Marvel’s Avengers is a 2020 3rd person Loot brawler where players take control of various Avengers through various missions to power up and and Reassemble after the disastrous events of what as become known a A-day and put a stop A.I.M and their Villainous leader M.O.D.O.K.
I remember being hyped for this game since day one of the announcement at the very beginning of 2017. I mean Crystal Dynamics were at the helm who made 2 of the 3 games in the TOMB RAIDER reboot all of which are fantastic and also i’m a huge Marvel fanboy, so yeah i was excited. Then almost 4 years later the game finally arrived and I paid an extra £20 to play it 5 days early and I was left feeling pleased but as well a little underwhelmed.
First of all the story. Avengers tells a fresh new original story with the heart of the story following major Avengers fan Kamala Khan known to comic fans as Ms Marvel. It was really cool to have a main protagonist that we haven’t seen on the big screen or in major popular culture yet ( it was sort of the same feeling I had to 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy). The story is truly fantastic serving as both a coming of age sort of story and also a Avengers story, we all know how great the Avengers movies are and it ticks all the same boxes that makes those movies so great; One performances, Two the superb action sequences and Three the story having the same sort of heart and soul that the movies have as well as the comic storylines that came before.
So let’s break down the 3 points i mentioned above ‘Number one’ the performances everyone gives a great performance in the role they are given. We have some really prolific voice actors such as Nolan North as the charismatic as ever Tony Stark,Troy Bakers as the soft spoken Bruce Banner and Laura Bailey as Natasha Romanov AKA Black Widow, aswell as relative newcomer Sandra Saad as Kamala Khan who does more than outshine most other performances in the game.
Number two would be the action sequences. Yes! This game is just as much a spectacle to look at as The big screen adaptations in some of the action sequence. The Finale especially which i won’t spoil, but its looks and plays out in every epic way i could imagine. And everything in between also doesn’t disappoint and this is coupled with the great looking graphics and aforementioned great performances. All this delivers a great cinematic spectacle.
Number 3 is the story that is by far the games biggest boast, its entertaining and wholly original and heartfelt and delivers subliminal messages anyone can be whatever they want to be as long as they believe, whilst also just giving fans who are just there to watch their favorite heroes kick ass, just what they want too.
The game does rely a lot however on prior knowledge of these characters and to someone who has read some of the comics but seen a lot of the television and cinema media this wasn’t a problem, but someone who has not got that prior knowledge might need a little bit of a refresher course before delivering in as characters are just thrown into the game with any real introduction or backstory.
Gameplay was really hit and miss for me. As much fun it was running around and destroying things as the Hulk or Using Iron Mans arsenal of weapons this was quickly squandered by damage absorbing enemies, who were taking punch after punch from the big green giant like it was nothing, and given the game takes a pretty grounded approach to these characters it felt a little sloppy to say the least. I understand that as the Hulk you cannot just kill everything in one hit, but rather than have human beings absorb punches and hits that should kill them have them take a couple of hits but have more enemies on screen to deal damage to the hero this way it balances things out whilst still keeping that grounded approach. Like who goes there’s the Hulk along with 3 other Avengers lets send like 6 guys after him and ‘every now and then’ throw in a big robot too.
The game opts to go the Loot shooter route and each Avenger has their own Exp Level and Power level similar to Destiny’s light level. For those who don;t know basically you an exp bar that each level you earn a skill point to unlock new abilities for our heroes up to the cap of level 50, and then you have gear which takes an average score of gear equipped and then gives you Average power score up to the cap of 150, now this gear is the meat behind the Endgame and needs you to have enough power level to do certain missions to get the best loot. However loot grinding is tedious and boring with re sampled and sometimes exactly the same levels to go through just with more enemies that requires nothing more than button mashing along with the occasional dodge. it doesn’t really give me any reason to want to fully kit out 1 hero, Never mind the other 5 that the launch game comes with and all the future DLC heroes planned. I have currently sunk about 25 hours into The Hulk (the only reason I did this is for a fair Review) and I still havent got him to max power, and I have to do this for each hero? It all is too repetitive for my liking.
The game does however look great despite some odd design choices here and there the game is clearly made by people who at least understand these characters and this world. And if a character design isn’t taking your fancy you can switch up the costumes which are entirely cosmetic and serve no gameplay purpose other than looking as cool as you want your selected hero to be. Which is a nice addition with some costume serving as easter eggs for hard core Marvel fans.
Marvel’s Avengers isn’t a terrible game it’s just not my sort of game, I would have much preferred a game that focused solely on the story and had no multiplayer component because what they delivered with the 8 hour-ish campaign was incredible, just imagine what they could have done if that was their sole focus. Games like this don’t need a tacked on multiplayer component, take Insomniac games Spiderman, that was all single player and it is one of the greatest games on the PS4
Final Score.
Title:Okay
“Marvel’s Avengers delivers an original narrative that is both a great coming of age story and a superhero blockbuster. However a repetitive and unapologetic loot grind system doesn’t give enough entertainment to keep me wanting to play after the great but short 8 hour campaign is over.“
Head Over Reels 