Marvel Powers United VR was announced at the Disney D23 Expo 2017 as an upcoming Virtual Reality action game featuring Marvel characters and launching in 2018 exclusively for the Oculus Rift. At the D23 Expo Marvel showed off gameplay from The Incredible Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Rocket Racoon but hold the hype machine as Deadpool has also been announced to coincide with the San Diego Comic-Con 2017.
We had a chance to play Marvel Powers United VR in a closed media session during our time at the Disney D23 Expo 2017 – specifically playing as Deadpool. During San Diego Comic-Con 2017 fans in attendance will be able to demo the game for the first time and check out the four characters thus far announced. It is unknown if any more characters will come to the game or not but the ones chosen for launch represent a dynamic mix. Deadpool is especially fun because he can use machine guns to take opponents down or slice them with katana swords. Rocket Racoon and Captain Marvel both have a flying ability and can hover in the area to shoot down enemies. The Incredible Hulk has a charged attack and can pick people up and fling them at will.
We played a complete level of Marvel Powers United VR which found us working together to fight against numerous villains who came at us on the ground and above – complete with their own special brand of weapons. The level we fought through ended with a boss battle against Ronan The Accuser from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Ronan moved around the screen attacking each of us individually and we generally had to work as a team to take him down.
The 360 environment in Marvel Powers United VR is very colorful and dynamic with corridors you can move through and objects that can be interacted with like picking up a barrel and tossing them at enemies. Deadpool can toss his guns, swords or shurikens at a foe and even use a bathroom plunger as a weapon. You can even goof around inside the virtual reality world with the objects and space contained within or try to virtual reality beat a friend in a game of ‘rock-paper-scissors‘.
Marvel Powers United VR was a fun experience and being inside of a virtual world playing as Deadpool was extremely liberating. The Oculus Rift technology is very advanced and this is the most polished VR experience we’ve had yet. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes of fun, the VR nausea set in and we (both of us) had to tag out of the game mid-level. The developers mentioned there as a mode meant to adjust the viewing angle for countering this sort of thing but by then it was too late and we (both of us) had to relax our eyes, brains, and tummies. If Virtual Reality doesn’t make you wanna barf than Marvels Powers United VR is most likely gonna be the ‘must have’ game for the Oculus Rift.