Marvel’s Spider-Man is unique in its means of traversal, where players pendulum-swing from strands of webbing and build momentum as they maneuver through New York City’s streets. Players are encouraged to find the most creative and stylish ways to bound from skyscrapers and weave themselves through interactive environments, making Marvel’s Spider-Man’s open world a treat to explore and its fast travel feature a redundancy. It will be interesting, then, to see what EA Motive’s Iron Man might make of its own New York City.
It has not been confirmed or alluded to that EA Motive’s Iron Man will take place in Manhattan like Marvel’s Spider-Man does. But with the island being a notable residence of Tony Stark, let alone the Avengers Tower featured in Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Marvel’s Spider-Man respectively, it would be easy enough to presume that the game will take place in New York City as well. However, if Iron Man wants to be unique and avoid any inevitable comparisons to Marvel’s Spider-Man as possible, it needs to either get truly creative with its environment or relocate someplace else.
Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Open-World New York City is Definitive
Because Marvel’s Spider-Man is so popular as a big-budget superhero title, its New York City is inherently associable with its fluid traversal. Spider-Man’s web-swinging wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as it is if the city constructed around him was not designed to be a perfect playground, for example, and Insomniac obviously learned a thing or two about that open-world approach from its work on Sunset Overdrive’s traversal.
The city is immense on one hand, but also manages to be maneuvered with such speed that it hardly takes any time at all to reach a desired destination, and all the while it is fun to launch from perches and dive through narrow alleyways. The only issue with this depiction of New York City, then, is imagining how other games could possibly iterate upon it.
EA Motive’s Iron Man will obviously be distinguishable apart from Marvel’s Spider-Man since players would ideally be able to fly around without having to interact with much of the environment anyway. Iron Man’s standard flight mechanics would negate having to weave between buildings if fans wanted, and there would be much less encouraging players to fly through narrow gaps unless prompted in a scripted sequence.
This could still be exhilarating if done well, but it would still be another representation of New York City nonetheless. Instead, Iron Man might need to take a step further in order to isolate itself completely as a Marvel game.
EA Motive’s Iron Man Needs a Distinct Setting
In order to remove itself wholly from comparisons to Marvel’s Spider-Man, EA Motive’s Iron Man could take place somewhere other than New York City. Tony Stark wouldn’t need to necessarily be tied down to New York City and could be anywhere for any reason, and where the game ends up taking place will ultimately be decided by what kind of game it is.
It would seem sort of absurd to not allow players to fly about freely, but perhaps EA Motive will put a restraint on Iron Man’s game world and not feature an open world. Iron Man could be more similar to Uncharted or any other linear action-adventure game, after all.
This alone would be a huge departure from Marvel’s Spider-Man, but maybe not one that fans would enjoy. Iron Man should be able to take to the skies, but that particular sky might not need to be New York’s. It is anyone’s guess which route could be taken and what Iron Man can offer fans of the character, but it will probably be a while before fans hear more about EA Motive’s upcoming Marvel game.
EA Motive’s Iron Man game is currently in development.