At first, I thought Marvel Rivals was basically a reimagining of Overwatch, in the way that it is a free-to-play PvP hero shooter. And in a sense it is. Fights are reminiscent of a MOBA game and force both teams to constantly butt heads. Success comes from killing Spider-Man, Squirrel Girl, or Marcus Fenix, and while they wait to spawn, you jump into a huge area that needs to be captured. You can also push the cart while the sturdy Hulk absorbs bullets with his biceps and John Marvel shoots from a distance.
But the more I played Rivals, the more it struck me that it was a more tumultuous and complicated Overwatch. Certainly a hero shooter with a surprising amount of polish and charm, but also one that rolls off my brain like water runs off Birdman’s back. I understand why it’s incredibly popular these days, but I don’t really understand it.
Whenever a game comes out that is associated with a huge brand like Marvel, I fully expect it to be a middling mistake. Marvel Rivals very much resembles the result of a corporate presentation designed to hit all the keywords. “We’re going to leverage the Marvel brand and generate a ton of cash by creating a free-to-play hero shooter, all reinforced with an in-game store, battle pass and skins,” as everyone rubs their hands. If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll probably be thrilled to play Groot and not care too much about the optional nonsense. For someone who doesn’t like Marvel like me, it’s tough not to separate it for what it is: a box ticker for NetEase.
Still, it would be unfair to judge it solely on its corporate identity, or at least it wouldn’t be fair because the game is truly solid. In terms of presentation, this is true Very slick, where the characters have a handsome comic book art style and pop out of their thumbnails with customized animations whenever you hover over them. And since its release, I don’t think I’ve encountered any server issues, which is a remarkable feat considering the many millions of logged-in players. Even the matchmaking system is lightning speedy, and sometimes it takes all of two seconds to find another match that has just ended.
These tight bodysuits provide even greater smoothness and shine on any surface. In the way the characters spin and tumble and fly. In the bench with a gun. The gleam of pieces of Lada’s Raccoon armor popping out of the petite generator he puts down. In the crack of the Witch – sorry, Black Widow’s sniper rifle as she reloads the chamber. Finish the game and you will see your team standing in line where you can check them out everyone individual accents with a quick press of a button. Again, all with a user interface as if crafted by the smoothest, gentlest hand.
So much for how nice it looks, but how do the Marvels compete with each other? Well, there are 33 heroes at the start, all divided into categories such as Vanguard (Tank), Dualist (DPS), and Strategist (Healer or Support). Teams consist of six people, so you choose a hero whose goal is to capture and hold objectives, push the cart as far as possible, or stop it from pushing it. Like I said, this will be incredibly familiar if you’ve played Overwatch.
However, what struck me as I switched between many of Rivals’ dozens of fighters was how well thought out each hero’s moves were. Naturally, some are better or worse than others, but many of them teeter on the edge too mighty, although he is not actually very mighty (except for Iron Fist, who can end up in the trash). This makes a lot of them just plain fun. I especially enjoy spending time with the water boy Namor, who throws spears that can strengthen the octopus turrets he throws on the ground. Cloak and Dagger are also an captivating two-in-one hero, able to switch between two completely different characters on the fly, completely changing their abilities from delicate and healing to kamehameh and corruption.
Another advantage that Rivals provides is the ability to “team up” with specific champions. Choose a specific combination of heroes who are probably friends and they will gain additional passives, completely novel skills or modified skills. In the pre-match lobby, it’s simple to see who might be teaming up with who, so it’s not like you need to understand the history of Hawk Tuah or whoever was drafted to benefit from these friends. For example, I had to play with the ice version of Aquatic Man’s octopus because two other people decided to do their own combos.
However, on the flip side of Iron Fist, I find that the Teamup feature can be both overwhelming and tempting, encouraging you to adapt an arguably better team composition in favor of what is ultimately an inferior one. I often find that if I’m on a Teamup that gets trashed, I feel sorry for the conga swap, which causes everyone else to get distracted and disrupt the team’s workflow. As someone who takes competitive gaming a little too seriously, I had a tough time understanding the true benefits of teaming up and probably needed another 1,000 hours for the best combos to sift through the meta. For those who don’t take everything seriously, I can at least imagine that Teamups lets you live out the fantasy of your favorite Marvel characters fighting together against online toxicity, one skill shot at a time.
Having such a huge pool of heroes makes it challenging to choose, and many of them are also quite complicated. Where every character in Overwatch was largely part of the game, Rivals adds a bit of MOBA to the gameplay. There were many times when I pressed F1 to bring up each hero’s cheat sheet and felt like I needed a minute to digest it all. Thor has the whole hammer economy, and even slightly simpler heroes like Captain America have mini-skills that stem from skills you’ve already activated.
All of this is great for those who want to learn champions and utilize those intricacies for meta-changing innovations. However, I’ve found that most of my games go one of two ways: one, we snowball to a decisive victory and I don’t really know why, or two, we get crushed and I don’t really know why. I’m sure part of it is simply the experience you can only gain over time playing these types of competitive games. But I think it’s also a product of a deep hero pool, with all its complexities. While Overwatch’s compact launch with 12 heroes meant you could easily switch counters on the fly, Rivals’ undeniable fun and impeccable gameplay experience are hampered by its depth.
There’s another reason I rarely know what’s going on: many of the characters are just people in regular-shaped costumes or petite animals. Even though the silhouette of each of them is outlined in red to make them a little more observable on the battlefield, it’s still challenging to recognize them when there’s an ever-present Iron Man and Winter Soldier frenzy or a pissing shark screaming “I WILL DO IT.” IT’S NOW” and dropping an instant-killing bomb from afar. Seriously, come back to Overwatch after a few rounds and see how much easier it is to understand who is where and what at a glance. It just conveys everything much more clearly.
The thing is, Marvel Rivals can still be an incredibly accessible hero shooter that allows people who don’t care as much about competition as I do to just mash buttons and play like the brawny people who recurrent Odeon screens Kojima spends his time 3D scanning handsome people. There’s nothing wrong with that! Actually, I think it’s great. People can just jump in and have fun in a free-to-play game that doesn’t even seem particularly predatory in its microtransactions.
The additional The thing is, Marvel Rivals is also a PvP hero shooter that lacks the restraint of Overwatch and, as a result, turns matches into somewhat shapeless blenders. The fact that I don’t remember the names of the maps is proof of this, when normally I would remember these sight lines and bottlenecks. It won’t be a surprise to you that I won’t stick with this game. and if you are anyone after The Next Competitive Timesink, I don’t think you will be either.
