Even with Marvel's Avengers' delay into September, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics seem to have plenty left to share about the upcoming online game for the next several months. Case in point, the official Marvel's Avengers Twitter account just revealed a new feature from the game named Team Finishers. Funnily enough, it's a clip from the recent shared Marvel's Avengers gameplay event. Viewers just didn't realize what was happening when they saw it at the first time.
To be fair, exactly what Team Finishers are isn't made explicitly clear. What's shown in the clip tied to the tweet is simple enough. It shows both Thor and the Hulk performing a fully animated execution of a giant robot enemy. What isn't clear is how the Team Finisher is activated or whether it serves any purpose beyond being an exciting flourish to execute a low-health enemy.
Finishers aren't an uncommon feature in action games. For example, the Batman Arkham series and the new Spider-Man series feature animated finishers. All that's required for them to be activated is for the player to do a certain amount of damage to enemies. That seems to be the case for Marvel's Avengers, too. The added element of a teammate joining in for the finisher could mean something different.
Of course, it could also mean that the AI partner just joins in the animation as if it was a normal finisher. That would seem to be what's happening in the Marvel's Avengers gameplay that was shown. It also fits Avengers thematically, since the game often has AI Avengers fighting alongside the player. If the player is doing a finisher, why not have an Avenger pal jump into the action in a cool animated finisher?
These bigger Team Finishers may also be reserved for enemies that are more important than the typical fare, too. They may not even be finishers in the normal sense, so much as cinematic conclusions to bigger fights. Time will tell.
The interactivity of the Avengers has the potential to be a big selling point for Marvel's Avengers. It is, after all, a co-op game on top of a single-player campaign. The more ways that those players can cooperatively interact, the better. If there's a way for cooperative players to do a finisher together, that would definitely be an exciting feature. Unfortunately, the full explanation for Team Finishers will have to wait until later.
Marvel's Avengers releases September 4 on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X releases to follow.