Of all the leaked characters for Marvel’s Avengers, Ant-Man and The Wasp are some of the most interesting. While they do not solve the problem with Marvel’s Avengers DLC, as the duo will likely play very similarly to one another, the first of the pairing to be added should feel wildly different from anyone else currently in the game. That said, it is still possible to get an idea of how the characters will play inside the game.
While players can expect to see Scott Lang take on the role of Ant-Man in Marvel’s Avengers, as Hank Pym is put out of commission in the game’s story and the leaks refer to the DLC’s Ant-Man as “Ant-Man2,” it remains to be seen it Hank’s wife Janet will remain as The Wasp like in the comics. Regardless, players can expect shrinking, growing, and the use of Pym Particles in both heroes’ movesets — with differences coming from their ranged gameplay and movement style.
Close Quarters Combat
When Hank Pym was revealed for Marvel’s Avengers during E3 2019, his debut game with a showcase of the game’s Pym Particles. While Ant-Man and The Wasp are not yet in the game, Pym Particle technology is, as players can apply the status effect to enemies if Pym armor is equipped to the heroes. After enough damage is dealt to the foes of The Avengers, the Pym Particles will shrink them, making their attacks far weaker and causing them to take a severe penalty to the damage output of their attacks.
As such, players can expect this status to be seen often when the duo of Ant-Man and The Wasp arrive. Likely built into the heroes’ kits via intrinsic energy, their bars will likely be built up in a similar way to Black Widow’s — with the heroes delivering fast, consecutive hits without interruption to fill up their power bars. Once full, a press of the trigger could allow them to output extra Pym Particle damage with their punches and kicks for some time, shrinking all their foes. To dodge attacks, Ant-Man and The Wasp can briefly shrink down and back up, making use of their most iconic ability to charge their Intrinsic Energy bars faster.
Ranged Attacks
One of the areas where Ant-Man and The Wasp will likely differ from one another in Marvel’s Avengers is their ranged attacks. In both the comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Wasp is a superior fighter from a distance, as her energy blasts allow her to drop foes at range. As such, they seem like a shoe-in for the hero’s ranged damage option, with an upgrade tree used to improve their fire rate, damage upon impact, and other aspects of the blasts.
Ant-Man is a bit more interesting when it comes to ranged attacks, as his suit lacks the blaster capability of The Wasp’s. As such, Crystal Dynamics may need to get a bit more inventive with his ranged attacks, though pulling from the MCU and its use of Pym Particle Disks could work perfectly for a ranged attack inside the game. Allowing Ant-Man to toss the disks at enemies, the clever gadgets could instantly shrink their foes. While this strong ranged skill would require some balancing, a simple solution would be to have it pull from Ant-Man’s intrinsic energy bar.
Movement
While a new teleportation-based movement ability had to be designed for Kate Bishop’s DLC in Marvel’s Avengers, as she lacks an efficient way to get around in the comics, the same will not be necessary for Ant-Man and The Wasp. In the case of Ant-Man, he can shrink down and fly on an ant to move quickly, letting him keep up with Iron Man and Thor. The Wasp, on the other hand, can simply use her wings, giving the hero the ability to fly through the game's Warzones with ease.
While movement is often an afterthought for players, it is a fairly big deal for Marvel’s Avengers due to the game’s large Warzones and the immense differences between the playable heroes. After all, Captain America’s movement holds him back from being one of the strongest Marvel’s Avengers characters in the game, as getting around with the World War 2 hero can be a chore. Thankfully, being forced to sprint constantly and limited spots for wall-running will not be impacting Ant-Man and The Wasp, as the dynamic duo should be a blast to move around with.
Ultimate Abilities
Finally, the most important skill in Ant-Man and The Wasp’s arsenals. With Iron Man’s iconic Hulkbuster suit among the game’s ultimate abilities, it seems fitting that Ant-Man’s ultimate ability allows him to transform into Giant Man. Placing the hero somewhere between Ms. Marvel’s in-game Embiggen ability and her size in the story’s finale, Giant Man could wreak havoc on AIM whenever he is in play — and his transformation should be a blast to see for the first time. To keep the ability balanced, Ant-Man could lose his intrinsic energy buildup when shrinking down from Giant Man size, which would also function as a way to mimic how tired he is after the changes are carried out.
As for The Wasp, getting creative with her Ultimate will be a necessity, though her telepathic connection to ants could prove useful in the ability’s design. While Crystal Dynamics could do anything with her Ultimate, even turning her giant like Ant-Man, one interesting scenario would be to see her use ants as a distraction. Calling in a massive swarm of the bugs to distract enemies could prove to be incredibly interesting, with the army of ants gaining full attention of AIM and working as a temporary stun effect for all enemies in the area. A team-focused Ultimate like the one seen with Kate Bishop and her damage boost, The Avengers can work together to beat down on their terrified AIM foes.
With Ultron likely to be the villain of Ant-Man and The Wasp’s story, as he was teased in the main game and his comic book origins are tied deeply to Hank Pym, the heroes will need some strong abilities to do battle with one of The Avengers’ biggest threats. Fortunately, Crystal Dynamics has a clear path to success ahead of them. With Pym Particles already in the game and the character’s most iconic abilities fitting perfectly with the mechanics of Marvel’s Avengers, the duo should be a perfect fit for the growing games-as-a-service title.
Marvel's Avengers is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions currently in development.