and each weapon type runs out of ammunition at a ridiculous rate, even after spending in-game currency to upgrade your ammo capacity.
However, during frantic firefights on "normal" difficulty, enemies show up in such severe, 360-degree waves that you can't expect to survive without holding both of your hands out and shooting non-stop attacks. Sounds clever, right? Aim with the palm up to shoot lasers aim with the palm down to shoot missiles. Then highlight a few enemies-but only if they're in an annoyingly close radius-to lock on and shoot a slew of missiles. Those launchers require that you aim a hand at enemies, palm down, until your reticule changes shape. (Upgrades modify these to some extent, but that's the basic core of it.)
Once enemies begin piling on, Stark is upgraded with more attack options: the aforementioned lasers, a punch, and a series of auto-targeting rocket launchers. The game's missions typically ask you to juggle two things: fly to specific points in large cityscapes, and (simultaneously) contend with waves of enemies in all directions-usually flying drones but sometimes ground vehicles. Sadly, this potentially simple formula gets cocked up by a rapid rise in control requirements. In the prologue, this is a rare interruption, the kind where you can pause your flying throttle, move your hands to aim and shoot, then go back to aiming your palms as a rocket boost.
You attack enemies by aiming your palm at foes, then tapping a "shoot" button instead of the "throttle" trigger to blast lasers. It's one of a handful of PSVR games with such a requirement, along with the hugely popular Beat Saber.Įven with those issues, the opening flying sequence is designed to weave players through a simple path with a few brief interruptions to shoot lasers. Iron Man VR only works with PlayStation Move wands, which lack joysticks, and you need two of them. Speaking of joysticks: if you'd like a controller option to manage this movement model instead, you're out of luck.
That kind of system works fine when you're walking in VR (like in Half-Life: Alyx), but it's trickier when you're carrying mid-air momentum while making those turns, and trickier still when those buttons are on the funky PlayStation Move wand's face, instead of a more logical joystick option. In general, to finely manage your movement, you must tap small "face" buttons on the PlayStation Move wand to turn in 45-degree "snap" increments, or spin around entirely if you've blasted too far. The game allows you to dash laterally, but this move is meager, perhaps due to that kind of motion typically triggering motion sickness within VR. First is the lack of easy lateral movement. Now that I have the final game, however, I can't get through the prologue mission without noticing a few quirks. The opening prologue tutorial is the same as that demo, and at first blush, it's a treat to fly through, thanks to this palm-aiming system working as a smooth, not-too-disorienting way to blast through a mostly straightforward flight path. Further Reading Iron Man VR preview makes me want to put on nerdy headgear again