We were a bit disappointed when we found out that you couldn’t properly web-sling as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in MARVEL Powers United VR (2018) last year, but it appears Sony has heard our collective groans and done something about it in their latest VR activation for the new film Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Called Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality, we finally get a crack at web-slinging around Manhattan in VR. The short experience, developed by CreateVR, is now available for free on Steam (Rift, Vive), the Oculus Store (Rift), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality is a charming little experience, with actor Tom Holland providing his voice as you swing around the city. The web-slinging mechanic is a simple and a mostly reliable locomotion method, as you squeeze the trigger and pull your tracked motion controller near you to move. Cross-hairs don’t seem entirely accurate, and it’s hard to get a sense of how far your web will go at first.
Although the experience could benefit from a greater level of care when it comes to graphics—something that puts a damper on immersion—it’s awesome to see a proper implementation of the high-flying, web-slinging mechanic and not-so-small playspace to zip around.
Without spoiling it too much, the experience’s story mode is geared towards stopping a colossal robot. At suspiciously inconvenient moments your web-slingers malfunction though, leaving you to deal with it in a few different ways. It’s a bit anti-climactic, but it’s a free experience, so it’s hard to complain.
There’s also a free mode that lets you swing around the city at your leisure taking on mini-games like a time trial and wave shooter. Simply being able to freely swing around the city though is something that personally provides way more fun, as I honed my web-slinging ability and got a better grasp on the locomotion mechanic.
You can thankfully also climb buildings too, letting you easily get to the tippy top of the highest building. Unfortunately the city is limited in size however; red barriers are strategically set up to keep you within the play area.
Check out the trailer below.