Iron Man VR - What We Know So Far

Ever wanted to really feel like Iron Man? Have you longed for a heads-up display as sassy as J.A.R.V.I.S.? Soon you'll be able to step into Tony Stark's boots and try out the role of the Armored Avenger yourself. Iron Man VR is coming to PlayStation VR to make all of your superhero dreams come true.

Combined with the PlayStation Move motion controller, players will be able to punch and laser their way through enemies while flying through the skies. There's no word yet as to whether you can also use these virtual hands to hug your surrogate son Peter Parker, but developer Camouflaj has revealed a host of other interesting tidbits about its upcoming title.

When will the game release? Are there pre-order bonuses? What will the gameplay be like? Here's all you need to know about Iron Man VR.

The Iron Man VR announcement trailer has players sitting pretty in one of Tony Stark's private jets, chatting with a pink, holographic F.R.I.D.A.Y. about how their flight to Shanghai is slower than he would like. Typical Tony. Suddenly, F.R.I.D.A.Y. is replaced by a Kylo Ren look-alike who ominously tells Tony he can't outrun his past. Cue the explosions and your first look at the game's core premise as Stark suits up, zaps some oncoming attackers, and then tries to make his way back to his damaged aircraft.

It's important to note that the announcement trailer does not include actual gameplay footage. Successive trailers and previews have provided a more comprehensive look at the true Iron Man VR experience.

According to a tweet on Jan. 17, developer Camouflaj has pushed the release date for Iron Man VR to May 15, 2020. With all the recent game delays, this news hardly comes as a surprise. It looks like Iron Man VR has followed in the footsteps of Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel's Avengers, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and several other titles with launches delayed to later in 2020.

PlayStation VR games typically retail anywhere from $20 to $40 depending on how much bang you'll get for your buck, and it looks like Iron Man VR will follow suit. You can purchase the base game for $39.99 or the Digital Deluxe Edition for $49.99.

It's unclear how much of a campaign Iron Man VR will have, or if it is anything more than a short adventure. As long as you don't have to buy the whole PlayStation VR set up, Iron Man VR won't leave a huge big dent in your budget.

The Iron Man VR Digital Deluxe Edition includes several bonuses exclusive to those who purchase it: the Iron Man VR game, four Deluxe Edition Deco Armors (Golden Avenger, Black Centurion, Sun Stinger, and Stealth Armor), 12 Research Points, the Digital Deluxe Soundtrack, and an exclusive PS4 theme. If you're a fan of Iron Man but don't want to shell out the extra cash for the Digital Deluxe Edition, there are still other ways to get in-game perks.

If you pre-order any version of Iron Man VR, you'll get four Custom Armor Decos and the PS4 theme. The Custom Armor Decos are different from those that come with the Digital Deluxe Edition. Instead, you'll receive the Origin Armor, Vintage Armor, Silver Centurion Armor, and Ultraviolet Armor. 

No matter which pre-order route you go, the bonuses and exclusives are impressive and will give your gameplay an added layer of individuality.

Iron Man VR will be, as the title suggests, a VR-exclusive title. With the announcement of this game, Marvel fans have wondered which virtual reality headsets they'll be able to play on. At the time of launch, Iron Man VR will only be available on PlayStation VR. This doesn't mean it won't eventually become available on headsets like the Oculus Quest, but, at the moment, no announcements have been made about bringing the game to other systems.

If the game sells well, chances are it will get ported over to other systems in order for the developers to make a greater profit. Games like Half-Life: Alyx have used this strategy to ensure Valve gets the desired return on its product, waiting until it can measure the demand for the game before deciding to expand. Because Marvel is such a popular franchise that places Iron Man front and center, the game will likely do well, making expansion to other systems a strong possibility after the initial launch.

Using the PlayStation VR headset and two PlayStation Move motion controllers, you'll take to the skies to face off against a number of foes in what Camouflaj has billed as "high stakes, action-packed battles." When you're not taking advantage of the Repulsor jets, three-dimensional HUD, and other iconic Iron Man equipment, you'll head to Stark's garage to upgrade your gear and abilities and customize your armor.

