whatbrentsay

I was pleasantly surprised with Marvel's Avengers beta. Not because I think the game is going to be great—no, I'm certain the full game will not be great—but because my expectations were very low to begin with. The reveal footage was so underwhelming that I didn't even bother staying up to date on news. I saw the beta weekend ad on PSN and thought "why not?" And you know what? I'm glad I did. There's a potentially good game somewhere in there and, whether or not its realized, I'm happy I got a taste.

I'll get the obvious out of the way first: this is a live service game with all the trappings of a live service game. I experienced regularly bad frame rates on the PlayStation 4 version as well as crashes, wonky animations, and a wide assortment of other bugs and glitches. We're just over two weeks from launch: expect it to be a bumpy ride. On top of that, the familiar replay-missions-from-a-hub-and-grind-rare-gear loop looks to be present with few alterations. It's enjoyable enough for a few hours during a beta weekend but I'm skeptical there will be enough mission types, environments, enemies, and boss encounters to make players forget how obvious the grind is. Unfortunately, gamers have come to expect these shortcomings from the genre and I have no reason to think differently here.

Is the core gameplay fun, though? Sometimes. Perhaps more often than not, but the caveats are serious. The camera is a disaster—truly ruinous. Considering players are often in the middle of many enemies, losing time to wrestle the camera means you've likely opened yourself to an attack you didn't know was coming. In addition to fighting the camera, you'll have to actively focus to make sense of what's going on around you. The UI and visual effects are often distracting without effectively communicating the information they're supposed to. When you're not struggling to see and understand what the game is presenting you, however, you can slip into a groove that makes you feel like the powerful superhero you've chosen. The combat system is disappointingly simple at first but once you unlock more abilities for your heroes your options open up. The foundation is solid—light and heavy attacks, combos that utilize both, special abilities on recharge, takedowns, ground attacks, air attacks, ranged attacks, breaking enemy guard, dodging, countering, etc. Most of what you expect from a modern third person action game is here and it's refreshing to see they didn't arbitrarily simplify it. With other players the flaws are even easier to ignore—an intrinsic benefit these games often take advantage of. The big questions for those considering this title are how often is the bad going to distract you and are you playing with friends?

While there's good buried underneath the surface of Marvel's Avengers, I'm not confident this type of game allows for that potential to be fully realized. The history of live service games is that of greed and profits rather than respect for the player. The monetization schemes the final title will offer are on display in beta and what's missing is not hard to infer if you scrutinize the menus. It's going to turn players off on principle. When I put my controller down I had similar feelings to my time with the Anthem beta, except Anthem had one obviously great feature: its flight system. Marvel's Avengers doesn't have that one standout gameplay feature unless you're counting the Avenger's IP itself. If there aren't strong redeeming qualities at launch, I'm expecting a repeat of other popular but soft out of the gate live service launches. Diehard superhero gamers will likely bite but that's because there's almost nothing else available to scratch this particular itch; this is the closest you're going to get to a modern X-Men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

The test for this title isn't launch, of course. Like other live services games, it's whether it remains relevant a year or two from now. Based on what I've experienced, I'm not optimistic. I am hopeful, however. Who doesn't want to masquerade as their favorite superheroes, beat up an army of generic bad guys, and bring their friends along for the ride?