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September 2, 2020 by Tim

I continue to be perplexed by the choice to pursue a loot-based advancement system for the Avengers game. It works well enough for Iron Man and Black Widow, but that only serves to further amplify the ludicrousness of the system on a hero like Hulk. Arbitrarily deciding between stat values for Hulk’s bicep, spine or rib cage does not feel natural or make a lick of sense in context. Surely there was a better, skill-based advancement mechanism to adequately reflect the growing power of a leveling hero.

Still, with that said… I am happy to report that Avengers is downright awesome. The beta did this game zero justice at all, zipping around to a few disparate action sequences without any of the story that makes them all work. And the campaign is, thus far, really enjoyable.

Perhaps because I grew up reading comic books, I never had an issue with the Avengers not looking like their MCU counterparts. I’m used to my heroes looking slightly different, sometimes month to month depending on the artist. And it took all of 10 seconds with these characters in the opening sequence to buy into them as their own spin on the heroes we all know. With a dynamic that is immediately familiar, and yet still carving its own facet onto the crystal that is Marvel interpretations.

And at the center of that is Kamala Khan, the character that single-handedly makes the rest of it work. Ms Marvel has yet to appear in the MCU, so she seems the most freed from any preconceived baggage, and her enthusiastic fangirlishness immediately draws you into a world where the Avengers have been around, and are a larger-than-life presence. It’s through the lense of her devotion to the team that we get to know all of the more hardened heroes, and that helps a lot.

I’m still romping around the campaign, so I cannot yet speak to the longterm appeal of the “Destiny” portion of the game (re-running missions, grinding loot, raids and daily quests etc). But I can definitively say that I’m glad I kept the faith despite some questionable early previews and betas. Avengers is really, really fun.


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BakaGrappler
BakaGrappler
4 years ago

Okay. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself but… Healthbars. That depleat when Hulk punches puny humans. Looking on from the outside, it seems like a game model was made and everyone was forced to adapt into it. Is there really any variety in the gameplay from one character to another, or are they all just reskins of the same basic combat system, except this one jumps and that one flies?

MRD
MRD
4 years ago
Reply to  BakaGrappler

I mean, if you make the Hulk basically invulnerable in the game, it’s not much of a game at that point, is it?
I get where you’re coming from, but game mechanics are going to come first. Superman has had the same problem in literally every game he’s ever been in,

Paddy
Paddy
4 years ago
Reply to  MRD

Game challenges for Hulk: 1) Other ridiculously powerful characters that actually threaten him 2) Escaping from a conventional military force without killing anyone 3) Bruce Banner stealth mission (where if you hulk out in the wrong place, i.e. most of the mission, you lose… and if you take enough damage you hulk out) Maybe a conventional damage meter with conventional game threats might work if it the meter takes a ton of damage to get to the bottom and slowly regenerates, but the midpoint is “savage rage”, meaning if you take enough damage as the hulk you lose control and… Read more »

Unagiman
Unagiman
4 years ago
Reply to  Paddy

All that stuff works well enough as a stand-alone hulk game, but this isn’t that.

Ben
Ben
4 years ago
Reply to  MRD

MRD I see your point but you do your argument no favors by invoking literally any Supergame ever.

Daniel Sørensen
Daniel Sørensen
4 years ago

On a different note. That ´It’s almost book time´ has been here on the site for a year. So any news regarding the printing of the comics?
And also, was the Trust comic completed?

Daniel Sørensen
Daniel Sørensen
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

That is fair.
When the decade of world crazyness we call 2020 is over, I’ll be looking forward to the update. Unless we get a decade more of issues in 2021 (And yes, this year has been a decade of trouble. I still think it was mid last year, that I saw the Witcher, and not January)

Pr0ZachGaming
Pr0ZachGaming
4 years ago

Wait…. Witcher was THIS year?!?!?

Jiala
Jiala
4 years ago

This year has been simultaneously too long and too short. So much has happened, so much to process, so quickly.

no thanks nintendo
no thanks nintendo
4 years ago

Regardless of fun, Avengers expects me to pay full price even though I don’t get a full game. Spider-Man withheld from the PC version = no sale. I won’t pay full price for a lesser experience.

And no, Sony Simps, Sony doesn’t own Spider-Man. Sony Pictures owns the film rights to Spider-Man. That’s it.

HelloWorld
HelloWorld
4 years ago

I assumed that Sony just paid a load of money for the exclusive rights for that game. It didn’t tie into the movies at all, so that was the only reason I could assume for them to get it as an exclusive. Enjoyed the game, but got a bit repetitive after a while. Also didn’t like the end acts. Batman Arkham games did it better imo

RankineXero
RankineXero
4 years ago

Well that’s it tho, isn’t it? These aren’t the film characters so none of those film deals pertain to this. That’s the problem. My thinking is that Sony did shell out a lot of cash to get the Spiderman exclusive game and this probably falls under that umbrella

Draguss
Draguss
4 years ago

It’s probably part of the deal that allowed Marvel to make Spider-Man films in the MCU. I don’t think anyone that doesn’t exist exclusively in your mind thought Sony outright owned Spider-Man. And I realize the internet tends to zap all meaning from every insult that gets popular, but that really isn’t at all what simp means.

