Marvel’s Avengers (PS5 update)
Not much to marvel at, despite its time to recuperate
Just as Kamala Khan is ecstatic and excited to meet her superhero idols, The Avengers, and team up with them in the single-player campaign, it genuinely brings a smile to our face that Crystal Dynamics seems to feel the same way about PS5. Enhancements abound, and you can tell the devs were genuinely stoked to work on the console.
The improvement in loading times is phenomenal. They’ve been transformed from over a minute long in some cases to seconds you can count on one hand. This hasn’t done away with some long corridors and elevator rides, however – presumably a matter of now-redundant convenient geometry.
HEROIC-LOOKING
Visually you’re given two options: Highest Performance and Highest Quality. But, you should note, the difference between the two is much smaller than the hefty one between the PS4 Pro version and Highest Performance.
Running at checkerboarded 2160p (with a dynamic resolution), it hits 60fps pretty smoothly, only hitting minor blips at insignificant moments. Even Highest Performance has received a visual upgrade, with better textures and visual effects, right down to water looking more realistic. What do you get with Highest Quality, then? Well, the name is self-explanatory, gunning for an expected native 4K/30fps. It also steps up lighting effects, especially when it comes to shadows. Destruction effects have been enhanced, resulting in delightfully rubble-strewn scraps.
DualSense effects are unique for each hero, and build on the rumble-happy style of the PS4 release. Archers Hawkeye and Kate Bishop have bow tension that differs depending on the arrow that you have nocked, and Iron Man threatens to shake your controller apart as he charges blasts (it’s very intense, but can be adjusted).
Why, then, have we knocked the score down a bit? It’s due to the current state of play. Delays have been inevitable, but it can’t change the fact that seven months in, Marvel’s Avengers is a messy game that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be, and is seriously lacking in content.
So far, we’ve received just two heroes, alongside mediocre mission chains that don’t touch the original campaign. Full-on endgame multiplayer content like Omega Level Threat
Destruction effects have been enhanced, resulting in delightfully rubble-strewn scraps.
missions are still MIA, despite being promised. When solofocussed updates are lacking and there’s a void of meaty endgame multiplayer material, it doesn’t even really work as a live game, as much fun as the brawling may be. We’re still playing the waiting game.