Prefacing upcoming movies with low-effort video game tie-ins is a strategy as old as the gaming industry itself. There's little reason not to cash in on all the marketing surrounding a big film and develop an underwhelming title that will nevertheless sell like hot cakes thanks to an enormous amount of free advertising. Still, sometimes real jewels will be found amongst the coals, and we'll get a remarkably entertaining video game out of the media frenzy.
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While it's probably too early to say one way or the other, Spider-Man: Homecoming - VR Experience is free-of-charge on Steam today. Watch Spider-Man's latest actor Tom Holland hype the game up in a trailer below:
To address the elephant in the room, yes, there's a definite lack of actual web-swinging in the trailer. It seems that Spider-Man is relatively grounded in this title, with much of the game taking place on a small rooftop. The player can at least fire some balls of web around and pull various items around with Spidey's signature web-shooting, though the whole game really comes across as a missed opportunity. Steam reviews have left Spider-Man: Homecoming - VR Experience with a mixed reception on its store page, which suggests that, while it's definitely nothing revolutionary, the game might be good for an hour or two of entertainment.
Regardless of how good or bad it is, Spider-Man: Homecoming - VR Experience is free and it's for the only console struggling over a lack of available games to play on it. There's simply not a lot to enjoy with virtual reality headsets yet, which is why games like Star Trek: Bridge Crew are so noteworthy when they do actually come along. It's a genre at risk of starvation, and until studios begin putting out more titles (or the price for the headsets drop), virtual reality will stay as it always has been: an incredibly expensive way to pretend that, for just a few hours, you're something other than a man swinging wildly around his living room.
If you do already own a virtual reality headset, then you can find Spider-Man: Homecoming - VR Experience on its Steam store page. For more VR titles, browse Steam's virtual reality category, where the latest and greatest installments in the genre are available for purchase.
