Marvel's Avengers Reviews

Introduction

A review of Marvel's Avengers at this point is kind of strange considering that the game will be delisted from digital stores in September 2023 and the "live-service" support will stop. I guess my intention with the review will be more about what Marvel's Avengers was rather than helping people decide if they should buy it.

Personally I avoided buying the game for 2 reasons: I didn't care much about live-service games when the game was released and the PlayStation exclusivity for Spider-Man (the most popular Marvel character) was a huge turn-off. But after learning that the game will be delisted and reading in the comments how much some players enjoyed the single-player part of the game I decided to play the game since it's was on GamePass at the moment of writing.

Story

The story is actually a bit of a mixed bag. It starts out with A-day, a celebration day for the Avengers where thousand of Avengers fans meet on the Chimera flying fortress where the Avengers will reveal a new element to the world which has the potential for endless power. Of course things go wrong, the city of San Francisco is destroyed and the Avengers are blamed for all of it.

5 years later the Avengers are disbanded, Captain America presumed dead and out of the ashes the organization AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) rises lead by Monica Rappaccini and George Tarleton to fill the power gap left behind with their army of robots. The A-day event resulted in several people getting super-powers. Seen as a thread to society these people are branded as inhumans and AIM are the ones hunting the inhumans (while the government apparently sees no problem with that).

One of the inhumans Kamala Khan (the biggest Avengers fan ever) who attended the A-day event and developed super-powers goes on a mission to find and assemble the Avengers, prove their innocence and find out what AIM is truly doing with the captured inhumans.

It's a bit difficult to care much about the story. Apart from Kamala (Ms. Marvel) and maybe Bruce Banner (Hulk) none of the characters feel like actual persons. The Avengers are all feel like generic heroes doing heroic stuff. For example Black Widow runs around as a wannabe action-cyberhacker doing covert things after the Avengers are disbanded, Tony Stark mostly just cracks jokes and pulls off a MacGuyver-stunt pulling an invention out of nowhere when necessary. Thor is just back after a while without any explanation. None of the characters are really explored. In the same way plot twists are somewhat predictable and whenever events escalate it's hard to feel a huge emotional impact if all characters react all heroic.

The same applies to the villains, they aren't interesting. The biggest issue I see is that AIM are the most generic evil organization I have seen in a game. And their intentions seems to change all the time - at first being in control of the inhumans, then building an army of robots with inhuman power, then creating some revitalization serum. Your told by the game that they are evil but the effects of their evil deeds are never shown except for a few brief cut-scenes or as generic mission objectives.

Additionally to Monica Rappaccini and George Tarleton (MODOK) there are only 1-2 more villains like Taskmaster (never heard of him) and Abomination, but their role in the story is very limited.

Presentation

Visually the game looks pretty good. A lot of effort was put into the tech to deliver a decent visual presentation and it performs well on Xbox Series X. Yet still it fails on some ends.

The characters all look fairly good, their hero suits are all iconic and faithful to the source material. The issue is that the designers tried to replicate the look from the movies, but tried to change them to look different - the end result looks somewhat off. At least the voice acting is quite strong featuring some of the more popular names like Troy Baker (Bruce Banner), Nolan North (Tony Stark) and Laura Bailey (Black Widow). The cinematic presentation often is on par with the best of PlayStation studios.

The character animations are big highlight. Both in cut-scenes and during the gameplay. Punching enemies has a certain weight to it with attacks causing a shower of particles. Pieces of debris fly around when Hulk slams the ground. Combined with the elaborate vibration features you can really feel the impact. It's great when fighting 2-3 enemies but it get's messy when fighting dozens of enemies or large bosses in tight areas combined with a bad camera resulting in frustrating moments.

The single-player campaign levels are decent classic linear levels with cinematic set-pieces. There are some highlights like Kamala being chased through the Chimera by the Hulk or the Stark estate being attacked by AIM while Tony Stark is trying to put together a makeshift suit. Unfortunately this is contrast to the more generic open levels of the live-service part of the game. Usually these live-service levels start in an open area like woodland, tundra, canyon or a city which usually lead to a closed generic-looking laboratory or some generic bunker.

Gameplay

On a surface level the gameplay can be described as a 3rd person action brawler. Each character has light attacks, heavy attacks, a dodge ability and a ranged attack. Additionally you can trigger special abilities which are on cooldown. It would be great if it weren't for the fact that all enemies are damage sponges. Once fighting against several enemies the whole thing gets messy. You can level up characters and unlock new abilities like certain combos and special attacks. While dodging did offer a sense of skill/precision you can mostly get through the game via button-mashing and it's nowhere as skill-dependent as for example Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden.

