In our Marvel’s Avengers beta review, we note how chaotic the game is, the problems with its loot-driven gameplay, and what we are excited by.
The launch of the Avengers game beta was meant to be an exciting time for Marvel fans. Over three years after it was first announced, gamers could finally experience what it felt like to play as their favourite superhero in what’s promising to be a super-ambitious adventure. But then earlier this week, Marvel’s Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics soured that by revealing that Spider-Man would be an exclusive character to PlayStation, a baffling move for a game not made by a Sony-owned studio. What could have been great news — Spider-Man in the Avengers game! — ended up as yet another indictment of Sony’s anti-consumer behaviour. Take the beta’s initial availability — only for PS4 pre-orders this weekend — as further proof. Sony has not only used its relationship with Marvel to restrict Peter Parker to its console-verse, but it also struck a deal with Marvel’s Avengers publisher and fellow Japanese gaming giant Square Enix. Even though PC and Xbox One owners have paid upfront for the Avengers game, they don’t get access to the pre-order beta for another week. Still, when the Avengers beta does open up to all platforms, it’s got other problems. Crystal Dynamics wants Marvel’s Avengers to be a co-op experience, but it refuses to comment on the possibility of cross-platform play. More importantly, the Avengers game suffers from a case of sensory overload. There’s so much happening at any given moment in Marvel’s Avengers that it’s virtually impossible to process all of it. And when that happens, the natural tendency for humans is to panic. In gaming terms, that means smashing all the buttons. Except Marvel’s Avengers isn’t designed to work that way. It requires you to not only adopt a different strategy against different types of enemies, but also prioritise and focus on the right opponent at the right time. If you don’t, you’ll find your superhero losing a lot of health to specialised ranged shots, and in turn, forcing you to redo part of the level over and over. Marvel’s Avengers Beta to Offer Over 20 Missions And that’s not the only gameplay design issue.
