This article originally ran under a different banner/website in September of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! LEND ME YOUR EARS!!! I, THE VIDEO GAME DOOMSAYER, HAVE A STORY TO TELL. Our beloved Marvel heroes, the Avengers, are tracking a cult led by a mysterious figure posing as Thor. They have tracked the cult to the snowy forests of Scandinavia, where the cult hopes to open the Bifrost bridge. Upon discovery of the cult’s plans, Thor warns them of the immediate peril the cult has caused. Opening the Bifrost could tear the world asunder, the cult must be stopped. Sensing the level of threat, Jarvis responds with the foresight that only a supercomputer can possess: there is a chest nearby with gear. Rather than deal with the world-ending threat, Jarvis wanted the team to ignore my heroic duties in favor of some worthless trinkets. My loyal followers, this was my experience with Marvel’s Avengers, a game of two halves forever at odds with each other. One part a comic book rollercoaster. Another part is a shameless Destiny 2 clone. By forcing the two to be married to each other, developers Crystal Dynamic has created a game that I can only describe as a mess.
Our story begins from the perspective of a young Kamala Khan going to a celebratory event known as Avengers Day. The event feels a little out of place for the Avengers as there are statues, arcade games, and merchandise idolizing our heroes. An event like this almost feels more at home in the universe of The Boys as tacky merchandising is nothing new to The Seven. However, that feeling is washed away, when Kamala has her first interaction with one of the Avengers, specifically Thor. Kamala is gawking over a replica Iron Man blaster when Thor walks into the merch stand. He asks what she has in her hand. She responds by stating that it is an Iron Man blaster replica and does what anyone with an Iron Man blaster on their arm does, makes blasting noises with it. Thor gives out a boisterous laugh and jokes that she is just as intimidating as Tony Stark. Just as Kamala and Thor share a laugh, a smile is able to wiggle its way onto my face. I am watching Thor take japs at Iron Man, how can I be mad.
The events of Avengers Day play out as an attack on the Golden Gate bridge interrupts the ceremony. The team dispatches to deal with the threats. Hulk, Iron Man and Thor take care of most of the troops and the collapsing bridge, while Black Widow handles ex-Shield agent, Taskmaster. Unfortunately, it was all a trap as Taskmaster’s forces attack the Helicarrier containing a dangerous new element called Terrigen. The Helicarrier goes down, Captain America dies trying to prevent the Terrigen from causing an explosion, but the Terrigen leaks into San Francisco causing people to mutate. Weirdly, these newly infected humans are referred to as Inhamuns and not mutants that could be considered X-Men. Naturally, failing to prevent this one disaster, the Avengers decide to break up in a fashion that reminds me of a high school band falling apart.
A new mega-corporation that would make Bill Gates blush, AIM, is born from the ashes of Avengers Day. They absorb Stark Industries, convince the population that the Inhumans are sick, and capture and experiment on them. It naturally falls to Kamala Khan to reunite the Avengers for a reunion tour and takedown AIM. The story revolves around Kamala as she tries to get these tired and broken heroes to band together before AIM eradicates all Inhumans. It all ties together to create an origin story for Kamala or as comic book fans know her Ms. Marvel. I was initially disappointed I was playing as Kamala Khan, as I would have preferred to play as Thor or Captain America, I walked away from the campaign believing she was the best choice of a protagonist for this story. She is forced to become a hero similar to the ones she’s idolized as an Avenger’s fan. She’s the one who constantly pushes the Avengers to stop sitting around being sorry for themselves and take action. She is even allowed to fail and pick herself back up again. In a sea of miserable protagonists, it is refreshing to get one so positive championing the famous line from her father: “Good isn’t a thing you are, it’s a thing you do.”
However, the campaign really misses out on a lot of opportunities to showcase some key moments throughout Kamala’s journey to becoming an Avengers. Immediately, after the events of Avengers Day, the timeline skips forward five years. Kamala has mostly mastered her elastic superpowers; missing a prime opportunity to showcase Kamala trying to get to grips with her powers, similar to events in the 2002 Spiderman film. Scenes of Kamala swinging into buildings by accident could have woven perfectly into a tutorial mission. On top of that, there isn’t really a celebration into Kamala becoming an Avenger. I look back at Avengers: Infinity Wars where Tony knights Spider-man as an Avenger and realizes Kamala only gets someone telling her she’s an Avenger now, try not to embarrass them. Honestly, this is really only disappointing when we take into account all the dull missions sprinkled into the campaign. One mission just said grind enough side missions until I had the necessary resources to continue. Missions like these honestly could have been cut for missions with more context.
