After joining in with Marvel's Avengers Deluxe Edition purchases during this week's Early Access proceedings, critics have chimed in on the quality of Square Enix's online superhero spectacular. Featuring a new group of Earth's Mightiest Heroes that MCU fans might enjoy, Crystal Dynamics has crafted a full eight-hour story featuring the rise of fan-favorite superheroine Kamala Khan helping to reform the team after the tragedy of A-Day. After the story, fans can run through endless variations of a handful of missions in the game's multiplayer, which promises to be expanded greatly over the coming months and years.
Marvel's Avengers is trying to fit into the same mold as popular games like Destiny and The Division, providing a live service that players can come back to again and again for endless fun. However, instead of providing action in the familiar shooter format, Marvel's Avengers features character action brawling in the vein of past superhero games like Marvel's Spider-Man and the Batman: Arkham series. New characters will join the cast for free on a regular basis, including Kate Bishop picking up the famous bow and arrow of Hawkeye and the aforementioned wall-crawler as a PlayStation exclusive in 2021.
Has Marvel's Avengers succeeded in creating a repeatable and engaging superhero romp? The results are rather mixed. Garnering scores around 70 on Metacritic for all three of its versions and a combined top critic average of 74 on OpenCritic, it seems that the game is enjoyable but not a home run. Several outlets are still plugging away at the game's multiplayer, offering a review-in-progress after completing the game's story. Those that have given a score (including Screen Rant), praise the campaign as a high point but struggle to find the fun in what's available online. Here are quotes from a few of the notable reviews to give further context:
Game Informer - 8.8/10 - Andrew Reiner
"Avengers is in great shape right now, dazzling with its story and action. I’m hooked on the end-game content that is available now, and I want to see just how powerful these heroes can become after leveling them completely."
Destructoid - 6/10 - Chris Carter
"When Avengers isn't getting in the way of itself with its tacked-on campaign, it's a bit of silly arcade fun. If a lot of these concerns are answered via post-launch patches and the DLC characters are fun to play, there's plenty of room for improvement."
IGN - Unscored - Tom Marks
"The single-player story is enjoyable enough that I can at least recommend it on its own merits, but every time I jump into a cookie-cutter multiplayer mission it feels like a pointless grind that I’m not convinced will keep me enthusiastically playing far past the credits."
TheSixthAxis - 7/10 - Jim Hargreaves
"Past its flaws and behind the grind, Marvel's Avengers is still a fun superhero brawler that has plenty of room to grow in the coming months."
GameSpot - Unscored - Phil Hornshaw
"It still feels as though the story campaign and the live-game missions are pretty divorced from one another, and I miss the moments when it was just me using my skills to take down a tough boss, rather than just watching as Taskmaster or Abomination get absolutely mobbed by me and three other superheroes."
Square Enix has pulled out all the stops to promote its new Marvel game, including promotions with Verizon Wireless and 5 Gum as well as plenty of Twitch sponsorships to get streamers talking. According to leaks coming out of the game's beta period, Square Enix could have over a dozen heroes waiting in the wings, meaning that there will be plenty of support for the game going forward. This also includes paid battle passes for each hero, which will grant players new costumes, emotes, and takedown moves as they keep playing with their favorite Avenger.
Considering the evergreen popularity of Marvel as a brand, Marvel's Avengers will be able to survive a timid critical reception, and the game's story mode has given it enough substance to avoid the fate of other mediocre service games like Anthem. If Square Enix can continue to provide meaningful story missions on top of the additional heroes, it could keep drawing in fans even if they're not interested in the day-to-day loot grinding. It will be interesting to see if the game integrates with ongoing Marvel happenings as well as some of the brand's mobile titles, and how wacky the costumes will get as the months roll on.
Marvel's Avengers is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Stadia. A PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X version will be available in the future.