The Marvel’s Avengers beta offers up an extremely generous amount of content, but it’s still not yet enough to leave me convinced about this big-budget adventure. Picture the scene: you’re in a restaurant, and you’ve just ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. Let’s say it’s Wagyu Beef, which can run into the hundreds …
The Marvel’s Avengers beta offers up an extremely generous amount of content, but it’s still not yet enough to leave me convinced about this big-budget adventure. Picture the scene: you’re in a restaurant, and you’ve just ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. Let’s say it’s Wagyu Beef, which can run into the hundreds of dollars. Off your order goes to the kitchen and it comes back, cooked with care and attention and yet… it’s wrong. Something is off. Is it the seasoning? Is it too well-done? This is an expensive thing, presented to you with skill and care – and yet something about it isn’t quite right. This might appear a strange tangent, but bear with me: that steak is Avengers, the new game from Marvel and Square Enix, developed by Tomb Raider reboot crew Crystal Dynamics with assistance from Deus Ex reboot alumni Eidos Montreal. That’s a pretty good pedigree, right? In video game terms these teams with this amount of money are basically Michelin Star chefs. So why isn’t it clicking? Marvel’s Avengers is beautiful, expansive and, yes, expensive. Just looking at this game it’s immediately clear that this is a banner title for Square Enix, and it oozes budget and ambition at every turn. When you tear through an enemy base as heroes, the cartoon sensation of smashing up a super-villain’s base is here in full force, satisfying thanks to the level of detail. Aim up at the wall with Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and the wall will be beautifully dented with the impact of her oversized, super-powered fist. Details like this make you feel powerful. And yet at the same time… you don’t feel powerful, because so much of your time is spent smashing low-tier grunts.
