Game Review: Marvel’s Avengers
Alex FischerSquare Enix released Marvel’s Avengers for Xbox One, and PS4, Google Stadia, and Steam this month.
The third-person, action-adventure game has you play as Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) as she tries to figure out why the Avengers are being wrongfully framed for a disaster leading to hundreds of people perishing and the Golden Gate Bridge destroyed along with the Avengers’ aircraft called the Chimera.
The story gives me a Civil War kind of vibe. People despise super-heroes, mutants (inhumans in the game) and especially the Avengers. You can even see at one-point Thor questioning Tony’s inventions early in the game.
In this game you can play as Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. Marvel’s Avengers has an original story with a single-player campaign and co-op gameplay. You can have up to four players online and build and customize your own super-hero roster.
Later down the road, Square Enix will have post-launch heroes in the game that will be free. Marvel Entertainment’s YouTube channel shows that Kate Bishop and Hawkeye will be coming into the game. She will be tasked to find out why Clint Barton, the first Hawkeye, went missing on A-Day, though there is not a release date set.
Avengers is classified as an action/adventure game, but it also incorporates RPG elements with damage dealt to enemies displayed above their heads, gear, and loot. The loot in the game is very plentiful and is pretty evenly placed throughout the game.
Each hero has three separate skill trees.
“Primary” going towards your basic melee, ranged attacks and adding move sets. “Specialty” will be all about your intrinsic abilities and your ultimate moves. “Mastery” is about upgrading your abilities so you can do more damage, or an ultimate attack can last longer.
It also presents itself with a photo mode so you can take pictures at any point where you can hit the options button. Avengers also comes with micro-transactions, but good news: they’re only cosmetics. The best outfit in the game is Hulk wearing a fedora with a pinstriped suit.
The gameplay uses simple beat-em-up mechanics, swapping from light and heavy attacks – however, it’s not barebones.
There are two special attacks and an Ultimate, like in Destiny with its melee, grenade, and class ability.
It reminds me of Spider-Man PS4, the Batman Arkham games, and Destiny, though I will say this game isn’t as snappy as those are.
It takes a second to get used to the dodge mechanics of the game, and it took me a couple of tries before it clicked.
Character movement in the game can feel like controlling a tank with the speed of one too. When sprinting around as the Hulk it feels like there’s no urgency in his steps, the most efficient way to travel is to keep spamming the jump button.
When playing as Iron Man or Black Widow, characters that rely on ranged attacks, aiming and shooting feels sluggish and not as responsive. You can fly around as Iron Man with the basic ascend and descend buttons but when you use your thrusters, Iron Man can zip around his environment and shoot beams at the enemies, very reminiscent of BioWare’s game Anthem. But it looks and feels so much cooler then Anthem.
However, when you get to play as the some of the characters like the Hulk, he can grab enemies and smash them into the ground or smash them into other enemies which is really satisfying.
One thing to note is that you can play all the core Avengers early in the game but after the intro, you will have to play more of the game to get them back.
I’m playing the game on the original Xbox One and the graphics still look really good to me, though if you have a PC be careful if you want this game, the dynamic settings if turned on might be too much and you’ll lose frames.
I’ve only experienced one crash in the game and some noticeable frame rate drops when there’s a cluster of enemies are throwing grenades, shooting laser beams and explosions happening everywhere.
The dialogue can be a little corny at times when Kamala is geeking out over the Avengers (but who wouldn’t be), but it’s believable and does a great job of being fun to play while seeing her grow and become an Avenger.
The game looks to have taken notes from Destiny’s playbook. When it comes to map design, it’s similar with having an open-world-like level with groups of enemies at certain points of interests.
The war table is also very similar to Destiny when it comes to mission selecting and prepping. You’ll have to equip certain gear to fight off enemies that may have a certain gimmick to it like frost damage.
If this is a game you’ve been excited for since it’s Reveal trailer back in E3 2019 and you enjoy Destiny’s gameplay mechanics, then I would recommend this game to you.
It’s an overall fun game with some interesting gameplay and a good story that doesn’t feel completely rehashed. I would think about waiting for it to go on sale this holiday. There may be more content added in by that point too.