So Kamala is a great leading character, but how are the other Avengers in a game with their name on the title. Honestly, really bland. Clearly, Crystal Dynamics is hoping merely invoking the spirit of the MCU will be enough to carry these characters, but unfortunately, they just fall flat. Bruce Banner spends the whole game mumbling into his shoes like an embarrassed kid at school. The reason is he is mourning the death of Captain America. Understandable, but it doesn’t make me want to engage with the character. Tony Stark has the exact opposite problem that he won’t shut up. The writers felt they needed to keep pace with the quick-witted remarks that Robert Downey Jr. is known for, but the writing is not nearly on the same level and comes off as cringe-inducing. Both Captain America and Black Widow come off as blank slates. It just shows how much work Chris Evans and Scarlette Johansson put into these characters that can be boiled down to a soldier and a spy. Finally, Thor is completely a missed opportunity. As much as I love Chris Hemsworth’s take on the character, he doesn’t have that deep bravado that many other takes on the character have had. Thor in Marvel’s Avengers has that deep thunderous voice and the ability to make me laugh, but the story never seems interested in doing anything with it. Thor states that in the five years between the events of Avengers Day, he had been working at volunteer shelters aiding mankind; an idea that I just find hilarious. I imagine him trying to convince someone homeless that he isn’t the God of Thunder with his booming voice as he poured them a bowl of soup. Sadly, like most of the Avengers, it is just not fleshed out.
So the characters and settings might not hold up to the Avengers name, but how does the campaign play out. The campaign feels like an old subway where it will start to gain momentum then screeches to a halt when they slam on the brakes. There are some great set-piece moments like the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge or the final confrontation with MODOK. Everything will be falling apart around you. You will switch between the various Avengers highlighting their strengths; all as that heroic orchestral music plays in the background. Then it will end and you will be asked to go to one of the various vast flat sandboxes to do mundane tasks such as defend numerous points, destroy various equipment, and other uninspired events. They are so lifeless compared to some of the moments in the campaign. As I stated earlier, one mission forced me to put the story missions on hold until I gained enough resources from the side missions to continue. It honestly kills any momentum the campaign can muster. If you are hoping these are merely side missions that you only have to do once, then I am sorry to inform you, but the endgame multiplayer will ask you to repeat these same missions over and over again. Congratulations on making it through the story, would you like to grind the most tedious parts of this game for the next fifty hours. Surely, I think not Marvel’s Avengers.
So the story is a bit of a mess, but could the combat redeem this title? It has the potential to, but there are so many factors that hold the combat back. We have your standard third-person combat consisting of light and heavy attacks, dodges, and blocks. Each character also has a chargeable bar that allows them to access different abilities like a section of missiles for Iron Man or a field of lightning to protect Thor. You also have three different heroics that allow you to pull off earthshaking heroics like sending out shockwaves with Hulk or summoning the Hulkbuster with Iron Man. Honestly, most of the heroes have great animations, and all the hits land with a solid impact. The one expectation seems to be Hulk as the game always felt off while playing him. Hulk slams down with furious rage and the world seems to shake from his mighty blows. However, the enemy only seems to lose a small fraction of their health from Hulk smashing the ground. Naturally, this is due to the live service nature of the title meaning the Hulk has to be delivering the same amount of damage as his teammates, despite the fact he is throwing boulders at his targets.
Here leads me to my biggest issue with the combat: the enemies. Creative Director at ID Software, Hugo Martin, famously said enemies in a game should attack like chess pieces on a board. They should have specific roles that allow a player to make decisions on how to approach the problem. You can certainly see what he meant when you look at Doom’s roster of enemies. However, Marvel’s Avengers’ roster of enemies, you will see nothing but spongy enemies with way too many shields and spammy attacks. The game has a barrage of ranged enemies that will just spam projectiles that will continuously stagger you. The camera is pulled in so close that seeing a projectile before they hit you is almost impossible. You’re forced to spend the beginning of the fight chasing ranged enemies down, and this effort can be prolonged if these enemies have the ability to teleport. The melee enemies are no better either. Most of them will have shields that force you to charge up a heavy attack, leaving you exposed to ranged and melee staggers. Some melee enemies can become phased meaning you are unable to hit them, forcing you to try to just ignore them until they are no longer phased. Combine this with each enemy having an absorbent amount of health and you will feel like you are chopping down a tree while trying to avoid being staggered. Once you are staggered, you get to watch your favorite Avenger slowly get up only to be hit again by another attack that can stagger you. Rinse and repeat until you die and are forced to restart from the last checkpoint. If Doom Eternal is supposed to resemble chess, then Marvel’s Avengers feels like a snowball fight versus your older brother and his friends.
The bosses are no better than their mindless grunts. Like many, I was suckered into thinking there would be epic boss fights similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man after I successfully defeated Taskmaster. I told myself, I would be willing to put up with the frustrating combat if I got intricate boss fights similar to the Taskmaster fight. With the exception of the final fight versus MODOK, I was given a boss fight versus a punching bag known as Abomination and two generic robots. You have the entirety of the Marvel universe and you can only give me three Marvel villains? Whether Crystal Dynamic was too lazy to create more boss fights or Marvel didn’t allow them to use certain characters, either way, it is embarrassing how often this game falls back on bland uninspired enemies that look more at home in Destiny 2 than an Avengers’ game.
