Marvel’s Avengers Review

Let’s jump straight into it. Firstly, the platform I’m playing on is a PS4 Pro, and I have the Digital Deluxe Edition with the Early Access part of the game.

I’ve completed the main campaign part, and I’m quite a way into the multiplayer aspect with 2 other friends.

Reviews always start with what’s great about the game, but I think we should first take a look at the negatives so we don’t leave the game in sour taste when you leave the article. How does that sound? Great.

If you didn’t already know, this article contains spoilers so please click off the article if you don’t want the main campaign portion of the game spoiled.

What I Dislike

1. Bugs

They’re rife in the game, and it’s understandable the size of the game. However, some of the bugs in the game are just straight up annoying. Iron Man’s Hulkbuster sometimes takes a solid 30 seconds to load in, people’s hairs go missing (noted on Kamala in the story and Thor in a multiplayer mission). There’s oftentimes you need to clear a room of huge enemies, but then one somehow spawns outside the room meaning you have to reset.

I unlocked an Iron Man skin during the campaign, it’s now locked. They have looked at this but as of now, it’s still broken. Frame rate drops are often there, especially when you use the magno missile barrage from Hulkbuster, but it’s over fairly quickly.

2. Parts of the campaign

Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the campaign and you will see later on in the article why I loved it. It was a great playthrough but there were aspects that weren’t. When you eventually find Captain America, I just, I don’t know, I expected more. Please explain to me how he’s been locked in a tube for 4 years but he’s just okay as if nothing ever happened? I wanted, in fact, I expected more.

It was fairly short for an Avengers story. It felt like the beginning was definitely the best, but it was like this;

Avengers fail a mission. All disband. Kamala gets them back one by one. They all come together. Mission done. That’s how it went, it was fairly predictable as well so there is that.

3. Some of the cosmetics

This is a tricky one, but some of the cosmetics are just awful and boring. Take a look at Iron Man. There are about 3 good suits, the rest are terrible. The same goes for all of the characters. They often look like copy and paste jobs with a different layer of colour on them. If you watch Iron Man 3 and see all the suits in action, you know they had plenty to choose from.

One thing I do find annoying is the gear. It only changes the power level. I would have liked to see the gear pieces actually change the look of the suit you’re using, even if it’s just a little bit.

4. Microtransactions

This is a major complaint I’m seeing from a lot of the player base, however, my complaint doesn’t coincide with theirs. Mine is how expensive the credits are. I’m in the UK so £3.99 gets you 500 credits. A suit costs around 1,400. You’re looking at close to £15 per suit, it’s unacceptable. I understand the game is a multi-year thing, and that’s fine, they need to keep a steady source of income, but perhaps making these credits so expensive will put a lot of players off – especially kids.

The better thing is you can earn a lot of cosmetics through missions, resources, and the challenge cards so it’s not a major deal. Just maybe knock the price down a touch?

5. Fan noise

So, as you know by the beginning of the article I run a PS4 Pro. My PlayStation turns into a bloody aeroplane when this game is running. I remember pausing the game, to have some food, and watch The Office on Amazon Prime – and the noise was ridiculous. It sounded like a steam train was in the middle of my living room. I was in the middle of a mission but I literally just closed down the PlayStation completely. I’m hoping this issue is addressed in next-gen because there’s been a couple of games out lately that do this.

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So, now we’ve looked at the things I don’t like – so far. It may seem like a lot and off-putting, but before we get to the stuff I like, I’d like to take a second to discuss some of the complaints I’m seeing on social media.

“The graphics are trash” – they’re not, we need to remember this is a huge game, and not a linear single-player game such as Last of Us 2. The graphics are actually pretty good, and quite attentive.

“Game’s full of microtransactions” – it’s literally not. You can earn pretty much anything by playing the game normally. Granted, the credits are expensive as I noted above, but it’s not exactly full of them.

“It’s just a grind fest” – well, obviously. This is the type of game it is. It’s similar to Destiny or The Division. It’s a looter-shooter type game. Of course, it’s going to be a grind fest, but if you enjoy it, what’s the problem?

“It’s boring” – maybe so, I can’t change that for you. If you find it boring then okay. Maybe trying to play with some other people can help, and it does make it interesting.

