EA Motive is a studio that has been all over the place relative to the games it has developed. Motive has hopped from Star Wars Battlefront 2 to its recently released Dead Space remake, and it is currently developing an Iron Man game as well. These are all fairly diverse IPs to have worked on, but there are key resemblances between Dead Space and Iron Man in particular that can help make Motive’s latest transition smooth. For one, Isaac Clarke and Tony Stark are fairly similar from a design standpoint, as both characters wear technologically advanced suits of armor.
Isaac is no billionaire philanthropist, but both characters are also incredibly intelligent. Isaac and Tony are separated by how dystopian Dead Space’s science-fiction setting is, but it would be interesting to see how Isaac’s engineering knowledge matched up to Tony’s. Each character’s catalog of armored suits is iconic and diverse, and the Dead Space remake is exciting because it demonstrates the graphical fidelity that Motive can produce. That said, Motive could draw direct inspiration from Dead Space for how Tony switches between his armor in the Iron Man game.
Iron Man Can Swap Suits Almost Identically to Dead Space
Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke switches suits by stepping into a large machine pod in the back of any Store kiosk players find. Once a suit is purchased and equipped, the machine opens up with enough space for Isaac to step inside before it clasps shut again.
Players then hear mechanical whirring as the suit is seemingly welded onto him, and when the pod opens back up he steps out fully dressed in a new piece of armor. This cutscene could be used exactly how it is in an Iron Man game because that is typically how Tony Stark is portrayed swapping suits as well. Rather, Tony is often seen with a particular suit’s individual pieces being placed onto him one by one, and that is surely something Motive could endeavor to depict.
It would be a phenomenal technical showcase if Motive could piece Iron Man’s suits onto him this way, though he would also need them removed similarly. Likewise, some suits that Tony creates do not need to be put on in such a way. Iron Man’s nanotech armor would be able to trill and suddenly materialize along his body, for example, and it would be excellent if different suits have different means of being applied to Tony in Motive’s Iron Man game.
Iron Man’s Suit Swaps Might Need to Be More Efficient
No concrete details are known about Motive’s Iron Man game, but suit-swapping is an interesting feature to consider. If the Iron Man game is linear, then it could take after Dead Space further and simply have these suit stations appear often. But if Iron Man is an open-world game in order to make full use of flight mechanics, for example, then Motive could decide to plant intermittent suit stations throughout New York City’s Manhattan island or wherever it ends up taking place.
These could conceivably behave like Marvel’s Spider-Man’s research stations, or even Marvel’s Spider-Man’s surveillance towers, which reveal collectibles and interactables in the immediate area. For the sake of convenience, Iron Man might want to approach suit swapping the same way that Marvel’s Spider-Man does instead, where players can access suits from the menu screen and instantaneously switch to whichever suit they want.
There is no cutscene or animation for Peter Parker or Miles Morales changing costumes, which takes away some of the immersion and substitutes it with a hasty turnaround on players wanting to adorn themselves differently. Motive’s Iron Man has a lot of important design decisions to make, but suit-swapping will be an interesting one to see tackled.
An Iron Man game from EA Motive is currently in development.