What Led to a Marvel’s Avengers Game?
The popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) led to a big thirst for a good Avengers game, as well as any game that has the Marvel brand in it. From the titular Avengers to the X-Men, you name it, the gaming public wanted a version of it available for consumption. Due to this, it was only a matter of time before someone would take the reins and present an Avengers PS4 and Xbox One game. And on January 26, 2017, a teaser trailer was released on the Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel. It teased something called the “Avengers Project.” The trailer didn’t show much, not even gameplay. However, the wider public assumed that the game would be a darker and grittier version of the current MCU. The characters would be the same but on a different timeline. It’s safe to say, the gaming community was hyped. After all, it’s the Avengers, a well-known brand and series of beloved characters. However, it’s not until two years later, that we would see any more news about the nascent game.
Who’s Behind the Marvel’s Avengers PS4 and Xbox One Game?
On the June 11, 2019, Square Enix, and Crystal Dynamics were revealed to be the game’s publisher and developer, respectively. With Eidos Montreal also pitching into the development side of things, this led to a pretty big hype train. After all, we’ve got the big names involved in the game’s development. Not to mention Vince Napoli, who some people may know as God of War 2018’s main hero designer. Now, let’s talk about the people involved.
The Team
A lot of people know Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics well. That’s because both studio’s focus is on single-player narrative experiences that deliver great and satisfying gameplay. An example of this is their reboot of the Tomb Raider series back in 2013. It saw massive and widespread acclaim from the critics and the game’s fanbase. Eidos Montreal, meanwhile, is more known for its Deus Ex and Thief series. These are beloved franchises that many still hope to get a new game soon. Due to this incredible portfolio, they have incredible know-how on how to create great single-player experiences. Meanwhile, Square Enix is a brand that a lot of people recognize from the Final Fantasy series. Though they’re more a publisher than developers now, they still show that they have the chops to develop games once in a while. Also, they published fan favorites like Nier: Automata, Kingdom Hearts, Life is Strange and, of course, Dragon Quest XI. Now that we know the publisher and the developers, let’s talk about the game itself. How did the game pan out, and what exactly was the reception?
Marvel’s Avengers PS4 & Xbox One Game Review
The new Marvel’s Avengers PS4 and Xbox One game was incredibly hyped up by fans of the franchise. However, the moment that the game got out of closed beta, and even before the game was released, it got into a veritable slew of problems. From the game’s story to the combat, let’s talk about them one by one.
Story
Before we get into the story itself, be warned that there might be some spoilers. So discretion is advised.
How It Starts
The story begins on what the game calls A-Day. On that day, the five founding members of the Avengers (Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow) begin the unveiling of their second Avengers Headquarters. The headquarters is in San Francisco, with its own Helicarrier named Chimera. The Chimera is powered by what’s known as a Terrigen Crystal. But Taskmaster and a few of his goons interrupt the celebration. This attack results in the destruction of parts of San Francisco, as well as the Chimera Helicarrier, and Captain America dying in the attack. What’s worse, the destruction of the Terrigen Crystal also creates Terrigen Mist, which turns people into Inhumans. Due to this tragedy, the Avengers disbanded. After five years, the superheroes are now outlaws. Meanwhile, a technology and science corporation named A.I.M. is now replacing the Avengers as a premier world power. Led by former Avenger scientist George Tarleton, they’ve created what’s pretty much a police state in America and promise to create a cure for what a lot of people call the “Inhuman Disease.”
Here Comes Ms. Marvel
At New Jersey, teenage Inhuman Kamala Khan finds damaged video footage that hints Tarleton locked Captain America in the Helicarier’s reactor room before it blew up. After discovering this, she’s contacted by someone called “Tiny Dancer,” who’s a member of a Resistance movement against A.I.M. Tiny Dancer warns her that A.I.M. has found out about her and has already tracked her down. Kamala tries to meet Tiny Dancer at Heroes Park but is then captured by an A.I.M. scientist by the name of Monica Rappaccini. Kamala is brought to Tarleton, who has incredibly mutated due to his exposure to the Terrigen Mist five years ago. Tarleton and Rappaccini attempt to convince her that A.I.M. wants to help her. They even offer the control of her Inhuman abilities. Kamala refuses and immediately makes her escape. She then makes her way to Utah to find the Resistance. After that, Kamala will then look for and team up with the rest of the Avengers to clear their names,. They will also stop A.I.M’s ambitions and plans for the world at large.
What We Think
All in all, it’s a pretty interesting story with some things to chew on in the game’s campaign. However, it would’ve been nice to have an expansion on the various Inhuman characters, as well as more emphasis on the Avengers themselves. The game doesn’t feel like an Avengers game. Instead, it’s more like a Kamala Khan coming of age story with the Avengers as side characters. The game’s primary plot seems to be centered on her, which might annoy some players.