“It’s unrealistic, Thor’s hammer would destroy them all in one shot” – it’s not supposed to be that type of game. Yes, Thor’s hammer would destroy them all in one shot but what fun do you have of progression if that was the case?

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What I Like

1. Campaign

I know I had this on my dislike section, but understand some of these may be on both. However, I actually loved the campaign. I enjoyed the fact the actual main character of the campaign was Kamala Khan AKA Ms Marvel. It showed us a new side to the Avengers, and how they were so comfortable until AIM came along.

MODOK was a fantastic villain and set up a lot of avenues within the story going forward. The end mission was fantastic, especially when Tony upgrades everyone’s suits. The voice work and the character models were all really well done. The campaign was fairly linear but I was okay with that, especially the opportunity to jump in and out of it whenever I wanted.

2. Content

There’s a lot of it here and a lot to actually enjoy. You can switch between the 6 heroes and complete missions, and all the characters do actually play differently. So, say if you get bored of Captain America, you can switch to Black Widow at any point (except mid-mission). There are chains of missions you can complete, or you can go smack up a villain. The two currently in are Taskmaster and Abomination. What’s better, you can do it with friends too.

You can do small missions or larger missions. You also have side challenges to do for the two factions in the game (Inhumans and SHIELD), alongside the character challenge cards. You get two daily challenges and two weekly ones for each character. There’s a mass amount of gear to obtain as well as you level up your power level which is great, although as I mentioned earlier, I do wish it would change the cosmetic options. I know this is just for the early access, and the devs have told us events and new campaigns will come over time as well.

3. Combos/abilities

This is perhaps one of my major loves. Each character has their own sets of combos, takedowns, and abilities. For the L1-R1 ability, Thor uses the Bifrost, Hulk claps, Iron Man uses the Hulkbuster etc and you can even upgrade them further to do more. One of my personal favourites is the magno missile barrage from the Hulkbuster. It changes everything, and they actually make a difference in the battle.

Each of these is unique to the character you’re using, and it stays true to the actual character on their abilities and combos. Not just that, they are so fun to use in every single aspect.

4. Challenge cards

People had issues with this, but I actually like the idea they went with. Each character has a challenge card that consists of 40 levels. The beauty of it is, you can’t just fly through it. As I mentioned earlier you have 2 weekly challenges and 2 daily challenges. Obviously they reset, and you can 3 points per challenge for the daily, and 11 for the weekly. It’s around 5 points needed to level up. Each challenge card consists of skins, emotes, takedowns, nameplates, emotes, gear and credits.

Another thing to shout about is they’re all free for the characters in the game at the moment. You can earn 1,600 credits per character, so completing the 6 challenge cards will reward you close to 10,000 credits. Not to mention the vast amount of stuff you get for going through them. Plus, it forces you to play as other characters and not sticking to just one.

5. Graphics/sound/gameplay

Graphics are stunning. The sound effects are satisfying, and the gameplay is exceptional. I actually enjoy all 3 aspects. Flying around with Iron Man, using the repulsor blasts is just a joy to do. It all sounds and looks beautiful. It really does showcase just how amazing the game is. Especially when you’re on the Eastern Seaboard missions in the cities. It just all looks amazing.

The actors voices are great too and do well to match up to the characters voices from the movies. Of course, they’re not the same but they do match each character perfectly.

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That’s the base of everything. Of course, there’s a lot more to enjoy in the game. I truly believe what we have now, and what we plan to get going forward, there’s a lot to like. Obviously there isn’t many games that are perfect, but this is well and truly close. I believe once the devs have all the feedback needed from the early access, things can only get so much better.

I mean, what more do you want than choosing your favourite Avenger and teaming up with your friends to smash some enemies?

The devs have done a great job with the game, and I am impressed. If you want my opinion, I would definitely buy this game, now. It’s worth it, that I can assure you of.

Of course, there’s a lot of critics out there, and a lot you can tell only played the beta and not the actual game that whinge about anything. This game is fantastic, it’s not a masterpiece – yet. However, it does have the potential to be.

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Rating 8.7/10

*See ratings down below for individual scores. Please note, these only show on desktop or mobile versions. If you’re reading on AMP please click exit mobile version at the bottom*

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