Marvel's Avengers

When I last spent time with Marvel’s Avengers I came away pretty impressed, excited by the versatility such a diverse roster of heroes could provide if Crystal Dynamics successfully executed upon the story, mission structure and live service formula. 

It could strike a perfect balance and push the genre forward, or fall into the same troubled habits as Anthem or Destiny before they took a step back to reassess what stopped them from achieving greatness. Unfortunately, after spending time with the recent beta, I’m left awfully conflicted. 

There are signs of greatness here, but such things are held back by soulless design which is hopelessly devoid of the personality that has helped its cinematic counterpart excel. So far, the game fails the balancing act required for such an experience to work, prioritising overwrought progression and monetisation in favour of a world and story that truly matters. 

Perhaps I’m being too negative, but Marvel’s Avengers possesses so many tired hallmarks of live service design in the worst possible way. It doesn’t feel creatively incorporated into the moment-to-moment gameplay, with a number of instances feeling like obstacles to truly enjoying the power fantasy of being a superhero. The full game could change things, but right now, the picture is a little muddy. 

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Marvel’s Avengers opens with A-Day, a celebration of the beloved superhero team in the city of San Francisco. It’s a wonderful spectacle, which is brought to a sudden close as mysterious forces attack and rig the helicarrier to explode. From here, you play through a bombastic tutorial where you sample all of the heroes and their respective powers, getting a rough picture of what each mission will feel like. 

It’s a thrilling opening, ripe with a sense of charm and personality which sadly isn’t present in the rest of this playable beta. Iron Man and Thor quip before launching into the battlefield, which Hulk hurls enemies off the Golden Gate Bridge in a cheeky bit of slapstick comedy. The pace and execution of encounters is perfect, establishing the camaraderie that makes this team gel together so perfectly. 

This opening concludes with Captain America supposedly being killed and The Avengers being forced into obscurity, made to admit before a tribunal that they are a danger to society. In the wake of the blast that rocked San Francisco, the city is placed under quarantine while some of its inhabitants begin developing superpowers, gaining the corrupt label of Inhumans. But fear not, a totally not evil corporation called AIM is here to save the day. 

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Led by George Tarleton, Advanced Idea Mechanics has populated much of the world with robotic law enforcement for the protection of society, drawing them into a fall sense of security before taking tyrannical control. He’s the main adversary of Marvel’s Avengers, who will apparently be bested during the initial campaign, as Crystal Dynamics aims to explore different stories and villains in the years to come. 

Kamala Khan is the eyes through which we are introduced to the world Crystal Dynamics has created. She’s a young girl who found herself with superpowers after A-Day, and is also a self-proclaimed Avengers superfan who has penned fanfiction, constructed cosplay and is utterly in over her head when in the presence of her heroes. It’s adorable, and the way in which she converses with Bruce Banner in the opening missions are the best interactions I’ve seen yet. 

The beta features a couple of missions like this, the highlight being one where Hulk and Kamala venture across a frozen tundra in search of an underground base. The map is large and varied, with secrets and optional objectives found off the beaten path. It gives you a reason to explore, even if the rewards are little more than bland loot and countless resources I didn’t yet know how to use. 

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Despite this freeform exploration, combat is repetitive and one-dimensional. While they all possess a unique range of powers and movement abilities, all heroes have the same control scheme and selection of light/heavy attacks. It means that, aside from specials, many encounters feel far too similar regardless of who you’re playing as, which defeats the object of powering up a growing team of comic book legends. 

Wailing on waves of generic robots until they crumbled into nothingness grew stale during the beta, as did objectives which required me to guard monitors for a specific amount of time or defend lifeless NPCs from incoming enemies. It’s tiresome, and brought back memories of Anthem and Destiny, both of which struggled to find their footing in the early stages of release. I fear that Marvel’s Avengers is doomed to repeat such mistakes if the full game doesn’t pull its socks up.

Once I’ve completed the allocated story missions, I’m introduced to the downed Helicarrier which acts as The Avengers’ base of operations. It’s a sprawling downed monolith with an excellent sense of place. Kamala is free to wander the halls, commenting on iconic objects like Captain America’s shield while Jarvis provides a bit of extra commentary. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s clear this world comes alive when it isn’t afraid to lean on the history it’s pulling from. 

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I can see this hub area growing with more characters and interactions as the campaign progresses, which is a hugely exciting thought, and could add some personality that the missions themselves are sorely missing. During side activities, which often involve flying to random locations across the globe and fighting robots, The Avengers simply don’t communicate with one another very much, leading to moments of awkward silence in loading screens and during battle. 

At the moment, it’s difficult to judge the progression system of Marvel’s Avengers, which incorporates distinct loot, upgrade paths and equipment for each hero. They also have their own pseudo battle-pass complete with cosmetics and other collectibles with tiers that can be bypassed with in-game currency. On top of this are countless other resource types which can be funnelled into enhancing each hero and their respective loot.

It’s a bit messy, and difficult to wrap your head around in the opening hours since there are so many convoluted systems piled together with very little grace. The heart and soul of this universe has been torn out and morphed into a live service which simply feels haphazard in a lot of ways, even if hardcore comic book fans will love some of the references scattered throughout the hero costumes and comic covers.

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I hope the expansive upgrade paths help combat evolve into a more nuanced affair, with counters and loot synchronisation being a core component of besting tough boss battles, since the toughest enemies thus far are ones with shields which can be broken with a simple combo. Given the roster of superheroes is so vast, and is only set to grow with Hawkeye and Spider-Man, I want each one to feel like a weapon I need to slowly learn and master, instead of a reskin that happens to have different movement abilities.

Latest Impressions

Marvel’s Avengers has plenty of potential, but it’s currently buried underneath a live service model which seems determined to sap this universe of any potential charm. Comparisons to the cinematic side of things are impossible, but even putting this aside I can’t help but feel this interpretation of Marvel’s greatest team is a little bit heartless.

While enjoyable, its combat can grow repetitive and there isn’t enough variation between each hero for every battle to truly feel satisfying. I’m confident this will change as you obtain better loot and more upgrades, but right now it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. With launch only a few weeks away, I hope the full game is capable of superseding the mixed impressions I’m currently left with. 

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