Marvel’s Avengers impresses with brutal superhero action in multiplayer mode. But woe to you if you don’t have enough buddies with you, because then you’ll have to ask the stupid AI for help. And this quickly turns superhero action into an involuntary comedy show.
The dilemma with the AI: In Marvel’s Avengers, the game really starts after the end of the grandly told campaign. Then, as a newly formed Avengers team, you must once again restore order in the world.
However, since matchmaking in the multiplayer suffers from bugs and often takes forever to find suitable teammates, you sometimes have to set off alone. It’s not really a problem, because the AI gladly takes on the role of the other team members.
Unfortunately, the Artificial Intelligence in Avengers doesn’t follow the example of famous Marvel AIs like Jarvis or Ultron.
The AI lets players die and doesn’t care about mission objectives
This is how bitterly the AI lets you down: Every player of Avengers has probably had a lousy experience with the AI. Because when you get knocked out in battle, as a solo player, you still have 45 seconds to crawl around on the ground before it finally takes you out and you must load the last checkpoint.
During these 45 seconds of grace, any team member can revive you at the push of a button if they are roughly within your vicinity. Nothing more is needed. Nevertheless, the AI often fails miserably here and lets you die a miserable death:
- Sometimes an AI hero just stands slightly outside the rez circle and watches you die with glee. Why? What have I done to you, Tony Stark?
- Often the AI really wants to help, but there’s a pillar in the way. And it has to go through, which does not work. Not even as Hulk.
- Sometimes the AI doesn’t care because the three A.I.M. bots in the corner of the room are now much more important and need to be beaten up! Thanks for nothing, Black Widow!
Many exciting battles become a real struggle due to this antisocial behavior of the AI, and nothing is more annoying than being pulled out of the action because the previously epic final battle has to start all over again because of this idiot team. And since there’s a chance that the AI will fail completely again on the next knockdown, it doesn’t make things any better.
Check out some highlights of the AI slip-ups in the video here:
The AI only wants to fight: Such obvious failures in reviving players are just the tip of the iceberg of AI stupidity. Because in some missions, you need to capture and hold one or even multiple objectives to earn points and fulfill the mission objective.
This is totally easy if every hero picks one point on the map and defends it. But the AI doesn’t want that. It only wants to fight! And it does that, beating up some enemies while the objective is captured by some dumb A.I.M. bot. Funny how the enemy AI can indeed capture the points and does so with precision!
This leads to the situation where you, as the only player-hero , are running between four mission points and can keep recapturing them while Cap, Widow, and Hulk enjoy their fight club with the enemies somewhere on the map. Thanks, you swine!
The AI doesn’t help you: But that’s not all, the AI also shows in other situations that it is nothing but a fighting machine. Because some missions feature doors behind which valuable loot is hidden. But the doors are so massive that only certain heroes, like Ms. Marvel, Thor, or Hulk, can open them.
Quicker heroes like Captain or Black Widow can’t get through. In a proper team with other players, this is no problem, as there’s usually some Thor or Hulk around.
But if you only have the mentioned heavy-hitters as AI clown in the team, you can forget about the nice loot. Because Thor has no interest in swinging his hammer, and even Hulk, who usually smashes everything, won’t lift a green finger.
So those who play with AI heroes and don’t want to commit to specific heroes will have to forgo a lot of loot as a solo player.
Stupidity as an atmosphere killer
The AI ruins my Avengers feeling: Most troubling for me, however, is the fact that such foolishness completely robs me of immersion. Because in this discipline, Avengers normally scores high with me. Starting with the grand story to the truly gripping battles, I really feel like Thor or Hulk when the action kicks in.
This fantastic feeling dissipates in fractions of a second when I see how my beloved Avengers turn into a form of the three Stooges in costumes. It starts with the Captain, who runs into the same pillar like an idiot.
Or Iron Man, who simply doesn’t feel like killing the flying enemies and prefers to fly around aimlessly. And it looks the dumbest when Hulk picks up a huge rock and then just stubbornly drags the thing around. Even in the elevator, he stands there with the rock in his green fist and I think to myself “Hey, Hulk, please stop, you’re ruining it!”
Please, please, throw down some brains from the sky! A solution to this dilemma would be a major AI patch or at least the option to control the comrades directly. A rescue action would be a good idea, for example, where you communicate to the AI “Come here IMMEDIATELY and revive me!”. Or a marker instructing Thor or Hulk to smash this door right now. It can’t be that hard, right? More frustration than the stupid AI has actually only caused me with the mission involving Black Widow.
