Today we have come with Marvel’s Avengers video game. It is amazing that at this point, video games that are capable of putting the player in the shoes of a superhero continue to be counted on the fingers of their hands , and in almost all cases they are titles focused on a single hero, that is, they guide all your resources to a single character. For example, ‘ Hulk Ultimate Destruction ‘, the ‘ Arkham ‘ (some more than others) and almost all the Spider-Man titles (without a doubt the character that stands out best in this category) since that ‘ Spider-Man 2 ‘ based in Raimi’s film. They are not too many, taking into account that video games are, almost from the beginning, fantasies of power.
It is true that when adapting a superhero with a name and surname, a series of aspects must be taken care of that it is not necessary to take into account when making a camouflaged superhero game like, say, ‘Crackdown’ or ‘ Saint’s Row IV ‘. It has to be recognizable in its powers, its aesthetics and a personality that has been shaped, in many cases, over years of evolution. It is not easy, we must admit, framing the Hulk -one of the worst heroes to stand out in the Square Enix game- in an action context in which the rest of his teammates can compete, because the best thing about Hulk is that. .. well, there are no big enough opponents.
That is why we said that it is difficult to find collective superhero games that work. The possible caveats are those memorable ‘ Ultimate Alliance ‘ or, curiously, the LEGO games, where the format of removable pieces, balances the power of the powers in an intuitive way . And for that reason, it is clear in what aspect ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ especially shines: with the story in the campaign mode of Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel.
A curious choice to star in a game so dependent on fanservice to the boring – compared to the comics – MCU of the movies, since Kamala is not (yet) part of that crowded universe. However, his personality is perfect for a video game, because his youthful enthusiasm as an Avengers fan is definitely akin to that of the player . Their faith in the heroes’ purity, over and above their own, is undoubtedly key to everything we love about the genre, and their powers have more in common with action-platformer dynamics than boring. bang-bang from most other characters who, significantly and with a few exceptions, fall into a much more boring default power design.
But even his overwhelming personality does not save the big problem of the game: a combat system not too polished and consisting of mashing buttons like crazy. With uneven collision detection and a hit map that is not based on a combo system or hit combinations, but instead each button on the pad equates to a different hit, battles quickly become repetitive. We are far from the deep action and, most importantly, very fun of the ‘Arkham’ or the last ‘Spider-Man’ of PS4 , and that the possibilities were very clear from the beginning.
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Of course, these clumsiness in the design of the action would not matter if the environment were at the height of a Marvel blockbuster, but except for the not very numerous bosses most of the time you will be facing identical minions without personality. In environments designed a bit by default: hangars, corridors, subterranean bases of ridiculous complexity and disproportionate rooms. A hi-tech dungeon that ends up tiring when you realize that your adventure with the Hulk consists, much of the time, in hitting turrets. Or in protecting people or besieging enemy bases, two topics of lazy construction of missions that are repeated over and over again.
Although to be honest, there are interesting and varied dedicated missions, such as combat with an Iron Man armor under construction or some fun infiltration mission for the original. It is in the last hours of the campaign when, with the greatly improved characters, the game begins to take shape … also for multiplayer, accessible from the first moment but not recommended because the heroes are not sufficiently prepared. And yet, at the end of the campaign you will still be scratching through the exhausting and very comprehensive buff trees – sometimes too much and lacking in consistency, as they are very comprehensively divided into different types of attacks and special abilities.
And you will have another problem: the content that awaits you when you finish the campaign is designed for characters much more powerful than the ones you have, so you will have to unlock attacks and movements based on grinding in repetitive scenarios and identical underground bases . The upgrade tree is so profuse that sometimes you will find yourself improving and improving your characters without a clear goal and, above all, without an obvious impact on the game. The inspiration, for the bad and the good, of the first ‘ Destiny ‘, is clear and well in sight for those who enjoy these mechanics.
In the end, the feeling you have is that the campaign mode, by far the best of the game, is an excuse for a game as a service that is already announcing exclusive and paid content . Now the ball is in the court of Crystal Dynamics and it will be necessary to see if they are capable of generating more interesting content than these repetitive multiplayer missions that the exit game includes . The possibilities are endless, but with constant improvements aimed only at a sector of the public, they are not going to win anyone’s sympathy.
The ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ campaign lasts just under 15 hours. It’s long enough to sustain a game with a decent campaign. Varied and narrowly effective, remarkable in its final stretch, best when focused on Ms. Marvel, but too aware of what comes next: grinding, not-so-brilliant multiplayer, and the promise to improve heroes in infinite ways but they have not been important in the initial adventure. A somewhat disappointing adventure, but a must for fans of the characters.