Title: Marvel’s Avengers.
Release date: 2020.
Console (player on): PC.
Console (also available on): PS4, Stadia, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S.
Play Time: 14.1 Hours.
Mode(s): Single-Player & Multiplayer.
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy.
Developer: Crystal Dynamics.
Publisher: Square Enix.
Director(s): Morgan W. Gray & Shaun Escayg.
Designer(s): Michael Brinker & Philippe Therien.
Artist(s): Brenoch Adams & Josh Bapst.
Writer(s): Nicole Martinez, Shaun Escayg & John Stafford.
Composer(s): Bobby Tahouri.
Voice Actor(s): Sandra Saad, Nolan North, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Jeff Schine, Darin De Paul, Usman Ally, and many more!
My Overall Rating:
Youth and innocence can play a huge part in one’s path toward superheroism, absorbing the words of wisdom from experienced heroes, being void, for the time being, of failures capable of destroying one’s resolve, and being ready to do whatever it takes to do what’s right. Despite the adversity faced, young, these aspiring heroes believe that there’s more to the world than the evil that it houses, and where there’s evil, heroes must always find it within themselves to rise from the ashes to give everyone else the one thing that they lost, need, or forgot about: hope. Published by Square Enix and developed by Crystal Dynamics, Marvel’s Avengers (2020), inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, reintroduces the mighty Avengers in a tale of unity with a young rising star serving as a catalyst for hope and glory for superheroes.
What is Marvel’s Avengers about? During a celebration event called “Avengers Day”, organized to inaugurate the Avengers’ latest headquarters in San Francisco, a terrorist attack orchestrated by Taskmaster sets off a series of devastating events that results in the death of many innocent civilians as well as the creation of new superpowered humans called Inhumans. Among those affected by the Terrigen Mist is Kamala Khan who happened to be at the event as a V.I.P. guest. The tremendous loss from this attack brought everyone to point their fingers at the Avengers and blame them for this catastrophe, leading to their banishment. Five years later, Kamala discovers unfound footage that might help solve the mystery of the tragedy but to do so, she must go to dangerous territories in search of help, help that might just in fact mean reuniting the disgraced and disassembled Avengers.
With a third-person perspective, players engage in the main story titled “Reassembled” and progress through a linear world, occasionally opening up with wider generic maps requiring some platforming to reach key objectives. With Kamala Khan as the main character, it is only during key storyline moments that players must control one of the main members of the Avengers, utilizing mostly mirrored gameplay mechanics, to defeat waves of enemies. The combat system is mostly instinctual, requiring players to button-smash the attack button, sometimes dodging, and also utilizing destructive special abilities when cooldowns are ready. Unfortunately, the game’s primary fault lies in the very in-game design of the character skill trees. While each character possesses a variety of abilities that can be upgraded through the said skill tree, as players play through the campaign, they will barely ever be able to touch any of these skills, requiring them to play through the insanely-repetitive and unrewarding cooperative multiplayer modes to build up their characters.
The extremely messy and convoluted user interface, especially as you arrive at its main menu, also denotes an uncaring execution by the developers. As if it wasn’t enough to find yourself disoriented by their interface and the environment’s unappealing structure, the game is also weighed down by heavy loading times and frequent technical issues (from failed texture rendering to laggy gameplay), often leaving players dumbfounded that a game with so much potential was released with so many gameplay issues. Despite these flaws, it is worth mentioning that the mindless button-smashing mayhem with some characters, notably The Hulk, makes for a cathartic experience, one that was very much necessary to channel all the disappointment, lived through this game’s failures, into the superheroes’ chaotic frenzy. When looking closely, there is something hidden and creative in the gameplay but the developers failed to capitalize on it and assure that players explore everything that the game could have had to offer.
Underneath its gameplay troubles, the only reason anyone should suffer through this game might in fact be in its campaign story. It’s nothing to write home about but it is by far the game’s strongest element, which in itself says a lot about the game’s issues. In fact, the narrative focuses on the young Kamala Khan’s journey to becoming Ms. Marvel, the stretchy, vibrant, and creative superhero that will, through the teachings she’s gotten so far from the adults in her life, especially her father, inspire the various members of the Avengers to reflect on their role among humans. Although there are plenty of cheesy moments and some filler storytelling segments for the sake of buffing up a thin narrative brimming with a couple too many plot holes, there are some cute, inspiring, and intimate moments that make some of the pain worthwhile and they usually happen between Kamala Khan and Bruce Banner. Unfortunately, nothing else really ever justifies dishing out a full-price payment to play this Marvel game unless players are ready to spend countless hours grinding away through repetitive multiplayer gameplay.
Marvel’s Avengers is a dull and overtly repetitive games-as-a-service superhero venture centered around Ms. Marvel’s quest to reunite the Avengers.
Marvel’s Avengers (2020) is out since September 4th, 2020.
Have you played this game?
Will you? What do you think about it?
Share your thoughts with me!
