StoreTechpro

Given that we are only one week away from the release of Marvel’s Iron Man VR, I thought it would be fun to offer an unprecedented look at what you can expect from the full game.

Judging by the community’s incredible response to the free demo on PlayStation Store, people loved the game’s flight and combat controls, three-dimensional HUD and built-for-VR cinematics. The lengthy demo also prompted many to ask, “Wait, just how big will the full release be?” Read on to learn more!

As a PlayStation VR enthusiast, I know many of you want big VR-only games, not just demos or short experiences. That’s why we built Marvel’s Iron Man VR as a robust PlayStation VR-exclusive Iron Man action game with a deeply meaningful Tony Stark story. We initially thought the campaign would span 4-5 hours, but based on recent playtest data, we’re pleasantly surprised that average playtimes are now roughly double that!

One of the biggest challenges my colleagues at Camouflaj faced was creating huge, great looking environments to fly around at top speeds. This required us to build environments many times the size of our first game, République. (For comparison’s sake, you can fit twenty-three entire world instances of République into the initial Malibu environment.)

Getting texture streaming to keep pace with Iron Man’s super speed was a complex technical hurdle, but we stopped at nothing to ensure players can fly around beautifully rendered Marvel landscapes including (but not limited to):

It was a blast to partner with Marvel on building a fully realized S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to fly in and outside of. The level of detail our artists put into this space I think demonstrates the labor of love.

Our most ambitious environment, Shanghai, gives players the unique sensation of flying through a high density downtown with plenty of tall buildings to weave in between. We worked closely with Marvel Games’ VP & Head of Creative, Bill Rosemann and Creative Director, Tim Tsang, to craft a storyline that puts Stark Tower in the thick of the action and drama.

One of my favorite environments is this decommissioned Stark Industries plant. Despite being a relatively compact space (it only fits three entire République worlds), it’s a great environment to play one of our Combat Challenges in.

There are, of course, other environments in the final game that I can’t wait for you to see for yourself in VR.

For those of you who discovered the unlockable Combat Challenge in the demo, you know the game’s moment-to-moment combat has loads of depth.

Throughout our story-driven campaign, we layer on core mechanics in hopes that, by the final cinematic, you feel so in tune with the controls that you feel like you’ve fused together with the Impulse Armor. Here’s a high-level overview of some of our baseline mechanics:

We heard how much you love boosting at high speeds, so just a few weeks ago, we further increased the frequency at which you can boost in the full game. Buckle up!

My favorite mechanic. I can’t get enough of punching enemies with a one-two-three hit combo and then finishing them off with a Repulsor Blast or auxiliary weapon.

By spending Research Points at the Armor Station, you can unlock powerful auxiliary weapons that fire out of your gauntlets. When you play the full game, please do me a big favor and check out the incredible detail artist Chris Foster and animator Benjamin Meals put into each weapon. I can’t tell you how cool it is to see those weapons emerge from your forearms in VR.

Credit: A closer look at the deep combat, huge world, and all-star cast of Marvel’s Iron Man VR