Review of Marvel's Avengers by Sir Noncy Dorp

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Marvel's Avengers, hero, or menace? That's the question to be asked when looking at this title. Is it time to suit up, or have the Avengers lost their endgame?

In the main story, players take control of Kamala Khan, a diehard fangirl of Earth's mightiest heroes. But on a day unlike any other, Captain America is killed during a battle and the Avengers dissolve. Years later, a group of humans present at that battle begin developing their own powers, and they become known as Inhumans. Kamala, being one of these people, sets out to fight the injustices they face and at the same time, reunite the Avengers.

Gameplay is both where the game shines and where it falters. As the story progresses players are given control of the different Avengers. The controls for these characters were amazing. It was insane how unique each character felt all while being in the same engine. You could feel the power of Thor each time you threw the hammer, you felt just as fast as Iron Man every time you took flight. Unfortunately, in terms of objectives, this game has one thing to offer. Go to point A, fight the enemies, go to point B, hit a button, fight the enemies.

And the next huge fault comes from the level design. Get ready to feel closed in and restrained. Because every level is essentially you being barrier-blocked into one area at all times. Even outdoors, where it looks wide and open, there's really nowhere to explore or go to. Taking flight as Iron Man is immediately met with an invisible barrier as you realize there is nowhere to go but where the game wants you.

The game's music was also pretty underwhelming. It just felt so generic and repetitive. And for a game as grinds as this one, that needed to be different. The music made me feel like a superhero, not an Avenger. Speaking of repetition, this game has it in spades. Every. Objective. Is. The. Same. You will play in the same default room 50 times. You will fight the same enemies to no end.

But to me the biggest downfall to Marvel's Avengers is the creative decisions. I don't broadcast this much, but I do read some Marvel comics. And while I understand Kamala Khan does have a following and some fans, as a character it is such a bad idea to build the story around her. Because she's not the type of character that should be focused on. She's a wannabe, a fangirl, she's not fun to play as because all she is, is us. We are the fangirls. We want to play as the Avengers. And you can't even really make fun of her either, because then it feels like a "take that!" at the fanbase. She's annoying and at times she can be very cringeworthy. The main character of your story can't be taken seriously when they're making you feel uncomfortable.

But that's not all. One of the best feelings is at the start of the game, you are rapidly switching between characters getting to control them. It feels like you are taking part in a huge battle and every movement counts. This is never revisited. You cannot switch between characters mid-gameplay again and it feels very restraining because of that. Then there's the fact that Captain America is killed off immediately. Then you have the fact that out of the huge rogues gallery the Avengers have, there are only three villains to fight in boss battles (during the main campaign). THEN you have the fact that Spider-Man, the most popular character, released as a PlayStation exclusive character (truth be told I don't know who's to blame for that). THEN you have the fact that all the other DLC characters for the most part are echo-characters and somewhat boring to play as. What made the initial lineup fun was how unique everyone was from each other. Why not add Carol Danvers or Stephen Strange to the game? Danvers is even teased towards the beginning and I believe the end. Instead we got two archers, another guy using guns, and another version of Thor. Even Black Panther kind of played like Black Widow.

Usually the only thing I ever hear anyone mention with Marvel's Avengers is that it bombed. That should tell you all you need to know. This game had potential to be great. Instead it will only be remembered as just that, a title with potential that will never become part of a bigger universe.

Total Score: 28/100

1.5

Great review, thanks for writing it! (I would give a thumbs-up but the website doesn't allow it since I wrote a review myself)

Your review perfectly highlights (something I forgot) what a bombastic beginning the game has with the linear, cinematic introduction mission where you switch between the Avenger heroes, but that's just a one-time trick and the rest of the game never achieves the same heights. It's like a big chunk of the budget and the marketing was focused on that introduction level alone to get peoples attention.

One point I personally don't quite agree with you is regarding Kamala Khan. I agree that she is cringeworthy, but I felt like she and Bruce Banner were the only characters with some degree of interesting and relatable personalities. Every other character in the game is just a flat stereotype. From the creator's perspective I think it was a good idea to focus on a character such as Kamala that most player could relate to, especially since with 5+ superheroes it would have been nearly impossible to build an interesting story arc for every one of them.

Posted by Fejer on 09 Jan at 12:19

Ah don’t worry about the like, I think it auto-removed the one I put on yours. :/

To elaborate a little more on Kamala, I think that was another thing that made that choice not good. She’s at best a divisive character. I really don’t find her relatable, and while I do know a few younger people who do, most people I talk about this game with really don’t like her either. I will say, she wasn’t quite as annoying in the game as she is in the comics. She’s used as kind of an audience surrogate there and it really dumbs down whatever story she’s in. And comparatively, I think the whole Marvel universe had a lot more characters to focus on that could have taken her place. With Captain America dying so early in the story, I was really thinking it could be someone trying to fill his shoes. Patriot or American Dream are two rather vague characters that would have been really cool to play as and could use the exposure. Even then, Scott Lang, T’Challa, Pietro Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff, are just a few examples of better protagonist choices. Heck, Squirrel Girl would have been more interesting I think. Not to disrespect your opinion or anything, Kamala just seems like such a default choice. And her being as young as she is, her character development tends to come at the cost of the characters that should already be more mature than she is.

Another thing I didn’t have space to touch on was the terrible matchmaking service for this game. The fact it could take as long as it did, just to end when one player disconnected or got bored, really killed online multiplayer for it. I would sometimes wait upwards of 15 minutes to connect to a lobby, wait another 5 for everyone to pick a character and get through an intro to a mission, and after about 2-3 minutes someone would disconnect and the mission would end prematurely. You’d think a game like this would do its best to make matching with other players smooth and seamless; Halo: Reach had a better matchmaking service for its campaign 10 years ago.

Posted by Sir Noncy Dorp on 09 Jan at 16:26

Unfortunately my touch-point with Marvel was by watching the majority of the movies, so I never got around to read all the comics. In that regard I felt like Kamala Khan was a fairly fitting character. From such a game's perspective that features RPG elements and wants the player to start from level 1 in order to gain experience and learn new skills, I think it was fine compared to all the established heroes. But of course if you expect a super-hero power fantasy then in that regard Kamala was a bit of a let-down.

I only played 2 maybe 3 missions online in coop to be fair. If I remember correctly, it went the way it usually goes in such games, you have 1 or 2 highly experienced players who just run off somewhere to complete the mission as quickly as possible without staying together. If one of them goes down they usually leave the session

Posted by Fejer on 11 Jan at 13:18

Marvel's Avengers Review by Sir Noncy Dorp

Marvel's Avengers