Marvel's Avengers Review

A few weeks ago we got a closer look at the game in the playable beta.

The Marvels franchise isn't exactly unknown, so the beta has become the most downloaded beta in history of the Playstation 4. However, the beta has not always been well received by the gamers.

Login issues, small hit feedback, and mission design were criticized. Few weeks later the full game is released. But is the game better now? Without saying too much. Yes it is.. But let's start from the beginning.

Avengers Day:

The campaign, which lasts about 8-10 hours, starts on A-Day. A happy festival for the Avengers and all the fans. Kamala Khan, our main character is also present. However, the happy atmosphere at the festival doesn't last long. A tragic accident happened. The festival not only ends, but the entire Avengers dissolves.

As a result of the accident, San Francisco has turned into a gas-filled quarantine zone. This gives innocent supernatural powers in a totally unintended way. The "Inhumans" are born.

Five years later, the mysterious company A.I.M. appears with a bright future and also a cure. Kamala Khan now has super powers too and is on his way to unite the Avengers and discover the secrets behind A.I.M. Who is behind the company? Secrets that you can discover for yourself.

Characters to fall in love with:

Let's stay with the main character Kamala Khan. She is the central point in the campaign. She an her personality are the big strengths of this game. Kamala Khan is so wonderfully unspent as a character. She continues to be a pure fan but is also a member of the Avengers. This has been implemented incredibly well. Relationships between their father or other characters are just great and believable. I even go so far that I've seen a few references from The Last of Us (Ellie and Joel).

In any case, you will love Kamala - I promise.

Furthermore, you have to praise the great voice actors, all of which deliver a great performance (English). Popular voices like Troy Baker (Joel The Last of Us) breathe life into the characters. Only the character designs themselves bothered me at first. You are used to different faces here. But this is a personal one and this criticism lay over the playtime of the campaign.

Linear levels are a strength:

The Marvel's Avengers campaign is fairly linear. Of course, you will also visit larger outdoor areas. But the stronger levels, from my point of view, are the more linear ones. These are beautifully staged, offer great moments for fans to explore and are just fun to play.

The mission structure in the outdoor levels unfortunately offers nothing more than the usual standard food. Protect a certain area here, save a few people here and couple of switches over there. We have seen everything varied and better before.

But the missons that have already been staged, in which you are more likely to be taken by the hand. These are well implemented and packed with really unforgettable moments. The final mission in particular is just great and shows what the game is capable of.

Gameplay loop:

At the beginning you play with Kamala Khan as mentioned. However, you will meet all the Avengers members in the further course of the story.  

At the so-called Wartable you can continue playing the story or choose some side missions. Sometimes the character with which you have to complete the story is given, but often you have also the free choice.

In the mission, you usually smash your way through countless hordes of opponents. Evade, block / parry, light / heavy attack. I'm sure you already played this type of game.

However, this often does not work as intended. Due to the large number of opponents and the unreadable attacks, you will be hit to often and unnecessary. This also applies to unfair ranged attacks. This could have been solved much better. The  enemy types are also not particularly varied. Far too often you fight against standard robots. The boss fights however, are awesome. Even if these appear far too little in the campaign.

In my opinion, the characters all play differently. So switching between characters is also fun. However, you will quickly become sympathetic to one character's play style. I'm sure.

But I definitely think it's great that you have a nice selection here.

Did someone say selection? Yes - you also have them with your skill points. In the campaign you will receive skill points for completed tasks and level ups (the level cap is currently 50), which can be used in extensive skill trees. Each of the Avengers has their own skill tree. So you have a lot to unlock. Every new skill feels different. This is definitely one of the game's strengths. It's just fun unlocking new skills and trying them out.

Games as a service. The new trend? 

In my opinion, this aspect could have been thrown out of the game entirely, and it wouldn't be any worse. For me the system doesn't add any value. Of course, it should promote long-term motivation.

But for this, the endgame should also be fun to play. At the moment, the endgame consists of a pure grind and loveless tasks.

You will find boxes scattered all over the world, which will bring you new equipment. In a well designed main menu you can equip the newly acquired items and increase your attributes.

It is important to mention, that these items do not affect your appearance. You can change the look with unlockable outfits. There are so-called hero challenges that can be completed.

So you can earn new outfits, which often change your entire appearance and are pretty amazing. The outfits can also - as so often - be purchased in the real money shop.

Performance:

I played the game on my PS4 Pro and a 55 inch 4K OLED TV. The game looks really beautiful in places. The character models in particular are also beautiful. The available photo mode also shows this.

I had a lot of fun discovering different perspectives and taking beautiful photos. The photo mode is really well done, but in no way offers the possibilities of a Ghost of Tsushima.

Some of the environments are packed with details or offer a nice foresight. Often you can't complain here. 

Unfortunately, now we come to one of the game's biggest criticisms. The performance. Especially in the outdoor areas, the game starts heavy to stutter. I mean 10-20 FPS. You can choose between a performance and a graphic mode. But his doesen't help that much.

The game also struggles with bugs. The sound stops. Characters are not fully loaded into the picture. Opponents cannot be defeated. A few more months development time would have been something.

The developers are working on improving the game's performance and fixing the bugs. Recently a patch was released that fixes up to 1000 problems (20.09.2020).

Verdict:

Despite the criticism, I had a lot of fun with Marvel's Avengers. The campaign is consistently fun and offers a lot of great memorable moments. Because of this, however, it annoys me that the game's performance cannot completely convince.

8/10

Code provided by PlayStation