Graphics
Graphics-wise, the game is decent for the Avengers PS4 and Xbox One title. The environments look good, and overall, the character designs are well made and cool-looking. An example of this is the various AIM goons that you fight. There is a variety of AIM related opponents that you and the Avengers fight on the regular. Among them is a giant, multi-legged robot that shoots things like missiles and gunfire at you. Other than that, you also have some of the bosses like Abomination and Taskmaster. They look awesome and incredibly similar to their comic book versions. In terms of particle effects, the game is filled with bright and colorful particles that correspond to the attacks that the Avengers or their enemies use. From Thor’s blue lightning and Bifrost teleportation to Iron Man’s Unibeams, all these particle effects are incredibly detailed and very cool to look at.
Main Character Models
In terms of the main characters, the Avengers look great, with the selection of characters looking pretty sweet. Though some may say that the Avengers are bad copypasted versions of themselves, it’s better to think of them as the video game versions of the Avengers rather than the movie versions. It makes it easier to palate everything else that we’re going to discuss. Other than this, though, the various skins that characters have are uninteresting. For instance, some of them just getting a reskin of their costumes or even just their costumes with new paint jobs. Though some skins look interesting, most of them are just really drab. This is underwhelming since the Avengers Ps4 and Xbox One title has not
Environment
Now, let’s talk about the Avengers PS4 and Xbox One game’s environment. We’ve said above that the game looks good in terms of its environment. However, that’s it. It doesn’t grab the attention. Rather, it’s only there to make the game look good. Overall, it will slip your mind due to the various things that the game has you do. There’s some variety in them, like the factory and office settings, or the forest and cities. But other than looking like a standard PS4 game release, there’s nothing new that was added in that regard. However, the environment is still good-looking overall. In full force, the game looks good graphics-wise. However, the framerate of the game has a bit of a tendency to jump from smooth 60 fps to janky 30 fps. That’s not a good thing if you want a great game to play.
Sound
The game does have a few cool tunes here and there. Music-wise, the game has one main theme that the Avengers as a whole have, with separate sub-themes that are tailor-made for each Avenger, from Iron Man’s Rock vibes to the Captain’s patriotic and orchestra tones. In terms of other sound effects like the attacks, all of the ambient sounds are lovingly made and very clear. The voices of the characters are also near similar enough to their MCU counterparts. It’s enough for players to think that the MCU cast is the one to give the voices, which is nice.
Gameplay and Combat
Now let’s talk about the game’s combat. What is it like to play your superheroes? Well, let’s pin them one by one.
Kamala Khan
Kamala Khan is a pretty good character to start the game with. And she’s a fun character to bash the game’s various enemies. She stretches herself like a particular Gomu Gomu user, and enlarge her fists and feet to deal more damage. She can do some serious crowd control using this, allowing her to sweep her attacks to deal with multiple enemies. She’s fun but will start to get a bit stale over time.
Iron Man & Black Widow
Black Widow and Iron Man are the two standouts of the Avengers PS4 and Xbox One game. They have extensive skill trees that allow players to add in a few awesome looking new moves as they progress. Iron Man also can fly thanks to his suit. Well, Thor has that ability as well both heroes are more enjoyable to fly with when compared to the other game that has flight mechanics, Anthem. For now, let’s delve into Iron Man’s skills in detail. He’s incredibly good at kiting enemies and throwing out lasers, missiles, and his trademark Unibeams towards enemies. Upgrading them allows you to deal more damage and get better moves. For example, you might want to flash the Laser Samurai just like Iron Man did in the Iron Man 2 movie. Specifically, it’s where he and War Machine battled a whole bunch of Hammer bots. Now Black Widow is a pretty fun character to play. She’s incredibly fast and nimble. Her skill tree also makes it look like you’re using her in one of her scenes in the MCU. She bashes someone with her fist to stun, flips behind them, and gives them a neck chop. She uses dual pistols as a ranged option and has a shock baton as her ultimate that deals increased damage and is covered in red electricity. Her gameplay involves dodges and flips to ensure you don’t take damage. At the same time, you can deal more damage the longer you don’t get hit. Perfect if you’re going for a Glass Cannon build. The ranged abilities of both these heroes make the game a less irritating exprience despite the mounted turrets that the developers put on nearly all the missions.
Hulk
If you’re playing other heroes—for example, Hulk—on a mission with the said turrets? It’s harrowing. Players will be forced to rip out rocks or concrete from the ground and then throw them to those turrets one at a time. This looks cool, sure, but it’s a repetitive thing if you need to do it six times. Speaking of Hulk, Hulk’s lumbering form is kind of different from the other Avengers. He’s tough and strong, a veritable tank that soaks up damage and deals them tenfold in return. Hulk is made for long fights that ensure he’s in the middle of things to wreak some havoc. He’s fun for the first few hours, true. However, his gameplay style doesn’t go well with the game’s current combat doctrines or its pretty noticeable and floaty physics. It’s as if he’s nailed to the ground almost all the time, especially on missions where you have to fight enemies inside of buildings. Sure, he can jump high and slam the ground with great force. However, his jumps go through the buildings and back down. In this game, he just bashes his head on the ceiling. That’s not true to the lore. And it’s a pretty jarring and immersion-breaking thing to watch.
