The loot beat-em-up Marvel’s Avengers opens its servers early for interested players, and MeinMMO author Maik Schneider has engaged in the grind during the beta. He believes the potential of the title is huge – but he is also afraid it won’t be utilized. Here is his preview report.
What is Marvel’s Avengers? The new superhero title from Square Enix is currently running in open beta and is competing in the loot shooter genre like Destiny or The Division.
You can collect gear with various superheroes from the popular Marvel universe, beat up tons of enemies, and level up your heroes. It utilizes elements from different genres to make the characters unique. In the beta, 4 characters are available:
- Black Widow uses firearms like in a shooter, dealing amplified headshot damage
- Iron Man takes a slice from Anthem and offers actual flying without compromises and various weapons
- Hulk and Ms. Marvel remind of “God of War” and smash through enemies with their abilities
- Here is an overview of all playable heroes
Additionally, the favorites from TV and film bring all 3 skills that you can use occasionally to deal a lot of damage or initiate a rescue strike. A “power gauge” offers another feature that sometimes activates a defense shield for the heroes, sometimes increases damage, or grants temporary invulnerability.
In the missions, you go on target hunts as a 4-man team and have to complete various tasks. If you don’t have teammates at the moment, NPCs assist you, bringing life to the rest of the team. So you are always four in the normal missions, even as a solo player. However, Marvel’s Avengers also offers match-making.
A beat-em-up to fall in love with
How does it play? In the tutorial mission, you can already test several heroes quickly, and I immediately felt that the fluid gameplay and the overall game feel suit me. Fists, bullets, and Iron Man elegantly fly towards the enemy faces and create a lot of action.
The camera control seems a bit shaky and rough at first, but it stabilizes after a few hours of gameplay. Unless you switch characters – because they play so differently that you have to handle the camera differently as well.
However, the gameplay itself feels good. Shooting, punching, raging, and occasional dodging is fun and barely wears off even after long gameplay time. Especially with people in chat, you get a fleeting superhero experience that can engage you for several hours at a time. To stay exciting, Marvel’s Avengers offers a gear system and skill trees, as well as an RPG leveling system for all heroes. More about the gameplay can be found in the preview report by MeinMMO colleague Philipp Hansen.
The uncertainty is great – What will it be like at release?
Where do the problems start? Until now, everything is cool. The game is fun and even in the third and final beta weekend, I will spend a few hours beating with rubber arms.
But the trappings of this gaming fun concern me a little – because Marvel’s Avengers is a “Games-as-a-Service” title. As a Destiny veteran, I have my doubts about whether Avengers can convince from the get-go. While I like the idea of potentially playing a major Marvel title for years and seeing new content repeatedly, it also carries a high risk of failure.
Why could it fail? Everything happening around the excellent gameplay feels somewhat neglected in the beta, especially the missions make a rather unremarkable impression. Reach a target here, clear 5 sections there, and if you’re lucky, a bigger enemy awaits you at the end of the missions to bring at least a bit of excitement. These are the missions of the beta:
- 3 training challenges – defeat 10 waves of enemies each
- 5 drop zone missions – small and fast operations
- 2 danger sector missions – somewhat longer missions
- 1 iconic mission – longer missions focusing on a specific hero
- 1 hidden snow mission
- 1 rogue sector – here there’s a big boss fight at the end
The highlight of the test phase is the fight against a heavily armed combat walker in the rogue sector. The alternating smashing of weak points and dodging its counterattacks makes for a nice boss fight and the content of the beta can be compared to the test phase of a Destiny. However, Avengers only convinces atmospherically when you are in battle.
And here lies the big problem with the title: If you’re not fascinated by the lifelike wrinkles in Hulk’s armpits, the title currently fails to convince with its attractions. The mission environments feel dull and rarely invite exploration. Or briefly: Everything that doesn’t belong to the beat-em-up gameplay is currently little fun. Whether it’s exploring, improving your heroes, or completing challenges. Everything feels bloodless.
However, as soon as it hits the battlefield again, all these things are forgotten. Because here, the title reveals its great strengths.
The gameplay fits – please get the rest right
Where is the potential? The fights are amazing! Especially at high difficulty levels, simple beating is no longer enough, you have to know your combos and the enemies, dodge at the right moment, and strike. There are also mechanics that reward good reflexes and reactions, such as “perfect dodges” or beat-em-up animations with larger enemies.
For example, when you run towards one of the larger mechs with Hulk’s skill “Chokehold,” he not only gives it a smack but starts a unique animation that includes a few nasty headbutts for the opponent.
Such special features are fun and feel powerful. There are even team animations where multiple heroes perform a move together on the enemies. The more heroes there are in the game, the greater the variety of gameplay, and a lot already matches – even with only 4 superheroes to choose from.
If the developers at Square Enix manage to package the strong gameplay into a motivating environment, the loot beat-em-up could actually provide long-term fun. For the development, the publisher commissioned studios that have previously worked on gaming giants like “Deus Ex” or “Batman.” The studios can also draw on Square Enix’s extensive RPG experience, which for over a decade has proven with series like “Final Fantasy” or “Kingdom Hearts” that they have what it takes to make such games.
However, service games are not particularly known for delivering a refined and convincing experience right at launch. But due to the really strong gameplay, I still hope that the framework will fit at release and that the creators will present a coherent development plan for Marvel’s Avengers. So please – don’t mess it up.
If you’re also in the mood for a bit of superhero action now, you can still participate in the open beta this weekend. Here are all the details about the Avengers beta.
