Everyone’s so puny …
This Saturday, Marvel Games announced Marvel Powers United VR, a new title for the Oculus Rift. On that very same day, I was able to sit down with an early version of the game, a surprisingly appealing experience.
For example, during my play session, I was instructed that one of my abilities could be activated by charging my fists and bringing them downward together. On my first try, nothing happened.
“Try holding your hands higher,” the rep said, correcting me. “Like head-height.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed in realization. “A Hulk smash!”
On my next attempt, a classic comic-book sidewalk fault line on the ground in front of me cracked toward a henchman across the room.
Why didn’t you just say so? I thought.
A virtual reality shattered
Shortly after strapping on a Rift headset and taking a controller in each hand, Sanzaru Games’ demo began. I found myself facing the enormous, sleepy bulk of Lockjaw, the Inhumans’ dog, and was flanked by the Hulk, Deadpool and Rocket Raccoon on what looked like the bridge of a space station.
The story of the whole situation, executive creative director of Marvel Games Bill Roseman told me later, was that an all-new Masters of Evil, an “all-star lineup” of infamous villains, had seized a shard of the Cosmic Cube and used that force to shatter reality into separate fiefdoms for them to rule. Stark Enterprises and SHIELD had banded together under the name “Powers United” to organize the heroes of the Marvel Universe to fight through those fiefdoms, defeat the villain, recover the shards of the Cosmic Cube, reassert reality and save the universe. What I was seeing was their headquarters, before Lockjaw teleported us all to our mission.
In my first run through the level, I was in the role of Carol Danvers, more famously known as Captain Marvel — a super-strong, flight-capable heavy hitter, who can also fire blasts of energy from her hands. I couldn’t stop myself from looking down at my hovering feet, despite the squidgy flip my stomach did every time I did, as it tried to reconcile the contrasting info my eyes and body were giving it. I was flying like a superhero … even if it was a matter of pressing a button, waiting a moment for the screen to quick-fade to black, and then quick-fade back in to a sky-high perspective.
Carol felt fine to play, but aloof from the battlefield, hovering from afar and slinging energy bolts and beams. With her immense strength, I probably could have swooped down and dealt out some punches, but the demo crashed the moment we reached an enemy who would have stood up to more than a few of them: the boss of the stage.
Reloaded, I was invited to switch up my character, and opted to go for something uncomplicated: the Hulk.
Perspective
There I was, back with Lockjaw. Something about him seemed different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I stopped looking at my new, massive Hulk hands — so much like the toy — and glanced right and left at my teammates. Left, right and down.
“Oh my god, everybody’s so tiny.”
“Puny” is perhaps what I should have said.
Wading through the level I’d just played took on a completely different texture, as I Hulk smashed and giant clapped my way through waves of henchmen. In a brief waiting stage in the level, littered with items to pick up and throw, I picked up a toilet plunger, holding the end of it pinched between two giant green fingers, and offered it to the only likely origin of it that I could see — my fellow player, Deadpool.
The moment I realized that I could easily pick henchmen up by the head as Hulk and rag-doll them into other henchmen was a shot in the arm — even if I was very, very bad at aiming them. I was better with the rockets that certain enemies fired, snagging one out of the air and tossing it back into the flying enemy who’d fired it in the first place. I stopped self-consciously thinking about whether I was playing the game well, or what any of these movements looked like from outside the headset. And once the boss showed up again — this time, the arrival of Ronan the Accuser didn’t mess with the game so badly — I waded right up to him and started swinging mighty blows.
Final thoughts
Marvel Games, Sanzaru Games
There’s still a lot for Marvel Powers United VR to accomplish: When finished, developers told me, my three companions could be played by AI players, or other people and friends through online multiplayer. In my demo session, there were two AI players and one other journalist. Many more characters will be added, along with villains and locations, which will be mixed and remixed to form new missions. Marvel Games hopes to provide “deep strategy” in character choice and team makeup, according to Roseman.
I do wonder about the feasibility of actually playing the game with friends. It seems exactly like the sort of gameplay that would be elevated when yelling at each other in a room, but unless you’ve got the headsets and controllers to go around, the odds are likely that you’ll be playing with strangers online instead.
Also, repeat play is a question mark — but not necessarily a purposeful one. A lot of ideas remain to be implemented before the game’s 2018 release. Not just characters, locations and enemies, I was told, but an array of unlockable items. Such items will be purchased with points, which will be earned by performing more and more spectacular team combo moves in missions, and appear in your main base. Instead of the static staging area I saw, the Powers United headquarters will eventually consist of several rooms that can be explored and interacted with.
Also, you will eventually be able to throw dog treats to Lockjaw as you wait for him to teleport you, thank goodness.
There might not be much to Marvel Powers United at the moment, but what is there still succeeded in transporting me.
Source: Polygon – Full