Marvel's Avengers: This time they're not Lego

[madhair60]

This game's been getting a lot of stick for being a Game As A Service. I haven't tried the multiplayer yet, but there's a full-featured campaign I had no idea existed, and on discovering this fact I picked it up - I am, after all, a Games Journalist.

And it's good. It's fun. It's very AAA (and stunningly beautiful) but there's a lot of character in it, they front-load the charm with protag Kamala Khan being extremely likeable. The performances are kind of extraordinary throughout, actually. The game so far is basically Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider games right down to scrambling up scratched white walls, but with more numbers coming out of enemies. I'm not far enough in to say if it's going to get any more diverse or less linear gameplay-wise, but it seems to be a very well presented Avengers story that takes care to make the characters and their relationships likeable.

Anyone else playing this?

 

[fanboymaster]

It sounds like, from impressions I've heard, that SE did this game a big disservice by essentially hiding the campaign from the press material. I am curious about your TR comparison, the structure of those was a mildly non-linear style that I really liked, not fully metroid but certainly elements of that kind of gating, is that still true of Avengers or did that go by the wayside?

 

[madhair60]

I'm not far enough into it to say unfortunately; the opening hour or two are VERY linear but when you're playing as Kamala it's basically literally Tomb Raider, with her stretchy arms taking the place of rope swings.

And yeah, I didn't even know there was a full-on campaign until like... two days ago. They really should have mentioned it.

The opening sequence impressed the hell out of me as a piece of worldbuilding and storytelling, introducing the characters in a way that took me by surprise and was very endearing.

 

[TheSL]

I like it when it works! Unfortunately that isn't very often.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1302752416325140480

 

[smacketh]

I'm about 10 hours into the PC version and am enjoying it. I'm definitely finding the story campaign to be the strongest aspect. It's relatively standard comic book fare as far as plot goes, but they do some good work with a lot of the character nuances and relationships. There's some moments of feeling Tomb Raider-esque, but as the story continues, the game focuses less on those elements.

From there it falls more into "load into an area, head toward objective with some minor points of interest around it and either find chests, free captives or capture points". The loot grind feels out of place, but does give you some cool stat bonuses for combat. Enemies could benefit from more variety and don't really get you to vary your approach much.

I'll note I've also had one crash to desktop so far.

 

[TheSL]

Not since Brutal Legend has a game licensed so many Scorpions songs for it's soundtrack. I was impressed to hear Mob Rules by Dio too while I was tooling around as Iron Man.

 

[upupdowndown]

I'm enjoying the game! Centering Kamala Khan as the main protagonist of the campaign was a super smart idea, and she's just as thoroughly delightful as she is in the comics.

What I find really impressive is how there's a uniform control scheme for the heroes, but each feels and plays completely distinct. For example, tapping R2 on the PS4 is how you parry. But it plays out completely differently between heroes. Kamala gets bigger and then hip checks the attacker. Iron Man sends out a pulse that staggers enemies around him. Black Widow sends out her grappling hook to latch onto and then kick the enemy in the face, dropping explosives.

The characters end up mapping onto different RPG archetypes:

Ms. Marvel = Brawler cleric. It's very easy for her to rack up combos, and activating Polymorph means she does more damage and dodges most attacks. Her Fighting Spirit Heroic Move heals Kamala and her team mates.

Hulk = Tanky McTanks-a-lot. He can take a lot of damage, and his Rage ability allows him to heal himself while doing increased damage to enemies. (Dealing damage to enemies outside of Rage builds the Rage meter, so you're constantly pinging back and forth between the two modes.) He has a Taunt move as a Heroic that also ups his defense.

Iron Man = Glass Cannon / Wizard. he's a little clunky on the ground, much more mobile in the air. High damage potential, the second most fragile. Definitely a more technical character to play. There's a push/pull between using suit energy to fire off Repulsor/Laser/Rocket attacks and doing melee moves to build up suit energy.

Black Widow: Rogue/DPS. She's the fastest character and has a grappling hook that allows her to zip from enemy to enemy. one of her heroics, Veil of Shadows, puts her and nearby allies into unbreakable stealth for a short time period. She combos really well, but she's the most fragile. Super fun to play on a team, a little more demanding when you're soloing as her because of that fragility.

Thor = a flexbile Tank/DPS/mobility hybrid character. Second most durable character. His Shock abilities help with crowd control and his flying helps you get him to where he needs to be quickly.

Cap = a crowd control Tank, the most purely defensive character.

Moreover, you end up unlocking specializations for each character that you can freely toggle between. So even after you've fully leveled and unlocked all Skills, you can still make meaningful choices on your Skill loadouts between missions.

 

[upupdowndown]

I take back everything nice I said after I finally got Captain America back and suddenly the escape from the space station turned into an admittedly very pretty but nervewracking Prince of Persia knockoff section with instadeath for one missed jump and a minute-long reload between tries

this is not what I wanted to do tonight after a stressful day, game

so I turned it off and I'll give it a shot another day

 

[Droewyn]

Hmm. I'm interested, because I utterly adore both Kamala Khan and Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider games, but I have so much on my plate right now that I'll probably wait until the price comes down.

Also by then they'll hopefully have patched out the bugginess.

 

[Adrenaline]

I enjoyed the first couple hours of the campaign except for the autofail stealth segment that ends with you getting caught anyway. Luckily I heard this is the only time it happens in the game.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Generally I've heard the reviews of "Story A+, Gameplay C-" but with good story and Kamala as the lead and MODOK in a major role, I'll probably play this someday.

 

[upupdowndown]

I finished the campaign this morning and while some of the required platforming drove me nuts (Steve's wall run feels so damn finicky), it was a neat showcase of the whole playable cast and had a great ending for Kamala. Looking forward to running a few missions a week while waiting for the Kate Bishop DLC to be released!

Preferred playable characters:

Kamala Khan > Black Widow > Hulk > Thor > Iron Man > Cap