Speaking of more things that belong in Destiny 2, let’s discuss the user interface for this game. I utterly cannot stand this UI. It has been copied and pasted directly over from Destiny 2 without the care in the world on whether it works here. The most frustrating part of this UI has to be navigating the options menu with a controller. Since Marvel’s Avengers has to have a loot system awkwardly crammed into it. You’re going to spend a lot in the menu comparing the stats on your gear. You’re only given a limited amount of space so you have to spend a frustratingly long amount of time in your gear tab, slowly dismantling one piece at a time. On top of that, if I am using a controller, which I tend to use in third-person action games, rather than using the D-pad to move left and right in the menus, I have to use the sticks to move this awkward mouse cursor around. DEVELOPERS NEVER USE THIS METHOD AGAIN OR I SWEAR THE END WILL COME FOR YOU. It is so frustrating to control and all I want to do is delete the utter crap that you have flooded me with. I was sold a game where I can be an Avenger, not one where I am spending an excessive amount of time on a menu screen.
Since we are on the subject, let’s talk about the loot game in Marvel’s Avengers. It is bad. I am not normally a fan of looter shooter games like Destiny 2 or Warframe, but my life was once dominated by World of Warcraft. I recall my Wrath of the Lich King days when I was chasing this holy paladin gear, the Lightsworn set. The set was a mixture of golds and greens with fire coming out of the spaulders and skull-like helmet. Not only was I hypnotized by the look, but the stats gave me enough mana regen to continuously pump out heals. The set had the look and the stats I desired. I bring this story up to highlight just how uninspired the loot game is in Marvel’s Avengers. I don’t feel more powerful whenever I equip a new piece of gear. I have got a couple of legendary items on Thor and easily replaced them with rare items I get mere seconds later. The only difference in power I can feel is acquiring new moves from the skill tree when I level up. On top of this, the gear has no cosmetic value. It is directly opposite to the reason I chased gear in World of Warcraft and as a result, I don’t care to continue grinding missions in the hope for gear, as this is gear I don’t care about. All combine with a flood of worthless currency to upgrade and modify your loot, it starts to feel like you’re playing a mobile game. It is similar to the loot problem I talked about with Vermintide 2 only with the weapons that changed up gameplay stripped out of it. All done in the name of selling you cosmetics in a marketplace.
Since sixty dollars and Verizon, Fortnite, and Five gums sponsorships aren’t enough for this game, Marvel’s Avengers is hoping you will throw down more money for skins, emotes, takedowns, and nameplates. Honestly, not even good skins. A quick glimpse at the rotating marketplace shows a Black Widow skin dressed in a blue jacket and grey pants for 15 dollars. TAKE YOUR MOBILE STYLE PRICES AND BURN THEM TO THE GROUND! How dare you have the nerve to charge 15 dollars for what almost could be described as a palette swap. On top of that, each character will have a battle pass for you to grind through. Now, Crystal Dynamics has graciously unlocked the battle passes for the six heroes currently in the game, unlocking the battle passes for additional heroes will cost 10 dollars. The Avengers is one of the biggest IPs in the world, and to see all the tacky sponsorship, cosmetics, and battle pass just feels revolting. Is simply making and selling one Avengers game not enough for these publishers?
On top of the greedy monetization, this game is a technical mess. I don’t claim to be a framerate snob, I can’t help be seething in anger when the 60 dollar game I am presented, dips from a smooth framerate to slide show levels of frame rate. Also in my twenty hours with this game, it has crashed on me seven times. I have heard stories of people purchasing the currency to buy skins, only for that currency to vanish from their accounts. To see this title, that not only has design but technical issues reach out its hand begging for more is nothing more than shameful.
MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS, LEND ME EARS ONE LAST TIME AS MY STORY OF MARVEL’S AVENGERS COMES TO A CLOSE. As you probably can guess, I am not going to recommend this title to you at sixty dollars. I am not sure I can recommend this game in its current state at a deep discount. I also don’t think the cosmetics are worth a single cent. Crystal Dynamics obviously has a lot of work to do going forward to keep this live service afloat. Normally, I pronounce the game dead and move on. However, I think there is some light at the end of this tunnel. It would be unfair of me to say, I didn’t have fun smashing up enemies with my favorite God of Thunder. To hear the ping of Mjolnir ricochet off an enemy was an experience you don’t get in most games. Maybe I have fully morphed into a Marvel fanboy, but I can’t deny the base surrounding Marvel’s Avengers is there. I recommend anyone with a passing interest to wait a year to see if this live service is truly cared for as Crystal Dynamics has promised. If they can iron out all the issues that I have led at their feet, maybe, just maybe it would be worthy of enough to be a true Avengers game.
