Marvel’s Avengers is here and a must-have for fans of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. With a varied set of heroes and abilities, hordes of new villains, and a nefarious conspiracy threatening the safety of the planet – players need to master all of the Avengers’ skills if they’re to save the day.
Story
During the grand opening of the Avengers’ new San Francisco headquarters, the team are attacked by the villainous Taskmaster and their new helicarrier explodes — decimating the city. The new Terrigen crystal powering the helicarrier unleashes a wave of unknown energy unlocking hidden abilities in random people, who come to be called Inhumans. The team’s own Captain America is missing, presumed dead, following the event. After the world blames the team for the disaster and the deaths of thousands, the Avengers disband and retreat away from the world as superheroes are outlawed. In their absence, a mysterious new company called Advanced Idea Mechanics (or AIM, for short) has begun patrolling the world using their new drones as they experiment on Inhumans. Enter, Kamala Khan. She’s a plucky young Avengers fan who has a few abilities of her own thanks to the Terrigen crystal. Following her instincts that AIM is covering something up about ‘A-Day’, Kamala sets out on a journey to reassemble the team and to ultimately to become a hero herself.
Hero Gameplay
But what does Marvel’s Avengers let players do when they become some of the most iconic Super Heroes ever created, aside from using Hulk’s Thunderclap to smash some AIM drones or taking out turrets with Iron Man’s ranged missiles, of course? Players will often find themselves fighting their way through a large, explorable map to reach an AIM base, where the villains are usually experimenting on Inhumans or using stolen Stark tech to power their new robotic designs. While it isn’t an open-world adventure, each map is considerably bigger than you might expect, so players will still have plenty of room to discover new areas to uncover upgradeable gear and other customisation items. There are plenty of SHIELD boxes hiding around, so don’t just rush into the objective to smash, shoot, or incinerate the opponents – it’s worth investigating the map along the way.
Exploring each new area means players will face off against more enemies, which gives them more chances to level up and earn skill points. Skill points unlock new abilities and moves for the Avengers, which will definitely come in handy when facing off against bigger bosses, like Hulk’s nemesis, Abomination. Plus, once players master how to quickly jump in and out of his ‘sprint-flight’, it’s incredibly fun to hurtle through the sky in Tony’s array of Iron Man Armours. It’s also the perfect escape route if the action gets a little too hot to handle, just jump out of the action and retreat to a safe distance to chip away at the soldiers or drones (or both) with his missiles.
Although sometimes it’s not easy to fly out of the action if you’re not playing as Thor or Iron Man. Say hello to Kamala Khan, also known as Ms. Marvel. Her ultimate move allows her to embiggen her entire body to tower over her opponents in battle, or she can use her giant hands to squish enemies against walls as well as dishing out damage with a barrage of kicks and punches. The younger hero can also swing from overhanging lights and rails to manoeuvre around each area, which is another great way of exploring the larger maps. She’s clearly been learning from watching other Avengers over the years, especially since her Thunderclap move looks suspiciously similar to Hulk’s own. When it comes to nimbly finding your way around the map to smaller areas that require more precision like turbines or across treetop platforms, Black Widow’s grapple definitely comes in handy. Her dual pistols and electrifying melee moves also make her a formidable member of the team.
Drop Zones
Sure, it’s exciting to run around cinematic missions uncovering the conspiracy surrounding A-Day and the disappearance of Captain America, but sometimes it’s more fun to squad up with a few friends and do some avenging. That’s where the Drop Zones come in. It’s not a typical multiplayer — you’re not going head-to-head with other players in their own teams of Avengers. Instead, players and their friends will all choose a hero from the roster to leap into a larger map to take the fight to AIM. Sometimes this is defending a particular spot while Jarvis hacks into the base to secure some technology, or you’ll be aggressively dismantling an elite squad of drones who have their own abilities and perks, just to make it a bit more challenging.
Some of these enemies have weapons like the Cryo-drones who freeze you over a short space of time, while others have teleportation powers or energized shields you’ll have to get around. They’re a challenge, but since you’re working with one player or more, you could coordinate your attacks across the map or team up to take larger mechanised opponents. The bigger the challenge, the better the rewards. Since the Drop Zone missions can be replayed over and over, they’re an easy way for players to rank up their heroes and find the resources needed to boost their gear.
Customisation and Cosmetics
With such a wealth of comic book history to draw from, players are spoilt for choice with the different cosmetic skins for each hero that honours some of their most iconic designs over 80 years of Marvel history. These can be bought from the marketplace or unlocked in-game by ranking each hero up. From the grey-skinned “Joe Fixit” Hulk design to the Original Sin Iron Man armour, there’s plenty of ways to customise the Avengers as they take the fight to AIM’s doorstep. The graphics of these designs are incredibly detailed and long-time fans will be pleasantly surprised at the effort that’s gone into translating the heroes from the page to the screen. It’s also vital to keep upgrading their gear throughout the story too to give their moves and power level the edge over the enemy. Each mission will have a suggested power rating that’ll give players some idea of the challenge that awaits them. It’s definitely worth paying close attention to your character’s statistics in the customisation menu!
Marvel’s Avengers is out now on PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC and it’ll later make its way to PS5 and Xbox Series X.