The single player levels guide you in a similar fashion like Gears of War or Uncharted mostly through linear levels where you get to do some platforming between battles or solve some easy puzzle. At some point you also need to play some of the open "live-service" levels in order to progress the story. The game starts with only Ms. Marvel/Kamala as the playable character but soon in the game you will unlock Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor and finally Captain America.

The base of operation is the Chimera flying helicarrier. The further you get into the story the more it gets restored to a fully operational level and the more features (factions, vendors, training ground, character selector, etc.) you can unlock.

As typical for "live-service" games you will find loot/gear for your character either dropped from defeated enemies or from strongboxes (chests). There are 4 gear types which can be equipped to your character in order to increase certain stat numbers and your power level. The power level is used as the strength of your character and based on that number the difficulty is scaled. There are 4 difficulty levels with easy being 5 levels below your current power level, normal at the same and hard 5 above your power level (don't remember what the last level has to offer). The problem with the difficulty is that no matter how "strong" your character is, the enemies scales based on your power level, so there is hardly any sense that you are getting any "stronger" through progression. Additionally each character has their own power and character level meaning that once you unlock a new character, your other characters are already of a higher level making the choice of playing a lower-level character much more difficult.

Live-Service

The big elephant in the room - the "live-service". Now during the last 4 years I did play some live service games including Sea of Thieves, Halo Infinite and Apex Legends. I'm not in a position anymore where I would generally call "live-service" games bad, some might even say that Marvel's Avengers end-game is pretty good for a live service. The problem is that compared to the 3 other live-service games which I listed, this one didn't make me want to continue to play the game for a long time since the base gameplay is average at best and the end-game grind is very unsatisfying.

The game allows you to play the game with in coop with up to 3 other players, here you could show off your cosmetics. You would play through those generic live-service levels where you move first through an open level and then through generic corridors to tackle some generic task (like "defend this area for some minutes", "destroy 4 generators" or some boss fight. Some levels have a minimum required power level before you can play them.

The loot system also contributes to a negative aspect of the live-service game. Each loot/gear you find to improve your character's stats does nothing visually. A new shield for Captain America or a new core for Iron Man only changes the stats numbers. Combined with the auto-scaling enemies it feels like you are playing a game for an Excel sheet rather for a power fantasy.

The cosmetic variance comes from unlocking new customs for each hero by either completing grindy challenges or by buying them from the store with a premium currency. The market store is also a main entry in the menus making clear that the aim was to sell as many cosmetics as possible.

Live-service games also need continues content updates, apparently this was a huge let-down for this game. There are 3 additional campaigns: Kate Bishop's search for Hawkeye, Hawkeye's future imperfect campaign and Black Panther's War for Wakanda. Each has a new story and War for Wakanda even has a new great looking setting for the missions. Also 5 additional characters (6 on PlayStation) were added post-launch. Unfortunately that's all the content added during 3 years since launch and those 3 campaigns can be finished in a few hours.

The achievements also depend on the grind of the live-service. While around half of it can be achieved in the single-player campaign in around 12-15 hours, the other half require a huge time investment (100+ hours to complete everything).

Conclusion

In the end Marvel's Avengers is game with a lot of unfulfilled potential satisfying no one. Marvel fans looking for a casual linear cinematic game will be let down by the baffling live-service aspect of the game. Gamers interested in decent live-service games will find their hook elsewhere with free-to-play games like Warframe, Destiny 2 or Genshin Impact.

Hopefully this will be a big reminder for the industry that chasing trends and betting on aggressive monetization in popular franchises isn't always the best idea.

HISTÓRIA:

Embora os “Vingadores” já existissem antes a história da campanha parte do Dia A (Avengers Day), nele temos a inauguração de um aeroporta-aviões que é alimentado por uma tecnologia renovável experimental e uma nova base em São Francisco (EUA). Durante a festa, algo acontece com essa tecnologia, fazendo-a oscilar,sendo que isso acaba causando um acidente terrível e destruindo parte da cidade. Desde então, os Vingadores restantes se sentem culpados pelo ocorrido e ficam separados até que uma menina-fã deles e cheia de esperança consegue reunir os heróis novamente para enfrentar o(a) verdadeiro(a) inimigo(a) e causador(a) de todos esses danos.

