Marvel’s What If…? shows off the promise of spatial gaming

Marvel Studios’ new What If…? An Immersive Story is a free app for Apple’s Vision Pro headset that combines interactivity with storytelling in a brand-new way. Is it a game? Is it an episode of the What If…? animated TV series? It’s not entirely either. It’s an hour-long story where you’re the main character, casting spells with your hands and collecting the Infinity Stones.

If you aren’t a Marvel fan, you’ll find the story a bit drab. But if you want to see the bleeding edge of what’s possible in gaming when you can seamlessly switch between VR and AR with natural hand controls, you need to check it out.

It’s like no other game I’ve ever played.

Review: Marvel’s What If…? app for Vision Pro

When you first fire up Marvel’s What If…? app on your Vision Pro, you see a short procession of various logos. Then you see the cinematic Marvel Studios intro with its fanfare — in full 3D. You start inside the Marvel logo as it zooms out and hangs in midair in front of you, then fades into the wall. It’s like that old HBO opening title in reverse. Great start.

The story begins in a fully immersive void of space, with a monologue from the Watcher — the extraterrestrial character who oversees the many alternate realities of the Marvel universe. Back in your living room, the Watcher introduces you to sorcerer Wong, who is tasked with teaching you the spells you need to rescue the Infinity Stones. (You might recognize these magical items from the Avengers movies.)

Infinity Stones and a ton of familiar Marvel characters

Then Wong transports you to another immersive space, a desolate and decrepit environment. Here, he teaches you the first few spells. Using the Vision Pro‘s hand tracking, you can create a shield with a closed fist, summon stones by holding your palm up, and banish things out of reality with a more complicated incantation of gestures.

Wong seems incredibly irritated that you are being given this responsibility, and gives you the first couple stones with great reluctance. As the game progresses, you are thrown into a series of scraps and fights where you gather the other four stones, each time learning a new spell (and hand gesture) that’ll come in handy later.

You’ll catch up with a big variety of Marvel characters along the way. And that should surprise and delight anyone who’s been keeping up with the last few years of movies and shows. Thanos, Captain Marvel, the Red Guardian, the Collector, the Scarlet Witch, Vision and more all appear in the What If…? Vision Pro experience. And, of course, there’s an end scene with two more cameo appearances to top it off — spoilers in the link.

Is it a game? Is it a movie?

I’ve watched a lot of the Marvel movies and shows, though I wouldn’t call myself a fan. And I found the story in What If…? a little tedious. However, I found the concept and execution of the game quite compelling.

The What If…? app for Vision Pro exists in a liminal space in the spectrum between Super Mario Bros. and Avengers: Endgame. You’re not entirely kicking your feet up and watching a movie — although some of the long cutscenes in the final act come awfully close to that point.

Instead, you participate in the action. While heroes and enemies duke it out in a fight, you cast the spells you learned to blast grunts with lasers, move giant objects with telekinesis, and hold onto those precious Infinity Stones.

Although you are the eye of this hurricane of events, making the critical moves that will save reality, the story is somewhat railroaded. You’re being fired at and you shoot back at the enemies, but it’s not like you’ll run out of hit points and be made to start over if you fail. There’s no Game Over.

It’s interactive, but you’re not in control

At some point, Captain Marvel asked me to grab the Reality Stone while she was fighting Thanos. I was slightly distracted because I was interrupting the game every 15 minutes or so to make sure my screen recording was still active, which I needed to capture these screenshots. (Sorry, Brie Larson, but I have my priorities, too.)

I thought at the time that the Vision Pro’s hand tracking stopped working, because I couldn’t seem to grab the Reality Stone. After reviewing the footage, it looks like I was simply making the wrong gesture. But no matter. After about a minute, the Reality Stone became bored and put itself in the box to keep the story going despite my failure.

That’s not necessarily a complaint. I would expect my choices to change the story — and my poor understanding of the controls to have consequences — in a $60 AAA video game. But this is an hour-long “immersive experience” that’s free to play.

I’ve watched a lot of the Marvel movies and shows, though I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I found the story a little tedious.

What If…? shows the promise of spatial gaming

What If…? on Vision Pro game is a seamless blend of fully immersive environments, mixed reality, hand tracking and eye tracking. It simply couldn’t be done on any other headset. There’s truly nothing else like this game.

Sure, plenty of Vision Pro games use hand tracking, like Super Fruit Ninja. Loads of games incorporate 3D mixed reality, like Game Room and Synth Riders. But now, just a few months after the Vision Pro’s launch, we’re starting to see fully immersive 3D games like About by PCalc and Job Simulator.

What If…? blends all of these modes to make something new. And that’s what makes it so exciting.

So far, much of the Vision Pro ownership experience feels like a tease. Here’s a brand-new kind of entertainment … that’ll only last an hour. Here’s a fully immersive 3D TV show … that releases a 15-minute episode every four months. Apple needs to move heaven and earth to make ensure a consistent flow of high-quality apps that take advantage of the $3,499 headset’s mind-blowing capabilities.

I can’t wait to play more games that take full advantage of the Vision Pro. Marvel’s What If…? showed me a glimpse of that reality — and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Price: Free
Download from: App Store

★★★★☆