GameByte recently had the chance to go hands-on with the beta for Marvel’s Avengers. We assembled our Avengers, Sara and Brett, to share their thoughts on the game and provide two you with two different viewpoints.
Sara
Anyone who knows me knows of my love for cinema, comics and video games, so when I heard that Crystal Dynamics was developing a new Avengers game, I was beyond excited. I took part in the game’s beta earlier this month and here are my first impressions.
First of all, I think it’s important to acknowledge that the 2019 E3 reveal trailer was… less than impressive. At least in my eyes. I was underwhelmed by the graphics, which left the world feeling underdeveloped and the characters looking like the toy aisle in a kids shop.
But for anyone who, like me, was concerned about that, I’m here to reassure you! There have certainly been some lighting and texture updates to the game, as well as improve character models. The opening mission I played was so full of colour and energy that I almost found myself wrapped up in this post-Avengers world. Almost.
While it’s true that the characters look a little less “action figure”, they feel as flimsy as plastic. Combat feels pretty poor compared to other games in the genre, namely Marvel’s Spider-Man and the Rocksteady Batman series. Due to the health bars above enemy heads, you never feel as powerful as you do in these other games. With enemies taking multiple hits to take down and a slow fighting mechanic, fights often felt laborious. I could never fully buy into the fantasy that I was an all-powerful Avenger.
However, what we saw of the story seems interesting, if not massively unique. A post-Avengers world provides some interesting struggles for the cast and it means Crystal Dynamics can move away from more traditional enemies. I particularly enjoyed Bruce and Kamala’s dynamic – with well-written dialogue that plays off the contrast in personalities and JARVIS’ dry humour I found myself quietly chuckling on more than one occasion. Kamala’s excitement can get a bit over the top at times, but given her situation and age, it’s pretty believable.
The beta has me excited for the full release of Marvel’s Avengers, but whether or not it’s going to live up to the lofty heights of the Avengers brand remains to be seen.
Brett
Marvel was a huge part of my childhood. Growing up in the 90s meant a fascination with the likes of the Spider-Man, X-Men and other Marvel cartoons. Then came a love for the comics and, from there, a love of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel’s Avengers is none of these things and it’s important to remember that. It creates its own story, using history from the comics to help shape it, and from the brief glimpses I’ve seen of the story I’m excited to see where it goes.
So many good superhero stories come from a place of rebuilding and that is the core of what Marvel’s Avengers is. The events at the start of the game turn everything on its head to a story that seems to take inspiration from a variety of arcs from the long running history of Marvel.
The story itself was intriguing from the glimpses I saw in the beta. A terrorist group, seemingly masterminded by Taskmaster, taking down San Francisco is dramatic as it is. Doing it on a day where the Avengers are there celebrating and then creating a catastrophic chain of events from it adds the much needed layers of mystery to help you want to carry on.
When going through the various story beats of the beta, even without full context, I found myself excited to push forward, and had one very memorable scrap with Abomination as the Hulk.
It was in the more grinding parts of the beta cracks started to appear. Avengers is a game that is being pushed as a live service that’ll be frequently updating. There will be story missions to play through, and the ones I saw had some nice variety to them, but there will also be many side missions to play.
You choose these from the War Table, a point on your base which lets you select your mission. It helps the world feel bigger but that illusion is quickly ruined when so many levels feel like the same place. There’s only so many times you can see an office corridor before thinking “where’s the variety?”
You’ll be encouraged to do levels multiple times to try and get loot drops to improve your characters. Also to level up your character so you can unlock emotes, costumes and other things. It plays out similar to other live games such as The Division and Destiny. Make your characters better, find the moves that work for you and then team up with others to take down the bad guys.
On the few occasions I was able to match up with others in the beta it definitely improved the experience. Seeing foes fly above your head as you send another one in the opposite direction feels great and you really feel like a team.
Unfortunately if you’re playing with AI support you’ll feel more like a babysitter. They can do the basics but that’s about it. Trying to capture areas or destroy weakpoints on an enemy requires you to do all the heavy lifting. It makes boss fights that will no doubt be exhilarating with friends feel tedious.
When Marvel’s Avengers works it’s a delight. Each of the heroes control uniquely and have their own pros and cons. You have some that feel more natural for ranged attacks and others that make sense to get up close and personal with, meaning there’s a nice team dynamic. Something that is key for a game about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
If the beta is a fair reflection of the final product then it will be interesting to see the reception of it. It needs a community to succeed because, in single player, it falls a bit flat when outside of story missions.
For those that Marvel’s Avengers clicks with I can see it being a game they return to for a long time. As someone that has sunk hundreds of hours into MMOs and live games I definitely felt that “just one more quest” feeling kick in on a few occasions in the beta, and that was with a limited selection of quests. With a bit more variety to its environments and mission types Marvel’s Avengers could become a game with some great longevity, even if it doesn’t set the world on fire.
Marvel’s Avengers launches for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, 4 September 2020.
Featured Image Credit: Square Enix