Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home VR Experience – PSVR

I’m never one to turn my nose at free stuff. Whether it’s a free drink, a free meal, or a free VR experience. Free doesn’t always translate to good, though, and unfortunately the Spider-Man: Far From Home VR Experience is another case of lost-in-translation.
The “game” is a short experience that gives you the chance to step into the tight spandex of Tom Holland’s Spidey. There are two game modes to choose from, one being the ‘Story’ and the other being ‘Freeplay.’ Both are equally poor, so don’t get too hung up on which to choose first.

The story mode barely qualifies as a story. It’s just one short mission where you need to stop a giant robot from making its way through the city. You’ll swing around a little bit, shoot some webs at some drone-like enemies, and eventually foil the monstrous machine by first removing its armour, and then hitting it with enough webbing to cause it to stumble. And that’s it. There’s a bit of dialogue between Spidey and his classmate, Ned, but it’s very basic and you’ll hear the same lines repeated over the course of the encounter.
The highlight of this experience is in the freeplay mode where you’re able to do whatever you want, within reason. You can swing around the city at your leisure, or take on the in-game trials to master your Spidey skills. They’re not particularly deep or fun, but at least the swinging around the city is somewhat enjoyable with easy controls and a pace that didn’t have me chucking my lunch up into my lap. It takes a few minutes to get accustomed to the controls as the face buttons are used for turning and jumping, but once you’ve spent a few minutes tapping away blindly, you’ll be swinging around like a pro.

The main takeaway I got from this is that it’s at least possible to create a Spider-Man game in VR, given enough time, effort, and resources. This outing is nothing more than a promotional piece for the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home movie, and it’s worth remembering that. This isn’t a game that has been given the same time and resources as, say, Insomniac’s decent PS4 exclusive, but it’s an alright way to kill 20 minutes. For hardcore Spidey fans looking for a bit of extra hype before the movie releases next month, it’s better than some shitty mobile app, at least.
And that’s it. I got around 20 minutes of light entertainment, but it didn’t cost me a penny. Sure, I would have liked a bit more meat on the bones and a bit more pazazz in the graphics department (it’s really, really ugly,) but free is free, so thanks, Sony.

Spider-Man: Far From Home VR Experience - PSVR

• 5/10
  Overall - Not Bad - 5/10

5/10

Summary

This isn’t a full game; it’s a free “experience” which is actually just an advert for the upcoming movie. Go in remembering that and you’ll kill a half hour at no cost to yourself. It’s not going to be something you’ll come back to in the future, but it’s worth the download just to have a go at swinging around New York for a bit before the repetition wears thin.