In the game of Poker the champions calculate, according to the cards in play and those they have in their hand, the percentage of chance of winning the hand: it means that each of them, in their own mind, knows what probability they have of winning the whole dish. This obviously does not mean that that hand will definitely be won, but only that, if we thought of 100 plays of the same type, if the percentage of chance of winning was 70%, then 70 of those played would be won by him and 30 not, generating a long-term gain. Marvel's Avengers, for now, it is a poker hand that cannot guarantee a long period: the potential is great, the risks as well, and what we have experienced is something high in some respects, and poor in others. For this review we have thoroughly tested the multiplayer sector, not before having finished the Campaign and explored the endgame of the game a bit.
Assemble
The thing that immediately needs to be discussed is Marvel's Avengers gameplay: in the final version we were able to try all six characters well, receiving confirmation of what we thought. In Marvel's Avengers, it's mostly satisfying to lead your hands, but you need criteria to do so. In fact, by playing and leveling up, the things to unlock gradually increase with the latter, putting at the end many skills capable of varying basic attacks, adding effects, and therefore giving the personal touch to the character. This will lead to then having combos to study, so as to know how to use them if in 1vs1 or in melee. The same fight, which on the more scarce "minions" may seem repetitive, becomes really intriguing in the most agitated phases, requiring excellent dodging timing, knowing how to use the cards in hand and knowing your character to perfection. Of all the characters, the least interesting so far is the Hulk, as he cannot fully dispose of his physicality and does not portray his role as a "resistant giant" well.
What immediately clashes is the difference in level design between Countryside e Avengers initiative: Before we go any further, here's what this breakdown means. As for comics and movies, Marvel's Avengers will be divided into sagas: by playing the Campaign mode, you will unlock the story missions (which we will talk about later), but once completed you can "switch" on Avengers Initiative, so as to have the various missions related to the reconstruction of the supergroup. Probably, as time progresses, all the extra contents (single stories of the additional characters, various events, etc.) will add cards to this selection, thus making us choose which saga, and therefore which "time" of the game, to live. Unfortunately, the attention put into the campaign missions is much higher than the repetitive multiplayer missions: with a structure made of an "open map with many well-highlighted secrets", followed by "lift to the laboratory" and then "endless fights to the final room", we have rarely found any surprises capable of making us interested in the continuation of that goal.
What is certain is that a looter brawler like this does not require too much originality in the missions (since they are needed only to farm resources, take equipment and prepare for Raids, real pearls of similar games), but after the result of the campaign we expected something more. For example, it will happen more than once in the history of the game to find ourselves in front of chases, daring escapes while everything around us explodes: if this dynamic "platform" were implemented in some mission or multiplayer raid, it would certainly be very interesting (like it happened, for example, with the Sword of Crota mechanic in Destiny, which required an agile player to make a path, hit a giant enemy, and go back to a millimeter).
For the rest it is not necessary to say more: like all Game as a Service, the equipment you drop will be more and more powerful, you will be able to increase the power of the character so as to face the various challenges (which are now divided into missions, missions for the SHIELD and missions for the Resistance) and prepare the character for the final content, which as always in these games comes out at least one month later (and therefore leaves this vote with a reserve, capable of making it go up or down).
The formation of the Avengers
What really seemed to show its side during the Beta was the Campaign, a kind of big cliché to be experienced more as a tutorial: the game definitely debunks this opinion, offering an interesting writing even in the most useless dialogues. The way it will advance, the missions we will do and even the possible boss fights are well thought out, structured in a way and really make you feel the potential of this game. The scripted phase (like on the bridge) is reduced to only that, and the exploration of some maps is really satisfying. Of course it is obvious how an almost linear structure manages to better hide the limits of a level design than in multiplayer instead it is more evident, but it will be enough to work well on overcoming those limits so as to have an illuminated online sector.
With a well-executed writing therefore, the game places at least a well-structured campaign of about 8 hours, which occasionally even offers points of contact between the classic single player and multiplayer missions (where you will not always have to complete maps, but sometimes will boil down to goals). If in the course of the life of this game new Campaigns of this type are introduced, then the title could have a life of its own even without a well-built endgame.
Instead, the management of the enemies is strongly out of place: they, being connected to the AIM, will mostly be soldiers and robots, and this thing is somewhat unpleasant as the game progresses. Always throwing your hands on the same mobs doesn't offer much variety, and boss fights are reduced to the usual spiders to fight. A couple of times, especially with the SHIELD and Resistance challenges, we had clashes with Abomination and Taskmaster (although there were some unclear stylistic choices that saw these enemies slightly larger than usual to be handled better in the 4vs1 phases) and in that case a more complex challenge was presented to us, but otherwise it is unlikely that, in a world full of super enemies, any risk is due only to the usual robots. On the other hand, surely with the insertion of the new phases other enemies will arrive, and this gives us hope.
Avengers: Endgame
Speaking precisely of what you can do at the end of the game, it doesn't differ much from its counterparts like Destiny: playing, you will have to level up and, from time to time, approach the limit of Power so as to be ready for the first Raid. The game offers missions to complete, and these are part of macro-missions that will give access to interesting equipment and a sort of continuation of the story. Each mission can be played at different difficulties, so as to receive greater loot, and the title will also allow you to dwell on iconic missions dedicated to the 6 characters, which once completed will give you excellent equipment and the iconic costume, or the one seen during the A-Day.
Microtransactions are limited to aesthetics, and not at all: many costumes will be available for purchase with unlockable currency only in-game, or you can even find them by completing the challenge cards (which follow the dynamics of the seasonal passes, but dedicated to individual characters) or as hidden drops (to be unlocked in the laboratory). The biggest limitation now seems to be related to aesthetics: the pieces you will drop, capable of enhancing your character, will have different styles but you will never see it. This is because the aesthetics of the heroes will be changed only by the skins, while it would have been interesting to also have access to the vision of the "natural" character, perhaps giving the choice for those two / three basic colors so as to make it homogeneous.
The technical department of the game takes care of the closure: although today it is day one, during the campaign we have come across English audio switch, some lines of dialogue completely missing e some bugs that distorted the game graphics. There were also those errors that require the software to be restarted, as well as in some excited phases we saw a drop in frame rate too high for any game outside the Beta. It looks like Marvel's Avengers is asking for technical support, and there are no excuses for these errors since the retail version, although anticipated by 3 days for those who have decided to invest more on the game with Deluxe and Collector's Edition, should at least go smoothly. At the same time, these bugs do not scare us as, especially games of this type, they are well supported in terms of corrections and patch fixes.
For the rest, as we have repeated several times, the rating we will give to Marvel's Avengers mixes the level of the game at the moment and its potential. The title has so much of it, to the point of making every single move that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics could do to make fans of the game, comics and movies happy multiple times. Constant support could generate a new universe to be experienced on both this generation and the next, and the bug fixes could make the experience more rewarding. The game has to grow and evolve to reach its final stage, and while that might annoy those who bought the game looking for a title that's already complete, it's actually nothing out of the ordinary for a GaaS.