When deciding to make the quintessential Iron Man experience into a game, it was important to game director Ryan Payton to include the sense of constantly improving your machinery. This is why, throughout the game, players will be able to upgrade their suits and weapons. In the films, Tony Stark experiences a bit of a sharp learning curve. He has to make adjustments to his suit and adapt to his limitations in order to become Iron Man. Likewise, in Iron Man VR, players will need to use their available resources and knowledge to create a suit that meets their specific needs.

Payton has been very quiet about the specifics of crafting in Iron Man VR, but he did reveal that repulsors aren't the only weaponry that will be available to players. This game will feature more ballistic-heavy weapons and larger weapons like the Unibeam. Payton only revealed the existence of the Unibeam after some clever fans noticed a few screenshots had "Unibeam" written on them in the HUD. Thanks to these fans, you know just a bit more about what weapons to expect. These base weapons will be built upon and upgraded as players learn more throughout their gameplay. How advanced your armor and weapons become will, ultimately, rely on you.

When asked to describe what type of game Iron Man VR would be, game developer Ryan Payton was all too happy to give his insight. "We're not making a rail-shooter. We're not making an amusement park game. We're not making a short demo or an experimental Iron Man 'experience.' We're making a full game with a deep sandbox, with a deep story with plenty of great missions and great cinematics."

Iron Man VR will let players explore their environment while developing and creating new tech. This sandbox game, while not a true open-world, will allow for free-roaming and discovery within a structured area. With how large these maps are promising to be, gamers likely won't get bored with the provided areas of exploration.

When working with a property as large as Marvel, trying to tie all of the existing lore and canon together can be a daunting task. This is why it was likely a relief to the developers of Iron Man VR to know they would have free reign to make their own original story. While still taking past Marvel tales into account, director Ryan Payton and his team created a new and wholly original plot for players to experience through the lens of being Iron Man.

Because Iron Man VR and the recent Insomniac Spider-Man game are owned by the same company, many have wondered if there would be any crossover between the two. During an interview with Game Revolution, Payton made sure to express his respect and admiration of the Insomniac Spider-Man game, while reiterating that Iron Man VR would very much be its own game. 

"From the beginning of development, we were saying that we wanted to make an original story so we didn't necessarily build it out of what the other games were doing. But there are definitely opportunities to link the worlds. We're not sure if we are going to do that just yet. That's more of a Marvel Games decision than it is mine. But everyone at Camouflaj is a huge fan of PlayStation and Marvel and what the Insomniac guys did with Spider-Man so I'm hoping at the very least we can have a couple nods to that game just as fans."

This quote gives fans hope there might be a few Peter Parker cameos, but you probably won't see a large crossover between the two games, at least not in Iron Man VR. Maybe that will emerge in a third game further down the road.

As seen in the game trailers, the main enemy in Iron Man VR is Ghost. This is a villain you've seen before in other comics and Marvel stories, but Camouflaj wanted to take a different approach. In an attempt to incorporate more inclusion and representation in its games, Camouflaj and Ryan Payton decided to make Ghost, a traditionally male villain, female.

"An interesting point about Ghost in particular as you know from the comics, that Ghost has always been a male. And even in the 1970s, we were looking at comics and looking at villains and Mike Jones and Bill Rosemann suggested that Ghost would be a really good villain for our game based on the themes we were exploring. And early on, we basically determined that we wanted to have proper representation of females in our game and so we had this radical idea that we were going to make Ghost a woman."

For those who have seen the movie Ant-Man and the Wasp, this concept may seem familiar, since the main villain in that movie is also a female version of Ghost. Payton stated that after they made the decision to make their villain a woman, they found out that the film would be following suit. While more inclusion is always a good thing, it is difficult when you don't get to be the first.

"Marvel Games was all behind it and we were all behind it and then we sat down to see the first trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp and we see that Ghost was also a female in that," said Payton. "We were a little disappointed because we wanted to be the first ones to make Ghost a woman but we were also encouraged to see that it seemed like we were on the right track."

