I originally owned this game on launch for the PS4, but eventually wanted to play it on my PC. The launch was pretty... rough. It had messy servers, like every high population launch with a shocking number of bugs that would make you even more concerned than a Day One release of a Bethesda title. Yet, it still isn't as buggy as Cyberpunk 2077 as of -now, - if you need a point of reference.
Marvel's Avengers is a beat-em-up title starring the titular heroes in a new universe inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The main story, otherwise referred to as the first Operation as they call it, serves as a lovely storyline that has some presentation issues at times; but is wonderfully acted with a lovely cast that stands out on their own without borrowing everything from the MCU. I think all of the actors do a solid job making the characters unique, but still familiar to the ones you already love. It follows a coming-of-age story with Kamala Khan, growing into the role of Ms. Marvel as she tries to reassemble the Avengers back to their former glory.
How's the story? Kamala Khan's journey is a brief one, covering the first Operation of the game and clocking around 6 - 10 hours depending on the pace of your play. Intercut between particularly story-heavy missions will be shorter, instructional missions that will introduce you to different repeatable content like War Zones, which you'll become -much- more aware of once you've completed it. There's a lot of good dialogue and interactions that make the story enjoyable to progress through. While Kamala comes across as a bit of a cringy geek at first, her upbeat and hopeful demeanor becomes endearing when compared to the rest of the world-weary cast. The overarching plot is fairly intricate without being too confusing, though a lot of it seems to be foreshadowing for storylines in the future. As of now, I haven't played the Taking Aim or Future Imperfect Operations, but I'm curious to see more. Though, I will say, much of the storyline feels like it's trying to build to the endgame grind like a tutorial, which I'll cover more. Fans of Thor and Captain America will also be disappointed to learn that most of the storyline is exempt of their presence, by comparison to Hulk, Kamala, and Iron Man.
How's the gameplay? Pretty great, by comparison to most beat-em-ups. Every character feels unique, even between Hawkeye and Kate Bishop who are very similarly themed, with a short but fun set of combo strings and powers that make everyone feel good and bad at something. Rarely does any character ever feel superior to one another in every regard, which is a pretty surprising relief. Every attack feels weighty, with impactful sound design and heroic musical stings any time you're doing something exciting. Everything has a visual indicator and a predictable audio-and-visual queue which makes every bit of damage you take feel as though it was your fault, not the game's. (Other than Ranged SPIN attacks, which seem to explode in small AoEs that are really brutal to dodge. Ask anyone who plays, SPIN enemies are infuriating.)
How's the audio? Throughout playing each character, everything has a unique touch and feel to it. Thor's Mjolnir has heavy whomps that makes every strike feel impressing whilst Captain America's shield throwing into multiple foes before wheeling back to its owner sounds satisfying as it wracks up the hits. Most of the "one-liner" dialogue is pretty variable too, so it doesn't grate on you -- save for a couple of Iron Man's "Less talky, more fights" quips that you'll probably hear a thousand times.
How's the music? Not the best. There are some highlights here or there, but most of it feels like white noise whenever you're doing stuff. Nothing really sticks out to me as super memorable, save for a couple scenes from the cutscenes, but that's about it. It's not annoying, but sometimes it feels kind of absent. An effort was made, but it's nothing to praise or complain about.
Alright, why haven't I talked about the grind? Yes, Marvel's Avengers has quite a plentiful grind -- but when stacked against other games, I have a hard time making an argument that it's worse. Having come from games like Destiny, Borderlands, and more; the grind is comparably lesser in terms of intensity and longevity. However, it isn't flawless. Much of it is designed to artificially extend your playtime of the game in a handful of ways. This is where most people leave bad reviews and complain about the Avenger's Initiative.
What's the Avenger's Initiative? Once you complete the first Operation, you'll have the choice to continue into the next set of storylines or to enter the Avengers Initiative -- a post story game mode that will allow you to access new repeatable missions. These missions include a select few from the story that you've just completed, as well as Drop Zones which are short, bite-sized missions that are usually easy to clear in about two encounters. The story missions I mentioned earlier that are recycled are called Threat Sectors, which are multiple encounters and often some story-related content. From here, you'll be given a slew of new Objectives (your quests, I know, it's a dumb name) to unlock further mission types -- like Iconic Missions, Vaults, HIVEs, and more.
This just sounds like more content, why's everyone saying that there's a content drought? Well, much of these missions are repeatable and the process that goes into them is a bit convoluted. All of these missions are designed with an artificial difficulty, referred to as a Power Level, that increases as your character's individual power rises. You gain these through item drops, just like every Destiny-clone you've played since. Once you hit the cap of that Power Level, currently sitting at around 150, there's not much else to do with that character other than completing their Challenge Card -- which is a lesser form of Battle Pass. While limited to a handful of Daily and Weekly assignments to increase your reward tier, the Challenge Card doesn't refresh to newer stuff like other Battle Passes. Once you've capped out at 150 and completed a Challenge Card, you've pretty much done everything you can as that particular Hero.
However, there's 7 playable Heroes as of writing this review. Each with their own Power Level to increase, skills to acquire, Challenge Cards to progress and unique Objectives to gain gear from. Three storylines with Operations, and more. I picked up this game while it was on sale for like $20, and I've already doubled my investment in hours without having played all of the content. I still haven't maxed everyone's Power or Cards, yet.
Is it worth it? If you don't mind grinding through repeatable content a lot, it's got plenty to do and plenty to earn through. There's no other game out right now that's quite like it, despite the immense popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While this game's launch was pretty brutal, the team provided a feasible outline of what they're planning on releasing -- including two events, new storylines, a Wakanda Expansion coming around the corner with a playable Black Panther, and possibly more if this game can earn itself back.
Is it perfect? Definitely not. There's still plenty of bugs and glitches that exist, along with some things that I wish that the game did better. You can tell that the team cares about this game and Square Enix keeping this thing plugged into life support is pretty relieving, with the promises of future content updates and more. However, I know plenty of PS4 players are still pretty pissed that Spider-Man (who was promised back during launch) still hasn't been added to the game despite announcements for 3 separate characters who've proceeded his addition to the game...
Yet, I still come back to it every day and get to enjoy feeling as powerful as a Superhero.
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