YOU are Iron Man.
Iron Man VR is a virtual reality game released for Playstation VR on July 3rd, 2020, developed by Camouflaj and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and draws from both the Iron Man and The Avengers comics, as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Five years after Stark Industries ceases weapons production and he becomes Iron Man, Tony Stark is on a routine plane trip with Pepper Potts when their jet comes under attack by old Stark Industries combat drones controlled by someone calling herself Ghost. Tony suits up to fight them off and quickly comes to learn that sometimes, ghosts do come back to haunt you.
Iron Man VR provides examples of:
- A God Am I: Arthur Park is fully convinced that he is a god after becoming the Living Laser, and brags about it every chance he gets. Tony is not impressed. Neither is Ghost, who cuts him out of her operation when his ego starts becoming a problem.
- All for Nothing: Tim Shung, the whistle blower who was supposedly assassinated by Stark Industries, and who Ghost is trying to avenge, never existed, being nothing more than a character created by Gunsmith to pit her against Tony. This effectively renders her entire vendetta against Tony completely pointless.
- And This Is for...: Gunsmith cries out "This is for Pepper" right before destroying Ghost's drones with his Kill Sat.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can unlock multiple different paint jobs for your armor, most of which are obtained by earning trophies (which are listed on the loading screens).
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Ghost raids Tony's home in Malibu at one point. Gunsmith does the same thing.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Ghost gives one to Tony when Gunsmith takes over his armor and tries to execute her while she's surrendering.Ghost: You still doing this for Pepper?
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The final boss has Gunsmith pilot a massive, hard-light version of the Iron Man armor to battle Tony.
- Book Ends: The beginning of the story proper has Tony and Pepper riding Tony’s personal plane, before Tony bails out and suits up to protect the plane from Ghost. The ending shows Tony flying next to a similar plane alongside Pepper in her new Rescue armor.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Just before the final battle with Gunsmith, Tony and FRIDAY both realize that since Gunsmith helped upgrade Tony's armor, he can hack into it and turn it against him. This forces Tony to recover and rebuild the Mk. 1 armor to stand a chance.
- Enemy Mine: Tony decides to release Ghost from SHIELD's custody to help him fight Gunsmith after realizing that her phasing tech is the only way to get through the barrier surrounding his house.
- Foreshadowing: In the flashback to Ghost's first conversation with Tim Shung, she teases him for using his real name on the Dark Web. Shung explains that he does it because he has "nothing to lose". Not only is Gunsmith not using his real name, but as an AI, he literally has nothing physical to lose.
- When Ghost attacks Tony in his mansion, Gunsmith drives her off by remotely piloting the Iron Man armor. When he's revealed to be the Big Bad, Tony and FRIDAY realize that he can control any armor that Tony has access to... except for one.
- Gender Flip: As in Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Ghost is presented as female.
- Injured Player Character Stage: Ghost rips out Tony's Arc Reactor at the start of the penultimate chapter, leaving both his armor and his life-support systems running on fumes for the rest of the stage. As a result, your thrusters are slowed to a crawl, and using the repulsors drains your health, meaning you are going to die very fast if you're as trigger-happy here as you probably were in the previous stages.
- Interface Screw: The loading screens for "Rock Bottom" have clearly been tampered with by Ghost, having changed from gameplay tips and lore to insults directed at Tony. Not only that, but during the actual level, she may taunt you by messing with the in-game Trophy system, of all things.
- Jump Scare: Ghost loves doing this to Tony.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ghost tries to surrender at the end of one level, even going as far as to remove her mask. Unfortunately for both her and Tony, Gunsmith has control of the armor and is very in favor of executing her. Thankfully, Tony manages to resist long enough for her to escape.
- Large Ham: The Living Laser, who fully believes that his new power makes him a god. Of course, all this ends up doing is open him up for more mockery from Iron Man.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The entire game turns out to be an example of this. Gunsmith fed Ghost the narrative of a whistle blower named "Tim Shung" to drive her to villainy, all so Tony could have a villain to vanquish. Tony is not pleased when he discovers this.
- Mood Whiplash: The rather humorous scene at the end of Chapter 7 where Gunsmith cycles through a bunch of online articles and pictures (one of which is him in a Lamborghini) leads directly into the horrifying reveal of his Kill Sat network.
- Mythology Gag: The massive "armor" that Gunsmith uses in the final battle is based on the armor Tony wore during his Superior Iron Man phase. The loading screens even refer to Gunsmith's armor as "the Superior armor".
- Race Lift: Ghost is modeled on her voice actress Chantelle Barry who is of Burmese and Italian descent.
- Also, Living Laser, who in this version is Korean. (Or rather, was, before becoming an energy being)
- Reasonable Authority Figure: For what it matters Tony tried his best to do right by Gunsmith. The AI was given full internet access, kept online for the foreseeable future, and Tony went out of his way to assure the AI that his retirement was not a result of any failure to perform. That is more then the vast majority of A.I.s get in fiction when their time comes.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Stark-designed Helicarrier featured in the game is named "Oresteia". Tony expresses disappointment when he overhears a conversation between two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents who don't understand the reference.
- The Reveal: Tim Shung is Gunsmith, and he's been playing both Tony and Ghost against each other from the very beginning.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After the reveal of Gunsmith's Kill Sat network, FRIDAY gets sick of his blase attitude towards destruction and "quits", even altering her holographic display to show her "packing her things". She returns about a chapter later, after Tony "fires" Gunsmith.
- Shared Universe: An Oscorp building is seen in Shanghai, and according to lore found in a loading screen, the corporation was founded by both Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius, alongside Tony mentioning that an “incident in New York” that could easily refer to the Devil's Breath outbreak has greatly tarnished Osborn’s reputation in America, hinting that this game takes place in the same setting as Marvel's Spider-Man.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: FRIDAY and Gunsmith really don't like each other, due to their disagreements on how to handle Ghost, and only stick together for Tony's benefit. It eventually becomes too much for FRIDAY to stomach, so she deserts and doesn't return until Gunsmith leaves.
- That Man Is Dead: The Living Laser insists that he is not Arthur Park, demanding that he be referred to as Living Laser. It gets to the point where Tony is able to lure him into a trap just by referring to him as such.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The Iron Patriot appears as an unlockable paint job. Fitting, considering that the game came out of the Fourth of July.
- Where It All Began: The final confrontation with Ghost takes place in the same cave where Tony was imprisoned and built the Mk. 1 armor, with Ghost having built her drone factory into it.
