The Avengers’ next adventure isn’t provided by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures, but instead by Crystal Dynamic and Square Enix in Marvel’s Avengers. Featuring a planned ever-growing roster of Marvel characters the new online title will be routinely updated with new stories, gear, and characters to keep the game fresh with an active community of gamers. The game itself is an original take on the Marvel universe from the Crystal Dynamics team.

Marvel’s Avengers is a 2020 online action-RPG, it is developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It is currently available for PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia with planned releases for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Editor’s Note: A Playstation 4 review copy of Marvel’s Avengers was provided by Square Enix in support of this review. Near complete to complete spoilers for the game’s story may be present within this review.

play as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Marvel’s Avengers.

The Avengers is an IP that will forever receive requests for video game adaptations and we’ve gotten quite a few. Most notably the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise, but Square Enix most known for their JRPG franchises shocked the world when they revealed that they had picked up the license with developer Crystal Dynamics to begin work on a video game based on the storied Marvel franchise. This opened up a world of possibilities on what the game could be especially after the recent revelation of a previous action-based Avengers game by now defunct THQ (original) that was cancelled. Square’s Avengers while also action-based would also include online and RPG elements just as character growth and a routinely updated campaign and roster of characters.

Build your favorite Avengers as you plow through waves of enemies in Marvel’s Avengers

THE GOOD: First let’s start with the campaign, in Marvel’s Avengers the game stars Kamala Khan a relatively new character in the Marvel Universe having originally debuted in the source material back in 2013. While she’s slowly finally coming into prominence as a star player within the Marvel mythos she’s unfortunately had a wave of bad luck with several start and stop comics that are notorious for having short life cycles. That being said it’s obvious that her star power is growing enough at a steady pace and with her character presentation in the game and an upcoming live-action TV series on Disney+ I feel like she’s only so long away from being a fan-favorite. In the game Kamala is an Avengers fan girl who knows the ins and outs of the group’s history. Following her entering an Avenger’s fan-fiction contest and becoming a finalist she earns herself a trip to A-Day; an event planned to celebrate the launch of an Avengers presence within San Francisco. Naturally, things go array as a terrorist attack seemingly masterminded by Taskmaster gets several thousand people killed with others being severely injured and infected with Terrigen gas turning them into Inhumans or super powered humans including Kamala. The world is also devastated by the apparent death of Captain America. Avengers’ story is about Kamala “bringing the band” back together after being apart for over five years and the events of A-Day causing superheroes to be outlawed in addition to the rise of A.I.M led by former Avengers ally George Tarleton who was also made into a super powered human. Khan bonds with the heroes most notably Bruce Banner/The Hulk and to a degree Tony Stark/Iron Man as they slowly come to terms with the consequences of A-Day and their separate grievances. As they attempt to bring down A.I.M it is revealed that Tarleton’s assistant had been keeping Captain America captive and using his blood to mutate Tarleton. When Tarleton realizes this he seemingly kills her and takes up the name of MODOK (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing). MODOK plans to completely eradicate the world of heroes and Inhumans, but having Cap back the Avengers reunite to stop him for good facing him on his satellite and defeating him. MODOK’s assistant having been discovered to be alive becomes head of A.I.M and Maria Hill informs the newly reformed Avengers of A.I.M’s activities.

Like with most games of its type Marvel’s Avengers is unfortunately not short of controversy.

Kamala’s character is fun, charming, and full of energy. There are times when her fan girling can get a little overbearing, but her overall character development far outweighs the flaws presented within her presence in the game. The core Avengers get some character build here and there, especially when playable, but this is clearly the Kamala Khan show who is more often than not front and center. Gameplay takes small inspirations from previous superhero titles like Batman: Arkham and Marvel’s Avengers which is great. That type of gameplay feels natural for these games and there’s always room to tweak and change it up a bit to keep it from feeling rehashed to death. And Marvel’s Avengers does this with super attacks and such. The game has loot all over the place with it mostly being (for now) limited to cosmetics and character upgrades. There’s also character leveling and growth through gameplay and equipment upgrading. There’s some premium loot such as nameplates, emotes, and super attack animations that can be found in-game or purchased. There are mission types such as enemy waves, area protecting within the time limit, etc. You can pretty much drop into online at nearly any given time depending on the situation which is cool. Before I got my review copy I was actually in the process of writing my preview, which unfortunately I had to stop before completing as I had to begin work on the final game’s review. I’m bringing this up because one of my core issues with the beta was the lack of difficulty and it seems as though this was a regular complaint as the AI for enemies was most certainly upgraded. I found myself dying from difficult situations more than I thought I would after breezing through the beta for its three weekend run. Mission maps are semi-open with some exploration for loot and occasional side quests.

The usual trials of live-service games also haunt Square’s Avengers effort.

THE BAD: For a game so focused on loot I’ve never seen one where cosmetically it just feels utterly pointless. It feels like Square knew this and tried to clear this up by having most of the loot take on the appearance of skeletal imagery. While the attempt at clearing confusion is appreciated it didn’t save the game from loot being boring and feeling rather barren. Speaking of barren, I honestly hated the level design for this game. It looks so plain and simplistic, nothing comes to life and everything feels like it was just the most basic attempt at level architecture. This is especially disappointing when you consider the legendary Marvel set pieces Square had at their disposal. Granted this may have been a licensing issue with Disney more so than a lack of effort from Square and Crystal Dynamics. After all Disney & Square have butted heads over licensing in the past (Kingdom Hearts says hello). While it’s obvious that Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is the star of the campaign it shouldn’t be at the detriment of the other characters. You do see sprinkles of character development with the other characters like Banner in particular, but this is mostly limited to one liners and the off chance you play as said characters. I mentioned earlier how enemy AI had definitely improved. but at the same time there’s these weird moments where enemies are sponges. Ad since we’re on the topic of enemies the enemy design is very limited to A.I.M soldiers and robots. This was likely due to fit the theme surrounding MODOK and I’m sure more will be added over time as more heroes and villains are added but I think they could have gotten a bit more creative than three boss fights in a twelve hour campaign. Online matchmaking still has some issues with it working about half the time.

If Square Enix wants The Avengers to be as big as they want it to they’re going to come in heavy with content to keep the title alive and routinely refreshed for players.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Marvel’s Avengers is an admittedly average, but solid experience. The core elements of a great game are there but it’s up to Square Enix & Crystal Dynamics to unlock ‘Avengers’ full potential as new content is added within the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years. With the Hawkeye & Spider-Man (apologies PC & Xbox players) content on the way and Crystal Dynamics having an open ear for player feedback I’m optimistic in Marvel’s Avengers ultimately reaching it’s potential. I don’t think it’ll necessarily take as long as predecessors within the live-service genre did and I think it’s a game I’ll be keeping my eye on as the first batch of fresh content releases with a potential re-review down the line.