worthy of the suit so much quicker this time around.

Boosting through small gaps in the cliffs at Tony’s Malibu Mansion, spinning around and blowing enemy drones out the air, dodging enemy fire, flying through skyscrapers in a much improved Shanghai, it all feels great, and I challenge anyone to use the Unibeam without throwing your arms down to the side and puffing your chest out – none of which is actually required but damn it feels good. I cannot emphasize enough just how fluid it feels to be flying around in Iron Man’s suit, even the second time around. It’s a true testament to how much effort has gone into the concept of putting players into the booster boots of such a popular and beloved character.

When you’re not blasting your way through Ghosts’ seemingly endless supply of Stark drones, you’ll be upgrading your suit or completing one of many challenge modes offered in the game. The suit upgrades, as you’d expect, include better weaponry, different paint jobs, and faster boosters. I quickly found what I liked best and seldom strayed from that loadout but for the more adventurous, there’s tons of combinations you can play around with. I did feel a little disappointed that most of the upgrades are an either/or style, more weapons would have been nice, but there’s still a good arsenal to toy around with. While the story is relatively short by today’s standards, the real fun comes in the combat and time trial challenges.

I’m rarely one that enjoys these features in games, but the sense of improvement, that feeling of accomplishment when you chain together punches and rockets and lasers, it’s just awesome. It gets better with each mission as you master each aspect of the controls. This was all a part of the PSVR experience as well, little has changed in that regard, but the PSVR version was not without its issues.

I mentioned it previously but I’ll say it again: One of the major problems of the PSVR version of Marvel’s Iron Man VR is the loading times. Even two years on from the original game, it’s the problem that immediately comes to mind. It wasn’t uncommon to spend a couple of minutes in loading screens, and that’s not an exaggeration. This was especially jarring during brief missions or cutscenes where you spent more time loading than actually playing the game. Playing on Quest 2, that problem is gone.

Loading takes seconds, I didn’t even have the time to lift the visor and grab a quick sip of coffee. It seems such a simple thing and perhaps it’s inconsequential to some but in a game that’s all about the fast-paced action of heroic combat, that monotonous drag of loading just felt like a constant reminder that you’re just playing a video game, something completely contradictory to what VR is all about. Despite that problem, it was still a great PSVR game, one of the best, without that issue, there’s really not much holding it back.

If you have already played Marvel’s Iron Man VR on the PSVR, the Quest 2 version is a hugely improved experience both with the hardware and in the game itself. If you’ve still yet to play it at all, it’s quite simply one of the best VR games on the market today.

Posted Aug 6, 2024 by captaincamper
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