If you have an Apple Vision Pro, ‘What…If?’ Marvel’s is a must download – and it’s free
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve got something for you! Last week I told you that Marvel, Disney and ILM have announced What…If? A profound story give Apple Vision Pro.
I’m sure you know who Disney and Marvel are. ILM is Industrial Light & Magic, the iconic special effects company behind such small films as Star Wars, Raiders, the Jurassic Park series and of course Howard the Duck. Seriously, take a minute to read through the ILM films of the last 50 years and almost every major blockbuster was touched by the magic of ILM.
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This makes me really curious. What happens when you take the storytelling skills of Marvel and Disney, add the technical prowess of ILM, and combine it all together into a brand new piece of entertainment for the most exclusive screens on the planet? : Apple Vision Pro?
I had a chance to play through it the entire game/story. TL;DR: This experience was special. If you have an Apple Vision Pro then this is a must download, especially because it is available for free.
However, I’m curious why Disney and Marvel, companies that crave huge audiences, would ignore the better-selling and much cheaper movie. Meta Quest Device and target this only at Vision Pro.
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I asked Shereif M. Fattouh, executive producer at ILM Immersive, and he told me: “We’re really focused on maximizing the capabilities of Vision Pro, which is now bringing characters and worlds to life.” world into life in a new way.” “Our teams were pleasantly surprised when we first saw the clarity of the pass-through cameras and the reliability of the hand tracking that Vision Pro has and its capabilities,” he continued. combines your real-world hands with a complete VR environment.”
I have to agree. There is actually a fifth dimension that is 8 feet tall Present floating in my living room.
I should note that these screenshots do not do the experience justice. The guy floating in front of me was animated, yes, but so was he. therelooks as real as the TV behind him.
Also, thank you to Disney for allowing the screenshots. Most of the entertainment on the Vision Pro prevents taking screenshots, which makes it much more difficult to show you what the device can do.
Story
What if? is a Disney+ TV series that takes MCU stories and puts their spin on them. This is an alternate history version of Marvel superheroes. What the Apple Vision Pro version does is tell a series of smaller stories, which also have alternate histories.
Warning: some very minor spoilers ahead. I’ve tried my best to avoid major plot points, but if you don’t want to know any of this stuff, you might want to skip down to the overall exposition.
They accomplish this through a combination of mixed reality and virtual reality. The story begins in mixed reality when the big blue guy (the Watcher) appears and brings with him Master Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme. Wong is your reluctant teacher who will take you through your training and join you on adventures.
You are first transported to a training planet, where Master Wong explains how to use the Infinity Stones and shows you some basic actions.
When it’s time for you to perform some magic, glowing hands will show you how to perform the actions.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be taken to your first adventure that takes place on Titan and stars Thanos.
I won’t tell you the story because I don’t want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say, you can perform some magic just by waving your hand.
After completing that level, we returned to our living room. Master Wong and I were then transferred to the next mini-game. It takes place in a laboratory, where instead of Captain America there is Captain Russia. Here, I have to use my strength to move objects.
The next mini-game takes us to The Collector’s secret planet/ship/asteroid/skull thing. This is where I had to film everything.
The photo shoot was fun. Basically, you punch out and plasma stuff shoots out of your fist. My biggest complaint about it is that it didn’t come close to what it should have been in my opinion. But moving the target of the shot closer to the target did help. I also had some difficulty reaching enemies at the edge of the field. Vision Pro has difficulty recognizing low or wide hand movements.
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This level is also interesting because it presents a moral choice. During the battle, the giant space dog was seriously injured. I was given the choice to use the green Infinity Stone to go back in time, but Master Wong said that doing so would have dire consequences for the universe.
I think you know me well enough now to know that if I had to choose terrible consequences for the entire Multiverse or saving a dog, I would save the dog. And of course, there were consequences which brought us to the final mini-game.
I won’t spoil this for you, but I will say that if you get to this point in the game, there will be an inconsistency that could be a continuity error in the storytelling. The screenshot above provides a clue. Don’t mention anything in the comments. Just find it.
And with that, the game ends, except for a completely bizarre ending scene, which takes place in mixed reality. I’ll tell you about that in a minute.
Overall impressions
The whole experience takes about an hour and is quite enjoyable. There are points where magic cast with just my hands is quite appealing.
Some of the gameplay feels like old games on rails. I couldn’t shoot or cast magic until a glowing hand appeared to guide the effects. I find that sometimes they seem to slow down my hand movements.
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The use of hand gestures to imitate Doctor Strange is quite impressive, except as noted above. I think it’s the hand gestures that make the Vision Pro the main target of this product — and it’s a decision I agree with.
I’ve played a lot of games with the controller and even old Kinect and Wii games. But at one point I was moving in circles to create portals and punching to fire plasma bolts, if you’ll forgive the expression, I had a blast.
This is a must-download app if you have a Vision Pro, and if you want to showcase the device, it can be a controlled environment that will give customers a taste of both virtual and mixed reality.
With all that said, I feel compelled to end with two complaints. First this is a real problem and I encourage the development team to release a patch as soon as possible. The Digital Crown cannot be used to reduce immersion level.
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Controlling the level of immersion in a complete VR environment is the highlight of Vision Pro. You will be able to turn the crown and let the real world return. This doesn’t work at all in What…If? I felt this was dangerous because during the action sequences it was impossible to see the obstacles in the room. Since some virtual attacks come from the back and sides, some physical space damage can actually be done.
My second complaint is that the ending scene is completely weird, it’s a kind of unattractive advertisement for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie, releasing at the end of July.
After finishing the battle, I was returned to the real world. At that moment, a desk and filing cabinet with an anthropomorphic clock were dropped into my living room.
At this time, the image on the screen hanging at the top of the room was replaced with a clip of Deadpool leaning over and talking about his backside. I tried to get rid of it in my head, but he seemed quite interested in the junk in his trunk.
Look, I understand the need to justify making a great, free game, and if that means it needs to include advertising for an upcoming movie, then so be it So. But the whole thing was very well done and ended with a weird and even weirder table display that fans felt like it cheapened the entire product.
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But don’t let a bad joke ruin this welcome gift from the creative geniuses at Disney. Should you spend $3,500 on the Vision Pro so you can play this game? Don’t be ridiculous, but that’s my value judgment. I guess it depends on how dedicated a Marvel fan you really are. If you have Apple Vision Pro, download it and enjoy it. I think we might be seeing a small preview of the future of interactive entertainment.
What do you think? Do you have Apple Vision Pro? Are you a Marvel fan? Have you tried yet? Let us know in the comments below.
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