Marvel’s Avengers

Saving the world from randomised loot?

INFO

FORMAT PS4 (LATER ON PS5) PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV CRYSTAL DYNAMICS REVIEW #180, 8/10

Honestly, as much as we loved Marvel’s Avengers there’s no getting around that its launch, as far as its online side goes, has been more than a little messy. When you consider the number of ‘betas’ players could access in the run-up to release, it’s especially surprising that some of the issues players have had to put up with weren’t tested and addressed earlier.

Each of the six superheroes in the launch game comes with a premium challenge card. That’s essentially a fixed, character-specific battle pass rewarding you with cosmetics such as emotes, nameplates, and costumes for completing daily and weekly challenges. (For new heroes, these cards will cost 1,000 credits, the same amount you can earn on one challenge card.)

Things were messy with costumes relocking and challenge points not being counted for the launch window, which felt a bit awkward. But these issues have mostly been addressed as we go to press. Far from hiding, Crystal Dynamics has been pretty communicative, which has been great to see.

TEAMING UP

Matchmaking is still a little rocky, especially when you’re trying to find random people to play with for specific missions (quickmatch performs better). It can take an age. Matching needs to be more efficient, and maybe include missions in progress. When you eventually find a match with randoms, some of the disparity between heroes comes to the fore, especially when it comes to random maps. It takes a particularly polite Iron Man or Thor not to want to zip from objective to objective as Cap struggles to keep up. Voice chat can aid

WHEN IT DOES GET MORE FRUSTRATING YOU CAN ALWAYS GET BACK UP – REVIVES AREN’T LIMITED.

with co-ordination, but playing with friends is just a better experience (mission power levels usually adjust to cater for the lowest in a team).

Issues we had with the single-player combat’s spamminess are much less of a problem playing with a full team of player heroes, as the AI’s focus feels more evenly distributed. And when it does get more frustrating you can always get back up – revives aren’t limited in multiplayer like in solo.

As for variety, there’s enough on offer to keep you happy chasing gear and levels for your heroes providing you’re not playing 24/7, but it is a little basic. Variation in mission length is the real winner, allowing you to hop into a match for ten minutes or a few hours. How the updates perform will be key, with this month’s leading the charge for a game that will hopefully be adding enough to keep players coming back.

VERDICT

There’ve been teething launch issues, but the brawling and skill tweaking has us hooked. Things are more stable in time for the first update so now’s the time to jump in. Oscar Taylor-Kent