Avengers: Damage Control

A new Virtual Reality dimension from The Void is always a welcome announcement. As more high-quality VR experiences become available to the public, The Void has become something of an elder statesman in the industry. Yet it hasn’t lost its place at the forefront of this entertainment space. Their latest, Avengers: Damage Control, adds several innovations to their bag of tricks.

Monster Mash-Up

Having previously partnered on Disney-owned properties like Star Wars and Wreck-It Ralph, The Void’s team-up with Marvel could be their biggest splash yet. It is certainly the longest, in terms of running time. Avengers: Damage Control uses several cast members from the Avengers films. Letitia Wright reprises Shuri to recruit you, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, and Paul Rudd all lend their voices to new dialogue for VR versions of Dr. Strange, the Wasp, and Ant-Man, respectively.

Each player (I use the word loosely) is recruited to try out Shuri’s newest invention. It’s an Emergency Response Suit based on Stark Industries’ Iron Man design, but with Wakandan technology. Individual color highlights are a nice way to tell your team apart. It also gives you some creativity in choosing the superhero outfit of your dreams.

There Are No Strings On Me

Unlike past VR shooters, Damage Control doesn’t have you holding any kind of weapon. Everything is motion based. Hold your hand up, palm out, to shoot an energy blast like Iron Man. Hold your arm vertically in front of your chest to generate a shield and absorb damage, which can turn into a multi-target “sonic barrage.” There is a brief in-character training session to try out the controls until the main story kicks in.

You and your fellow Avengers-in-training go through a wide range of virtual experiences. Some of the most memorable aren’t even in the action scenes. Walking down a circular ramp in the Sanctum Sanctorum is wacky fun as your eyes and brain try to reconcile the competing information. I’d really love to see a map of the path we walked, but The Void keeps that information secret. There are also some convincing environmental sensations, like temperature and smell. The Void has used those tricks before to great effect.

One of the most appealing aspects is simply getting to live inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a while. The writing, animation, and voice work make it feel like you’re part of a sequel to the movies. The story makes it clear this set after “Avengers: Endgame,” even if some of the character designs don’t line up with the end of that film. Discovering which characters show up and how they enter the story keeps you constantly on your toes.

Testing Shuri’s Prototype

The motion controls for combat offer a surprising amount of choice, but they’re not without drawbacks. You can shoot energy from either hand or use both for a stronger blast. Similarly, I believe the shield is larger when you raise both arms instead of one. The sonic barrage weapon also requires both arms, but you see multiple targets to let you know when it’s active. Your choice of how to fight with these options may come down to which controls work best. The shield motion has to be far enough away from your body for the sensors to notice. You may try to defend yourself only for the shield to disappear if you are too compact. Aiming with your palms takes practice, although there is a visual target guide on your HUD. Once I tried to use both arms to fire in different directions, instead of combining them, but I couldn’t tell if it worked. The sensors may not have capability for that.

These challenges in accuracy and system response are not a big detriment to the fun of zapping Ultron’s robotic minions. Yep, Ultron, from the second Avengers movie, is back! The character design looks great, and what dialogue I could hear was appropriately grandiose. I unfortunately had some trouble understanding his metallic dialogue and missed about half his lines. Most of them are during the big final scenes and aren’t important to the plot. It was probably just evil villain trash talk. Still, considering how much I enjoyed the writing of the other characters, I wish I’d been able to understand his better.

One last fun touch is a scoreboard at the end. It shows total enemies defeated, damage blocked, and friendly fire. It also gives you a letter grade and a title like “Team Leader” or “Covert Operator.” However, you’ll want to memorize it quickly because the scores are only shown in the VR world and aren’t emailed to you. I also asked what metrics determined the titles, but those couldn’t be explained either. The gamification of the experience gives you bragging rights and discussion topics for your friends. Hopefully this feature will continue to improve with the results being sent directly to you, like Sandbox VR does.

‘Nuff Said, True Believer

Avengers: Damage Control combines characters you love, top-notch hardware (no glitches, and the headsets are comfortable!), and a range of VR experiences for all your senses (except taste). You get to live out a Marvel story as the protagonist, instead of just watching, and you can do it with your friends. It all comes together to make memories more lasting than just a game, which is why I’m reluctant to call participants “players.” You are more than that. You’re Avengers!

More information about Avengers: Damage control, including tickets, can be found at their website here. It is not playing in all Void locations. It looks like the price has increased along with the running time, as it’s $5 more than their Star Wars attraction, and $20 more than Nicodemus (the horror one). Additionally, The Void has already announced their next big experience–Jumanji: Reverse the Curse, based on the new films. Based on the concept of the movie, it’s a perfect fit for VR!

All images courtesy of Marvel Studios and ILMxLAB.