CRISP. Gaming: Marvel’s Avengers Review, Playstation 4

It feels like an eternity since the superhero supergroup took a break from our screens with Endgame, but finally we can reassemble the Avengers on consoles from 4^th September, in this new game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix.

 

 

Marvel’s Avengers is a third-person action-adventure game that combines an original cinematic story in campaign mode, intertwined with an online strike-team, looter-shooter, live service game. It can be played solo or online with up to four people picking their favourite pugilist.

There is a fair range of costumes to unlock (albeit few of the fan-favourite legacy costumes) but that will change eventually as the projected lifespan for this game will be rationed out for years to come, mostly at no cost.

At present, the game requires you to invest a lot of time into unlocking trinkets, special moves, taunts, abilities, and gear. Some of which can be bought for real-world money, if you are so inclined.

Storyline

This new original story begins on ‘A-Day’, where our superheroes are unveiling a new high-tech helicarrier powered by a questionable power source in San Francisco.

An unforeseen catastrophe occurs resulting in devastation and the deaths of thousands.

Taking the blame, the Avengers are disbanded.

We then pick up the story five years later, taking control of Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) as she uncovers a shocking conspiracy and must reassemble the Avengers in time to stop Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), and comic book favourite M.O.D.O.K,  who makes a hugely appreciated appearance in a marked deviation for the lauded Cinematic Universe.

 

 

Audio

The bombastic soundtrack does a good job of keeping you invested, as it stays aligned with what is happening on screen, also we are treated to a couple of random licensed songs will get the toes tapping in choice scenes.

The voice acting though is where this game is near faultless. Chris Hemsworth, RDJ, Mark Ruffalo and the rest of the cinematic cast are obviously not present, but we remain blessed with video game royalty.

The voice acting talents of Nolan North and Troy Baker as Tony Stark and Bruce Banner respectively are like a warm hug from an old friend, and a special mention to Sandra Saad who smashes it as Kamala Khan the driving force and main character throughout the campaign mode.

 

 

Gameplay

You have six Avengers to choose from upon release – Ms Marvel, Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America – all of which play and feel vastly different from each other.

This adds some much-needed variety to gameplay as the combat can be fun and having so many moves and character options will keep it fresh for a while.

Clearly a lot of time and care has gone into the portrayal of the Avengers keeping them true to what you would expect and keeping them unique from each other.

Iron Man moves and feels like a much more refined Javelin from EA’s Anthem, while Black Widow is quick and nimble. Hulk is slower but has big power moves available, and Kamala Khan is a good all-rounder.

Thor’s combat does evoke thoughts of 2018’s God of War but not because Mjolnir is somewhat similar to the Leviathan axe (the Best Video game weapon ever!) but combat director Vince Napoli worked on both, and similarities can be seen.

Visuals are tidy for the most part, with character models looking exceptional in the real-time cutscenes.

Environments can look a little bland during the multiplayer parts of the game however, with textures popping in and out randomly but the campaign’s attention to detail and pyrotechnics on display are impressive, especially when you have some friends to join the fray.

The story is fun and engaging, but over far too soon. Cutscenes are great and there are lots of pieces of lore to collect and Easter Eggs to find, but more time, effort and importance could have been placed making the campaign mode longer whilst implementing a lighter version of the collectathon dynamic.

There is no denying this game has a fair share of teething issues at launch. We played on PlayStation 4 and our experience saw a number of things amiss.

Simple graphical bugs to falling through walls, the occassional audio glitching in and out, and the game can see some real hits to the frame-rate when things got hectic, which takes you out of the moment at times.

Hero Challenge cards are another way to earn gear and cosmetics to your hero through in-game mini objectives, it’s also a place where you can spend real-world money for about £12 (or 2 weeks’ worth of consistent play) for one of the really cool skins or taunt animations.

 

 

Avengers Initiative

The endgame (or rather post-campaign) is named Avengers Initiative, focused on the online play aspect seeing a combination of friends, randoms or AI-controlled characters to form a strike team of four different heroes.

The Initiative acts as the game’s live service model, and is coincidently this is where the game starts to unravel a little.

The Endgame is propped up by light story missions, but the real purpose is to grind, with all the emphasis being on finding new gear, upgrading your character, and unlocking new abilities.

One campaign playthrough is nowhere near enough to unlock all your moves and abilities.

So, if you want to fully unleash the powers of any or all the Avengers you will have to play for this mode for a long time.

The reclaimed Chimera helicarrier acts as the central hub from which you can choose your missions.

Options range from the H.A.R.M. Room – a wave-based training facility – Drop Zones, which are short single objective missions, iconic missions dive more into the post-campaign story, and Hives which are larger multi-objective challenges.

As varied as it sounds, the mission objectives, level design, enemies fought, boss battles and environments all begin to become familiar.

The standard procedure on most missions will require beating waves of enemies in a generic facility, capture and hold a generic area, or ganging up and fighting a generic ‘boss battle’. Throw in some lackluster matchmaking and this mode can try the patience…

This loot system is an selection of interchangeable pieces of gear, gear that doesn’t even have a cosmetic impact on the appearance of the character (Unlike DC’s series of Injustice fighting games).

Nothing feels unique and you are encouraged to swap so often that little of it actually feels worth hanging on to and upgrading, because you will find the same gear with negligible differences but higher stats on every level or mission you do…this doesn’t always make for compelling progression.

 

 

Verdict

The story mode is fantastic in terms of development (and deftly-handled diverse representation in Kamala), yet could have done with more meat on the bones, considering the huge library of tales and characters they could have drawn from.

It’s easy however to focus on this and less on the matchmaking, at which point Avengers is still a satisfying, self-contained single-player experience with some loot-y trappings.

On the other hand, if you like games with daily challenges, fresh content to unlock and rotations of gear vendor items, dozens of hours can easily be poured into this game.

The combat can be fun and challenging, mic up with friends and you’ll surely have a good time, yet the gameplay loop can err on the repetitive.

With Crystal Dynamics’ plans to keep this live game service going for a while, there is every chance this game will evolve even more into the one fans and gamers have long hoped for.

New characters Hawkeye, Kate Bishop and – if you’re fortunate enough to have opted for the PS4 version – your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man are all coming down the line, with additional story arcs all at no extra cost.

Assuming they add a bit more diversity to the levels, enemies, and mission structure this game has the potential to be fantastic as the raw mechanics of Marvel’s Avengers flourishes into something amazing, but only once you put in the work to become great.

Review code provided by the publisher.