Kaisoni
Kaisoni
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

It’s more like the restaurant refusing to put toppings on your pizza because of what car you drive, while charging you the same price for the pizza as customers driving other cars and having toppings. You’re not OWED the toppings. The pizza will still fill you up. There’s no exclusion going on, the other customer’s are just getting rewarded for their excellent car purchasing decisions. There’s no way they would have put Spiderman in the MCU game if Sony hadn’t paid them to add it to the Playstation version though, why would they have? Sony definitely didn’t pay them to… Read more »

Urazz
Urazz
4 years ago

Yeah, this is why I didn’t get the Avenger’s game. Loot based adventure game and the loot looks exactly the same? I think a better choice would’ve been doing a skill system instead.

Freddie
Freddie
4 years ago
Reply to  Urazz

Skill-based? where’s the monetization in that?

Freddie
Freddie
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Yeah – I figured that out a minute later – the dark side of the Power of Posting. Didn’t think to even try to delete while in Moderation Hell.

Merendel
Merendel
4 years ago

You know I cant help but see the players faces in your depictions of the avengers. 1= hulk 2=thor 3=cap and 4=black widow. Not bad, just intresting.

Jacob
Jacob
4 years ago
Reply to  Merendel

Thanks for mentioning that, I can totally see it now.

Ben
Ben
4 years ago

Glad to see a good review, I had serious fears when I learned this was a loot-grinder.

Like, it smacks of a very extreme “we are forcing a pay-to-win marketing strategy into this game with zero regard for how it impacts the actual game quality” kind of attitude on the part of the creators, and I’ve really been hoping I had the wrong idea.

Leon
Leon
4 years ago

Dont mess with anatomy and physiology………

Unagiman
Unagiman
4 years ago

It’d be nice if the gear came with some visual effects, but I do understand why it might be difficult to alter the characters constantly, particularly since the characters have certain specific looks to them. Deviate too much from existing designs and there’s the danger they don’t really look like their original character anymore. I remember previous Marvel Universe games often got around this by adding in different skins.

Robert Loughrey
Robert Loughrey
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Exactly. A hulkbuster set of arms and the rest of it regular suit would be pretty bad.

Unagiman
Unagiman
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

I can see that, I haven’t played Avengers yet but in past Marvel games they have different gear that gives you different stats, since in theory you can optimize the characters for different things (though usually based on their roles and power sets there’s usually a certain logical progression). But that could just easily have been done by some skill trees rather than putting in a “loot” system that doesn’t offer what we commonly expect “loot” to do.

Vedrit
Vedrit
4 years ago

Having not played (and not really interested in playing. I was never big into superheroes) wouldn’t a system where you get upgrade components to improve your current gear make more sense for most of the heroes, rather than getting outright new gear? I mean, it still wouldn’t work for Hulk, but wouldn’t that have been better for everyone else?

Paul
Paul
4 years ago

I really wanted them to employ a gear style like Injustice 2, where there was an aesthetic change based on the kit that was equipped. Could make far more unique looking characters and enhance the ‘customisation’ element of building your characters with different bits of modular gear.

aaron Smith
aaron Smith
4 years ago

they could easily have made some bs gamma pills or nanomachine bs that would have made more sense just pretend they say something about nanomachines or magic maybe lol

GreatNate
GreatNate
4 years ago

I’ve also been really enjoying the game! We were doing some coop on the mission, and finding ways to be silly is fun, like one person as hulk, picks up a guy and through them at Kamala, who can catch them out of the sky. Or one person launching enemies into the air, whilst another flies past as iron man and tries to kill them before they hit the ground.

TuffMelon
TuffMelon
4 years ago

I don’t know how the game really manages, i’ve seen fairly conflicting opinions that all rest in the realm of “meh”, but i seriously question their decision of using LOOT in a game about super heroes. Like, Thor starts off by having to hit some random chump soldier with Mjolnir like THREE times to take them out? The loot looks more like some forced progression more than actual content to grind.

TuffMelon
TuffMelon
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Oh, i agree with the need of progression of some sort, but what i mean is that with super heroes you typically have a large chunk of their identity defined by their moves and abilities. I guess what im getting at is that a loot based system that buffs little more than numbers won’t feel like a progression quite as much as if you got an extensive talent tree or something that completely altered the way certain moves worked. Even if it isn’t quite as detailed as something like Path of Exile. Difference between Destiny and Diablo, i guess. Destiny… Read more »

UNVOICED_APOLLO
UNVOICED_APOLLO
4 years ago

Just saw a commercial for this game. I feel like Ms Marvel suffers from a similar complication. XD

callak
callak
4 years ago

While the ending panel is funny, comic book readers know that he’d Hulk out before that would happen since its a self preservation mechanism Bruce has. The Hulk in his mind would react to the severely increasing pain and pressure to stop Banner from dying.

Max
Max
4 years ago

The campaign was good, but short. And I have no interest in multiplayer because I don’t know anyone else that bought the game. So I basically spent $80 (bc of course I had to have the ultra mega deluxe preorder with the generic skins and a few extra days of play time) for maybe 15 hours of grinding. Might come back to it later after a few updates and hero releases, but doubt it.

MasterofBalance
MasterofBalance
3 years ago

Sort of like Surgeon simulator…