Videogame Review: Marvel’s Avengers
This one is tragic. Here is a game that had a really really hard problem to solve; create fun superhero gameplay for a wide variety of powers — Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, etc. — and, to use Dunkey’s famous phrase, make us really feel like our favorite characters. And guess what? They solved it! The basic superhero movement and combat is surprisingly fun. Thor feels like Thor. Iron Man feels like Iron Man. When it all gels in 4-man multiplayer, it really is special. Zipping around as Iron Man taking out enemy turrets with my lasers while Hulk is swatting away mobs of evil robots, Thor is pinning monsters with his hammer and Cap is tossing his shield at a giant android — it’s a good time. The actual coders and game developers are not to blame for this game’s failure. Marvel’s Avengers was undone by those elements of the game industry that simply do not optimize for fun.
For one, the game is clearly just unfinished. It is buggy to the point of being unplayable. I have never seen such an astounding variety of game-breaking bugs in a triple A release. Secondly, the smartphone game style microtransactions are a disgrace. The designers took a page from the most recent Mortal Kombat and decided players ought to shell out $14 for a single cosmetic DLC or grind for 20 hours. Lastly, the writing is awful in a whiny political sort of way. All of the male characters are neutered and feckless and all of the female characters are superstars who can do no wrong. It’s beyond grating and it makes even casual online quick matches less fun as you are subjected to cringey dialogue. Here’s a game that really could have been great — could have ushered in a new era of ambitious superhero games. Instead it was suffocated by suits and activists with agendas. For shame.
Grade: C-
