MARVEL’S AVENGERS
Getting the band back together
Format PS4 ETA 15 May Pub Square Enix Dev Crystal Dynamics
You can’t often say that one of next year’s biggest releases might also be the biggest of the following year. But that’s the kind of juggernaut Crystal Dynamics is building. The studio’s focussed on building not just a single great Avengers adventure, but a platform on which many adventures will take place. All these ongoing updates, which we’ve been told could be even be supported for years, will be free, adding even more heroes and stories to the game. (So far only premium costumes have been touted as extra content that you have to purchase.)
The story, as it’s been revealed so far, centres on six superheroes: the core Avengers team most of us are familiar with (Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Black Widow), plus newcomer Kamala Khan (better known as Ms. Marvel), who has to help them come back together five years after they’re framed as responsible for a devastating explosion in San Francisco.
That same explosion granted Kamala her incredible stretchy polymorphism superpowers. But rather than relish in her newly acquired skills, she’s had to lay low. One consequence of the A-Day disaster was the outlawing of superheroes. In their place, huge corporation Advanced Idea Mechanics has developed a legion of synthoids and machines. Somehow, Ms. Marvel manages to get her hands on evidence that the Avengers weren’t actually responsible, leading her to track them down one at a time to reassemble the fractured team.
ZERO TO HERO
The main campaign plays out across single-player Hero missions that revolve around one (and occasionally more) Avengers, and are designed to showcase their specific abilities. While the different heroes’ control schemes have a lot in common – everyone has light and heavy attacks, for instance, and a ranged attack
“HERO MISSIONS ARE DESIGNED TO SHOWCASE SPECIFIC AVENGERS’ ABILITIES.”
– they all feel different to play, which will be highlighted in Hero missions where, for example, Kamala will need to stretch and grapple across rooftops whereas Iron Man will fly through an action set-piece.
Upgrades to your heroes, from new gear drops to skill unlocks,
will carry over into the other half of the game, the War Zone missions – these are missions you can play online with up to four players, or still play solo if you want. (Upgrades also carry back from War Zone missions to Hero ones.)
War Zone missions are broader experiences you can play with any hero, and offer a range of objectives, from hunting down a boss enemy to retrieving a piece of stolen equipment. Even these offer narrative content – some flesh out the stories of characters from the campaigns to give you a little extra detail. As you might expect, the harder missions will give you the best gear drops.
How you spec your heroes is up to you. You might have an
Iron Man who’s focussed on being able to chain together as many different weapons from his suit as possible into one long combo, or a Thor who’s built around floating in the air shooting lighting. There’s great scope to tweak these heroes so they handle how you want them to, all built around a core combat system that’s a terrifically fun brawler. We’re excited not just for the first Avengers adventure that’s coming in 2020, but all the ones we’ll have beyond too.