There’s no shortage of video games featuring Marvel characters, yet I’m always interested when a new one is announced and it’s a little surprising that we didn’t already have this type of Hero Shooter featuring our favorite comic heroes and villains. Marvel Rivals is almost exactly what we expected, living up to the premise and the notion that it’s essentially Overwatch – a game that feels like it’s already run its course and stumbled into its struggles – with a plump IP slapped on it, but even so, I was itching to get into the Marvel Rivals beta.
Game Name: Marvel Rivals
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store)
Developer(s): NetEase Games
Publisher(s): NetEase Games
Release Date: Unknown
Price: Free-to-play
I’m a huge Marvel fan and I put a lot of time into the original Overwatch, so I was sure this game was going to get some of my attention, but after seeing the trailer I was feeling it even more—excited even. A six-on-six team shooter is appealing and I thought the third-person view would be jarring, but that was an easy adjustment, so with my previous experience, Marvel Rivals was proving easy to pick up and play. After a brief tutorial that explained just enough, I was eagerly jumping into battles.
Visually, Marvel Rivals is quite solid. The characters look incredibly comic book-like, but bigger, and more exaggerated, with that slight anime flair, but the color choice and animation aesthetics make everything look fluid and lively. The smaller personal emotes and interactive quirks combine perfectly with snarky voiced snippets to project more personality, endearing the player to their preferred combatant. I’m digging these alternate skins, most of them are spectacular and those that are from the books tell players what issues or events they spawned in.
I was impressed with the roster size for this beta, but it makes sense that NetEase would want to see the majority of their characters in action, as these games are always looking for balancing problems, and Rivals is no exception. The characters cover a wide variety of Marvel personalities, with several mainstays and a few off-the-beaten-path choices. It’s good to see they didn’t just do all of the popular cash cows and I found myself not as attached to some of my usual favorites. I’ve seen way more people playing Namor than I would have thought and fewer Star Lords and Black Panthers than expected, but it’s a sign of how different some of these characters are from their usual playstyles.
There are three roles: Vanguards, Duelists, and Strategists, which roughly translate to beefy tank types, quick and dangerous DPS, and support, which is kind of like light heals and buffs, depending. Everyone feels at least a little versatile, I didn’t notice anyone leaning into one exact dynamic so much that they felt stale right out of the box. Characters have difficulty ratings near their names to tell players how hard they might be to learn and team balance is decently crucial here, made even more interesting by team-up abilities when players bring certain duos or trios together on the squad. These look to be low-key powerful, mostly passive, but some augment a specific situation or increase longevity.
Movement for the characters will seem decent for most, but not everyone can enhance that, meaning a few of them feel sluggish at first. Web-swingers and flyers may take a bit to get used to, but there are a lot and they can be dangerous if people don’t keep an eye on the sky. One small complaint is that characters who have very similar mechanics often have those functions assigned to different buttons, which, for those swapping up who they play, can be disorienting. I doubt those types of micro-adjustments will feel awkward after some time, but in the beta, I almost felt like it was a bad idea to try out too many new heroes.
Most of the character abilities are excellent and they either feel effective or recharge quickly enough that it doesn’t seem like a wasted opportunity when they miss. Aside from the basic damage-dealing maneuvers, there are a few powers that feel turned down, not just in how they hit, but from the aesthetics as well. Some of these moves don’t quite fit their characters, like it belongs to their signature attacks or stands out beyond matching their color scheme. Perhaps I’m asking for too much detail on each hero, but it’s hard not to think that the license wasn’t capitalized on properly in this particular facet. Most of the projected shields are simply solid-colored orbs and the magical attacks are just different hues of light with a small hint of flare.
I could repeat that phrase when discussing the maps. We only had access to a very limited number in the beta. Although they aren’t bad, nothing stood out creatively from something as diverse and deep as the Marvel Universe. The locations are somewhat familiar to readers, with a few cool references scattered about (I appreciate that Alchemax sign), but so far there is nothing special. I like how varied they are trying to be, having different spaces so the same rounds can be fought out in the open or narrow corridors. There are destructible parts of the environment, which are fun when I remember them, but I kept forgetting there’s a special vision to see what can be torn apart. Players can also create breakable elements to act as blockers, and in some areas, there can be a lot going on, making it easy to destroy parts of a wall or floor that could hinder rather than help.
Games are fast and combat a conflagration of colors, almost overwhelming at times, but it is easy to pull back, find some health, and regroup. It isn’t too hard to take characters down, even the Vanguards, but there are times when I’d swing into the battlefield just to be taken out immediately. In those cases, I found the Kill Cam to be quite informative. The game also lets us watch highlights from all the players on our team, which is neat. The hitboxes feel a little shaky, mostly when sniping from the air. At least on one occasion, I’m sure it gave me a kill I didn’t earn. Each character has an Ultimate ability, and not all of these are created equal. I died so many times to Punisher’s turret, while a few felt like I could never find a good situation to use them in. The HUD doesn’t make it easy to note when some stuff is ready. For visual appeal and alertness, I think it could use some color and animation, just not too much. Many of these are smaller tweaks, but added all together, like most games of this genre, they’ll probably be working this out for a while.
I’m hoping the main game also has more modes. The beta offered players three very familiar objectives, sticking close to the genre playbook because each one either involves working a payload, where an object has to be slowly guided across the map, or taking control of vital points on the stage and holding them. Even in the few days I played the beta, these game types began to wear thin and yet again lacked a certain type of creativity I was hoping we could get from a game using this IP. New modes can be hard to balance and some get complicated, but it will be a shame if they don’t launch with something else to pull players in.
I should point out that although everyone is making these Overwatch comparisons, it isn’t exact, not one for one at least. Movement is a bit different, especially matching up with the verticality of the stages, and combat doesn’t feel the same. Damage and healing seem more varied, with everyone contributing in different ways and players able to heal themselves more, not relying as much on others. Maybe it’s just me, but team makeup seems to be a little more important as well. We tended to win a lot more with a good category balance. That may sound obvious, but it doesn’t seem like we can wing it quite as much in Rivals. These things are probably not going to be noticeable to those who haven’t played both a good bit, so for most, the differences will be negligible.
Marvel Rivals feels like it had a decently stacked beta. There was a ton to mess around with and so much of it felt polished—not perfect, but better prepared than others at this stage. I only encountered a couple of small glitches, the biggest happened twice when I was trying to enter a match and couldn’t spawn, but that was easily fixed without having to do anything major. I’m looking forward to more, especially if they nail some type of story mode to this game. There are clues to it with a female Galactus (Galacta), who sounds like a typical valley girl and is going to create some cosplay opportunities for sure and something about there being two Doctor Dooms, and they have an entire multiverse to pull from.
My concern is that the similarities to Overwatch are going to be too distracting for some, especially if things stay like this. I also don’t know about the overall longevity of the game without some mechanical overhauls past the normal tweaks and more to do that can’t be found in so many other games. I’m afraid they are good at making extra content like costumes and will probably do some events based on big comic book storylines, but we need great stuff, or at least something unique. I could get into this and certainly see others diving in as well, but they’ll need to step their game up if they want to grow past what that initial Marvel rub can offer.
The release date for Marvel Rivals has yet to be announced.
Review Disclosure Statement: Marvel Rivals beta access was provided to us by NetEase for prereview purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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