Rather than building its own internal development studios, Disney and Marvel Entertainment chose to leave video games to the professionals and license its properties to third-party developers and publishers with the right pitch such as Sony and Insomniac Games with Marvel's Spider-Man or Nintendo and Team Ninja for Marvel's Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. It was inevitable that Earth's mightiest heroes were bound to get a team-up adventure and that dream came to life with Marvel's Avengers, an online multiplayer cooperative action-adventure game from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix.
It's been one year since the release of Marvel's Avengers and a lot has changed in that time with three expansions, three brand new playable heroes, eight to ten hours of new story content, and a complete rework of the UI and menus. Despite some ever-present and ongoing issues surrounding the games-as-a-service component, there's never been a better time to play Marvel's Avengers and with a new content roadmap less than a week away, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics clearly still believe in the future of this game. For the first anniversary of Marvel's Avengers, it's time to look back at the past year and assess the state of the game now.
The Launch of Marvel's Avengers
In recent years, Crystal Dynamics is best known for Tomb Raider (2013) and its 2015 sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, so it's no surprise that despite negative previews of the opening mission, Marvel's Avengers story campaign was praised by both fans and critics alike. Unfortunately, that's where the positives begin to drop off. Its multiplayer component was heavily criticized as forced, uninspired, and incredibly repetitive with a lengthy grind to reach max level. Crystal Dynamics built a strong gameplay foundation and each playable character felt fun and unique, but struggled to give players compelling reasons to keep coming back. Marvel's Avengers games-as-a-service component wasn't where it needed to be; luckily three new heroes were on the way in the coming months.
The First DLC for Marvel's Avengers
Prior to launch, Crystal Dynamics had announced that Kate Bishop would be releasing for Marvel's Avengers in October 2020, one month after launch, in a new miniature expansion known as an 'Operation.' However, a troubled launch and the ongoing effects of the global pandemic pushed the entire content roadmap back with no concrete dates in mind and by November, most of the launch player base for Avengers had already dropped off. The Taking Aim Operation was finally released in December and introduced Kate Bishop as a new playable hero as well as two to three hours of new story content set after the events of the main game. While the expansion did little to improve the core issues, Crystal Dynamics once again delivered a compelling story and a unique new hero.
Expanding the Roster in Marvel's Avengers
A delayed content roadmap meant the second and third DLC characters planned for Marvel's Avengers, Clint Barton's Hawkeye and Peter Parker's Spider-Man, were pushed back with the latter coming to the game later this year. Operation Future Imperfect was released back in March, five months after its original November release date, and followed suit with Operation Taking Aim in almost every way. New playable character, new campaign, same old problems with what to do next. Future Imperfect did add a brand new zone and a new Villain Sector but overall felt too similar to existing content to stand out in any meaningful way. Once again, Marvel's Avengers was stuck between a rock and hard place with excellent story content and playable characters, and a tacked-on games-as-a-service component six months later.
A Content Roadmap for Marvel's Avengers
Following the release of Hawkeye and Future Imperfect, Crystal Dynamics released a solid roadmap for Marvel's Avengers all the way up until its first full-scale expansion in August, Black Panther: War for Wakanda. And for the past six months, Crystal has delivered on every aspect of that roadmap, introducing new limited-time events that make use of existing content, finally letting players use any combination of heroes, and adding new endgame missions such as the Omega Level Threat.
War for Wakanda was released as the third free expansion last month and added a new hero, new campaign, the new Wakanda biome, new villains in Klaw and Crossbones, and more. In overall size, War for Wakanda is admittedly short, being not much bigger than either of the previous operations and not even close to a Destiny 2 annual expansion, and once again does very little to improve the endgame or games-as-a-service component. For lapsed players, it serves merely as a strong jumping on point as the game now has up to three new characters depending on where they last left off. For newcomers, there's never been a better time to play as Marvel's Avengers always had incredibly strong story content and the Earth's mightiest heroes roster now sits at nine.
The State of Marvel's Avengers
One year on from the launch of Marvel's Avengers, for better or for worse, the game is for the most part in the exact same place it was this time last year. Three Avengers expansions later, there are three brand new characters that all feel distinct, roughly 8-9 hours of new story content which is where the game shines the most, and a couple of new endgame based activities. Unfortunately, a lot of the core issues with the game from unexciting loot to a lacklustre and repetitive endgame are ever-present and Black Panther: War for Wakanda doesn't seem to have done a whole lot to bring back lapsed players.
Crystal Dynamics is due to release an in-depth look at the next content roadmap for Marvel's Avengers next week, and with the PlayStation exclusive hero Spider-Man confirmed to be on the way before the end of the year, it won't be long before players have a much better idea of the game's future. At least on the surface, Marvel's Avengers doesn't look to be going anywhere with Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics dedicated to the project, so hopefully, this was only the first year in a long and prosperous life.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.