Thor
Thor, in the meantime, feels like a mix of Iron Man and Hulk, at least in gameplay. He flies around with his hammer, bashes things with his hammer, calls upon lighting to deal damage using his hammer, et cetera. He’s a bruiser character, whose main job is to deal with a metric ton of damage. Also, he jumps to the Bifrost and backs down to deal AOE damage, which is pretty cool.
Captain America
Captain America, meanwhile, is another cool character to play as. His shield is like a boomerang, but better and very iconic. He also uses it to shield bash, shield dash, parries, and in general lay a smackdown on enemies. When he meets the requirements, he goes into Super Mode. In this mode, he deals more damage to enemies. It’s great fun, especially when in partnership with his ability to bounce his shield off of surfaces to strike at enemies.
Avengers PS4 and Xbox One Replayability
In short, The Avengers PS4 and Xbox One title plays different enough from each other that using every one of them has the feel of hopping into a separate game. It’s this kind of variety that helps in keeping Marvel’s Avengers an interesting game to play, especially as players begin the multiplayer-focused live game part after the Campaign. In the game’s campaign, players have the chance to play different thematic levels. These levels allow players to familiarize themselves with each of the Avengers’ strengths and abilities. However, this causes the story to look a bit more disjointed and out of tune. There’s indeed a lot to know about each of the Avengers, and handling them effectively takes some practice as well as effort. However, the game gives these out through the use of character-specific tutorials that only appear at certain times in the campaign. The game doesn’t give players a way to get on board with each of the characters in terms of gameplay initially. So the single-player campaign might feel like an extended tutorial to get players ready for the multiplayer aspects.
Single Player Mode Is Short
In addition to this, Marvel’s Avengers’ single-player campaign isn’t a long one. Players can complete it in 10 hours. And even if there’s a lot of hero and faction-specific side-missions that give the campaign more content, it still feels a bit short. It’s not enough to entice players for another playthrough. However, the storyline does flow okay and isn’t that jarring. On the other hand, even on the game’s main solo campaign, the player can start to notice a few aspects of Marvel’s Avengers that are a bit problematic. The game has a gear system that is almost similar to the Destiny series. This means players have to constantly get a stream of new and better gear. You also have tier lists for each of their equipment that doesn’t scale to the endgame. Got a legendary gear for the Cap’n? Well, you can’t keep it until the Endgame boy, look for another piece of legendary gear. Also, equipment and cosmetics vendors or stores pop up constantly. However, the first time players see this, it’s very likely that they won’t have any in-game cash to get even the cheapest one in stock. But of course, the game gives you the option to resort to real-money microtransactions. And that’s where the trouble for this game begins.
What Went Wrong and How to Fix It?
It swiftly becomes very apparent that Marvel’s Avengers PS4 and Xbox One game is similar to Destiny. Replace the game’s Guardians with the Avengers, and add in more keenness to get players to shell out extra money beyond the game’s already steep retail price. This might be something that’s more and more becoming a common thing to see on AAA games, but it doesn’t endear or incentivize players to play it, especially when it becomes clear that the main campaign suffers from this design philosophy. Let’s check out what went wrong with the Avengers PS4 and Xbox One title.
The Campaign Lacks Depth
The contrast between the single-player campaign and the multiplayer is incredibly jarring. The former is a great campaign. It might not win awards in terms of story, but at least it’s serviceable. However, this campaign is short. 10 hours only at most, short. While the writing and voice-acting are on the mark, you can start to feel that the game runs out of steam and things to show you at around the 4 to 5-hour mark, as the game only has a set style of enemies to throw at you. There are very few villains to beat up like Taskmaster and Abomination and in general, it gets a bit stale. However, it’s still an okay thing when in comparison to the game’s post-game and multiplayer.
Grind Is Not Worth It
In the postgame period, the player needs to grind for items, gear, and materials to improve the power levels of the various Avengers. The amount of grinding ensues eventually becomes tedious after a while, as the pace at which players can level up gear is a slow one, especially since old legendary gear that you want to keep will be rendered obsolete later. Which means more grinding, and more loot to pick up, needing to upgrade said loot, the grind continues, with no reward for it. That is even without mentioning the repetitive nature of the multiplayer game modes. In addition to the endgame’s focus on monetization and grinding, as well as the repetitive game modes, it’s not a surprise that players are leaving the game for greener pastures. If the developers want to bring these players back, they need to fix the game’s loot progression system, add in better character depth, fix quite a few glitches, add more enemies and villains and fix their multiplayer. That’s the absolute bare minimum of changes that they need to add in so that they can revive this game unless they want it to go the way of Anthem.
Should You Still Play Avengers for PS4 and Xbox One?
It should be stated that the game’s poor launch is where the similarities between this game and Anthem end. This is because The Avengers Game isn’t as bad. The game has a solid base in its combat and it’s enjoyable to play when it’s firing on all cylinders. Meanwhile, Anthem was just bad. Also unlike Anthem, the game does have a clear path to take when it comes to their DLC and postgame content. Hawkeye, for example, is coming out as a game DLC, which is a nice thing to see. We can only hope that they also add character changes, more villains and game modes, and better combat. If this game still interests you, check out the Avaengers PS4 & Xbox One game today! Get it for PS4 Get it for Xbox One