While there's no guarantee Spider-Man will appear in Iron Man VR, there's still a glimmer of hope he'll make a cameo since both games are being published by the same company. The growing list of characters who will definitely show up partially makes up for this. Keep in mind this isn't an exhaustive roster and there will likely be more cameos and small parts for other familiar faces in the Marvel universe.

It goes without saying that Iron Man himself will be in Iron Man VR, otherwise, someone in Marvel marketing would need to be fired. In addition to your favorite billionaire playboy philanthropist, you'll see his better half, Pepper Potts, taking command and attempting to keep Tony in line. As you may have guessed, F.R.I.D.A.Y. will be in the game to assist you in your adventures, and hopefully make the learning curve in this game a bit less steep. 

Finally, you have the villain, Ava Starr (better known as Ghost). She'll be glitching onto the scene to make your life harder when all you really want to do is fly around and shoot stuff out of the sky. Based on footage from the Iron Man VR trailer, Nick Fury will turn up at some point in the story, though it may not be in any significant capacity. Other than those confirmed appearances, you'll just have to be surprised by any additional characters.

Iron Man VR doesn't just want to be a cool flying sim that lets you pretend to be Iron Man; it wants to actually put you in Tony Stark's shoe. Developers were very adamant that the game have a deeper experience to it, exploring the difficulties that accompany being an extremely talented but extremely flawed individual.

Game director Ryan Payton stated that "Tony's greatest fights tend to be against his own demons." Payton wanted to explore this idea and give players something to really think about. "Iron Man is squarely in the center of what makes the game fun, but we hope Tony Stark is the imperfect human that makes our game memorable," continued Payton. "We can all relate to that." 

This deeper focus on Tony Stark as a character gives a promising insight into the new game. While a "cool flying sim" wouldn't be a bad game, the added substance of exploring the complexities of one of pop culture's most popular characters gives the entire experience a little something extra. "In a society where we're often expected to be perfect people, Tony's story feels a little closer to reality."

Perfecting the flying mechanics in an Iron Man game is perhaps one of the most important things for developers to get right. Being able to step into Iron Man's shoes and take flight is one of the biggest draws for Marvel fans to try the game out. This is why developer Camouflaj took such care to create an advanced physics setup to calculate real-time gamer movements and make in-game flight feel as authentic as possible. For every movement in the game, the engine is calculating "up to a dozen forces, such as thrust, drag and gravity."

This advanced system is what makes flying in Iron Man VR feel so realistic, but what about players who aren't necessarily advanced flyers? Camouflaj has incorporated safeguards to make the flying experience enjoyable for those new to flying simulators without interfering with your ability to learn from your mistakes. Invisible bumpers will stop players from getting too far off track while exploring the airways, while running into a structure at full-speed will be softened automatically.

Since the beginning, virtual reality has struggled against motion sickness. The earliest iterations of VR headsets weren't nearly as smooth and fluid as today's models, and this resulted in a lot of nausea for players. Modern technology still can't completely safeguard against motion sickness, especially in those who are already prone to the ailment, but great strides have been made towards consumer comfort.

Combining Iron Man with a VR experience seems like something that could potentially result in a lot of sick players, but when asked about motion sickness in the game, director Ryan Payton was more than confident in his product. "It's the least of my concerns because the team has done such an incredible job of learning all the different things that are different pitfalls for VR development. We focused on all of the areas where we can make the game as comfortable as possible. Knock on wood, but we don't have any instances now of people getting sick."

Payton and his team took time to study what has presented problems for VR games in the past and were sure to avoid those issues. For the average gamer who isn't very sensitive to motion sickness, Iron Man VR shouldn't present a problem. Now, if you're scared of heights, Payton can't guarantee you'll suddenly be cured of your phobia for this game. "The only instances where we have trouble is if people have a fear of heights. We can't help them get over that with the game since you're flying around at 250 miles per hour like Iron Man, which is the fantasy of the game."