Roars and Echoes 
Ouch! Can’t believe you actually played through the entire game, it sounds like a real chore. Looks like your re-entry into Marvel universe is rather inauspicious, Lashaan! Hope you’ll enjoy the movies better 🙂
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Enough to find out the end of the story but not a second more! 😀 Thanks, Ola. I know I’ll get around to some of the good ones but I’ll have to toughen up rewatching the bad ones! 😛
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Lashaan, as you know I’m not a gamer, but I am sure having that release of being able to smash things helped soften the frustration of the gameplay on this one. It’s a real shame, because the setting and story here are ones I’d be otherwise interested in.
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Exactly, Bruce. Those are pretty much what pushed me to keep going too. If the game was any longer, I think I’d have had a much tougher time getting through it without pulling away at all my hair! 😀 Thanks for reading, my friend!
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Well that trailer didn’t do it any favours either, Lashaan! Why do games get released when they’re not ready to play? I can understand your frustration plus the characters voices are rubbish! 😂
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Hahahah so many wrongs! I remember when the first trailer came out and when they revealed the gameplay! I was shooooocked! Most of the time, companies release games before properly finishing them up because of company pressure. It can be quite an ugly business!
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Must admit I gave up on the Avengers game less than half way though. It was so clunky to play and the story was, well just dull really. The multiplayer was awful as well. A very disappointing game.
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I can’t blame you at all, Paul! I just had to keep going to know what kind of story they had to offer but I could never recommend this game to anyone in the state it’s in! Very saddening…
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I think I’m going to stick to Magic, thank you very much 🙂
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You pretty much should. There’s nothing worthwhile to chase after with this one. 😀
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I have only heard bad things about this game. Such a shame 😔
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Yep. So much potential on paper but the execution is a shame!
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Ha damn! Too bad for the many flaws!
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Yep, quite unfortunate.
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This game looked mediocre as soon as the first trailer came out. Even the graphical design felt a bit off, despite the overall decent quality. And then there was how it took way too long to level up when the game first released, exploitative DLC costs for the first year or so. All in all, a game that was so poorly handled, it never had a chance to catch on.
It’s a shame too, because the attempts at big Marvel games like this in the last 10 years always end up the same way. Ambitious yet misguided from the start, and by the time they start figuring things out, it’s way too late and the audience is gone.
At least we have some very good Batman games and Spider-Man games made lately.
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I remember when it was revealed at E3. I was shocked by the character design and what they showed us. I just knew it was going to flop hard. I heard all about the missteps they had since release and the things they released and then undone too. It’s sad. Luckily for us, Insomniac Games are doing fantastic with their Spider-Man games and I look forward to their Wolverine one too! DC are also kicking ass with their games, except for a recent flop, but more on that when I’m done with Gotham Knights. But I do look forward to Suicide Squad kills the Justice League though! 😀
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I’m definitely looking forward to both Insomnia’s Spider-Man 2 and seeing what they come up with for Wolverine. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if they go for more of a country setting for his game, with a bigger horizontal world instead of the verticality of New York City. That would work better for his character anyway. Beyond that, I’m going to keep an open mind, even if I have strong preferences for the supporting cast. I would also like to see more of New York for Spider-Man 2, instead of just Manhattan.
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Absolutely. I can also imagine it working wonderfully with very story-oriented gameplay too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to keep his character on the low, creating a story where stealth is more important than berzerk-ing (but, of course, once in a while, he goes all out). It could totally be like The Last of Us or even God of War, but, hey, like you, I’m going to remain very open-minded with the gameplay design they’ll go with.
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I’ve never been very up on or skilled at these sorts of games, but one thing I used to be very good at when playing against a friend was button-smashing! I’d set the controller down on the floor and then just randomly and insanely smash buttons. And more times than I’d expect it resulted in my beating my friend, who was a rabid gamer. Maybe my unpredictable button-smashing prevented him from using any sane form of strategy, or maybe it was just dumb luck. Either way, I’ll admit it was fun for a while. 🙂
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Oh man, fighting games used to be such a button-smash activity back in the day too; I’ve never been a big fan of them though. It was only later in life that I understood the art behind those games and have a lot of respect for those who master techniques and go beyond button smashing hahahah However, whenever there’s a random game we’d play locally for fun or even just Super Smash Bros., it’s quite fun to just button smash away with everyone else! 😀
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“…it is only during key storyline moments that players must control one of the main members of the Avengers, utilizing mostly mirrored gameplay mechanics, to defeat waves of enemies.” This whole paragraph sounds atrocious. (Not your writing, but the game, LOL)
Sounds like sometimes done just for the sake of $$$ (what isn’t anymore?).
What made you pick this up in the first place?
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I’m convinced that they thought they had a plan by announcing and releasing this without thinking it through properly… I personally wanted to live through it to know exactly how bad it was and if it even had some good elements about it. There’s another Marvel game that was released a bit after that garnered completely opposite reactions (huuuuge praise) but with similar gameplay mechanics that I also planned on playing next so I do look forward to that this year.
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That’s pretty much summarizing my exact thoughts of this game.
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Glad we’re on the same page then! 😀
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