The Marvel’s Avengers video game is one of the year’s biggest releases. It’s developed by the same team responsible for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and naturally expectations are very high for this big-budget title.
Despite the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there has been a surprising lack of video games that have tried to cash in on it. Thankfully, the Marvel's Avengers video game follows its own storyline separate from the movies and the cartoons and uses a similar approach to the PlayStation 4 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man. Whether or not Avengers will offer its players the same entertainment value in the long term remains to be seen.
10 Don’t: It’s Not Really An Avengers Game
While the Avengers team is in the game and it does allow players several opportunities to play as each member during the story this is essentially a Kamala Khan game. That’s not a bad thing as she’s a great character and endearing lead but players that haven’t been keeping up to date with the news about the game may feel disappointed.
The game’s strength comes from Khan’s interactions with the other Avengers as the game’s plot progresses but as a whole, they feel like guests in their own game.
9 Loved: A Good Lead Character
Despite the disappointment of this game not quite being The Avengers game, it is made out to be, its lead protagonist Kamala Khan AKA Ms. Marvel is a fantastic one. Being a fan that idolizes The Avengers she serves as the perfect vehicle for gamers in getting to know the team.
Khan is an excellent character and using her to explore and progress the game feels like a combination of playing as Spider-Man, Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, and the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic.
8 Don’t: It’s Too Linear
There’s a good deal of world-building and lots of items to find when exploring the environment in the Marvel’s Avengers video game but despite this, it’s still a very linear experience. In fairness to the developers, it’s still a good and solid 10-hour campaign that will entertain Marvel fans from start to finish but it’s unfortunate that there’s no replay value.
Coming from the same team that created the two most recent Deus Ex titles, it’s disappointing the game doesn’t offer its players a similar amount of interactivity and non-linear gameplay.
7 Loved: A Solid Beat 'Em Up
There’s a good amount of exploring and interactions with other characters in the Marvel Universe which will keep its fans entertained. However, the meat of the game is its combat-based gameplay making it an old-school beat-em-up at heart.
It’s a modern 3D action game but gamers will be reminded of classics like Streets of Rage when beating down waves of AIM villains and robots. In addition, getting to use different Avengers in these fight scenarios offers gamers different combat styles to play with keeping things fresh.
6 Don’t: The Hulk Feels Underpowered
Getting to play as different Avengers and fighting off waves of enemies as Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Ms. Marvel feels and looks great. However, playing as The Hulk feels somewhat underpowered.
By rights, The Hulk should be tearing through robotic enemies like they are made of paper but on a physical level, it doesn’t do much more damage than the human characters. There hasn’t been a great Hulk game since Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and this version of The Hulk feels underpowered by comparison.
5 Loved: The Entertaining Story
With a game based on a huge library of comics and films, Marvel’s Avengers the video game has got a lot of work to do to live up to expectations when it comes to its story. Thankfully, this game doesn’t disappoint in that regard.
There’s a ton of Easter Eggs and references to both the films and the comics but it’s the character interaction and the story that keep it so entertaining. While it doesn’t have the same blockbuster feel that the movies have, it’s definitely as good as the Saturday Morning cartoons and two-part events they had at their peak.
4 Don’t: Grinding For Pointless Loot
While the game has a solid campaign, its loot-based endgame is painfully dull. Additionally, collecting loot feels unbelievably out of place in a superhero game, and collecting more loot as the game progresses will quickly become a chore.
On the plus side, however, almost all of this loot is entirely cosmetic and it isn’t designed to rinse its customers of cash to gain new skins and gear. It’s just unfortunate that as a whole it feels completely pointless.
3 Loved: Good Campaign Mode
The Marvel’s Avengers video game is by no means an epic single-player experience that can compete with the likes of God of War, Devil May Cry, or Marvel’s Spider-Man but it’s still a lot of fun while it lasts.
The campaign offers its players a good variety of characters to play with and missions that feel unique with the missions playing as Iron Man being particularly good. Even playing as Thor who doesn’t quite get the same development as the other members of the team feels excellent.
2 Don’t: It Can’t Decide What It Wants To Be
The campaign mode is fun and entertaining with excellent characters and performances all round. However, one can’t help but feel that if the developers focused on one area instead of trying to be a “Jack of all trades” the experience would have been a better one.
Marvel’s Avengers is a repetitive mix of various design ideas that don’t quite mesh together as one. In addition, the mission design becomes repetitive and lacks any real innovation whether it’s in the main campaign or the endgame.
1 Loved: Graphics And Motion Capture
The Marvel’s Avengers video game is a big-budget AAA title and it shows. The graphics and motion capture are fantastic and do a great job of capturing some of the more emotional moments in the game’s story.
In addition, the epic looking set pieces are phenomenal and will make a lot of fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the comic books very happy. The explosions and particle effects never fail to amaze and the sound design is especially good when playing with a good set of headphones or a surround sound system.