JOGABILIDADE:

Marvel’s Avengers não é inovador, aliás, ele segue uma linha de ação com alguns elementos de RPG, algo que vem sendo muito comum nos últimos anos. O jogo realmente abusa dessa ação,principalmente no seu multiplayer. Resumidamente você vai passar quase o tempo todo derrotando inimigos e cumprindo alguns objetivos importantes – outros nem tanto – e assim vai progredindo na história, que é totalmente linear.
O que chama atenção são os combos, onde podemos adquirir habilidades extras que são vistas nos filmes e nas HQs, além disso, o game ainda possui algumas novidades. Infelizmente ele é muito repetitivo, faltou mapas ou uma melhor elaboração por parte do estúdio. Um ponto que entristece bastante é que mesmo lutando com personagens diferentes, ainda sim o jogo é igual – mesmo tendo as habilidades já mencionadas anteriormente- tirando o Thor e o Homem de ferro, todos os demais são extremamente repetitivos de jogar e quanto aos que voam a mecânica simplesmente não agrada. Onde estão os super-vilões? O game basicamente só entrega inimigos simples.
Sendo bem honesto com vocês, jogadores, o jogo quase não agrega nada quanto em novidades, ele é basicamente um jogo genérico, inserindo o contexto dos Vingadores para vender, o que acaba salvando o investimento de tempo por nossa parte é que a história é original e interessante, mas o maior pecado foi não utilizar outros hérois famosos no game, deixando-o meio vazio de boa parte dos grandes nomes da Marvel, além disso, alguns dos personagens presentes precisaria de uma significante melhora na Gameplay, algo que poderia ter ajudado, e muito, na evolução do título. The Avengers é um game com a proposta de você não pensar para jogar, só vai sair batendo em tudo e todos até ele acabar. O game conta com um modo multijogador, mas segue o mesmo padrão de missões com os mesmos tipos de combate.

AMBIENTAÇÃO e GRÁFICOS:

Os gráficos e ambientações possuem certa complexidade, mas apesar de bonitos em uma primeira visão, não são diversificados como deveriam, assim como as texturas dos inimigos, que parecem sempre os mesmos. O game peca na falta de detalhes. Infelizmente toda a qualidade conhecida das empresas envolvidas não apareceu aqui. Voltando para a sua ambientação, a falta de cenários mais relevantes e/ou conhecidos pelos fãs acabou deixando o jogo perdido em um limbo onde ele não queria se aproximar muito dos filmes, mas também não focou nas HQs. Os mapas também deveriam ser destrutivos com os golpes, mas isso se resumiu ao de sempre, só veículos e itens menores sofrem danos consistentes.

CRÍTICAS E BUGS:

O jogo foi esperado com muito entusiasmo pelos(as) jogadores(as), afinal, além de estúdios muito capacitados, a Marvel estava desembolsando muito dinheiro, pois seu universo cinematográfico estava a todo vapor e um game de sucesso só iria beneficiar ainda mais a marca. Todos aguardavam um jogo fabuloso, mas infelizmente acabaram recebendo algo genérico, que dá uma sensação de “mais do mesmo”. Ele não é um jogo péssimo, ele só não atendeu as expectativas altíssimas e acabou sendo mais um daqueles jogos que a gente termina e deixa lá, esquecido.
A falta do Gavião Arqueiro na história original é bem frustrante – principalmente por seu alívio cômico – assim como a ausência de outros notáveis Vingadores que poderiam pelo menos fazer uma participação no jogo e mais para frente serem adicionados, mas isso não aconteceu, até o momento o game recebeu apenas o Pantera Negra, sendo que personagens como Gavião e Kate nem conto, já deveriam estar lá desde o início. Recentemente oficializaram o Soldado Invernal, quem eles pretendem chamar ao jogo assim? Teriam que ser heróis queridos do público.
O game, mesmo após quase 3 anos de lançado, ainda conta com bugs bem irritantes: inimigos – e você – ficam presos em texturas, se você está próximo de mecanismos de ação – terminais de abrir porta, por exemplo – o jogo não entende que você está em meio a uma batalha e fica perdido, você precisa se posicionar longe deles para não ter esse problema.

CONCLUSÃO:

Marvel’s Avengers não chegou aos pés do que era esperado, criou-se muita hype em relação ao potencial das imagens que foram saindo, mas na hora da Gameplay viu-se um game totalmente arcade, linear e sem identidade, abusando de uma fórmula cansada de tão explorada (porrada, porrada e porrada até o final), não é um jogo ruim, mas também não é um título digno dos Vingadores e das desenvolvedoras envolvidas. Sem dúvidas é um game que deve ser jogado, especialmente por aqueles que são fãs e querem ver seus heróis em ação, principalmente se gostarem de ação frenética, mas infelizmente não dá para esperar nada além do que já mencionei.

https://goxboxnews.com/marvels-avengers-uma-analise-do-jogo/