AC3: Random Video Game Review - Marvel's Avengers

 

The 2010s was a defining time for the film industry. Nostalgia hit hard, superheroes dominated the box office and Marvel re-introduced the shared universe concept with its own cinematic universe which became a proven working concept. Something of which had been tried before, but never at this scale. Since then, they have released several films each year that have all been leading up to the climax that was Avengers: Endgame which became the highest grossing film of all time at the box office which helped cement the concept as one that can work with the right people on board. With all that success in films, they then turned their attention to video games. Marvel video games are nothing new as there have been many games with some being more successful than others. But I guess they were inspired by the Batman: Arkham games to attempt making their own triple A titles. So as their parent company decided to be a licensor of games instead of a publisher or developer, Marvel followed suite and gave TellTale the rights to Marvel characters for use in their LEGO games, Sony the rights to make Spider-Man games and Square Enix the rights to make a game centred on the Avengers and this is what we got. Marvel's Avengers has had a troubled development and reception with many calling the character models ugly and the story being your typical superheroes turned into criminals story that revolves around an outcast desperate to clear their names and bring the team back together kind of story. Which isn't a bad story per say, but it isn't the most original one either. Well let's see what we are in for because if it can't be saved, it will be avenged:

Set outside of any pre-existing Marvel universe, it's A-Day in San Francisco. This celebrates the Avengers and gives fans the chance to meet them in a sort of convention like scenario. One such fan called Kamala Khan (voiced by Sandra Saad) goes to the event which is also used as a means to unveil the new Avengers headquarters and their own Helicarrier. But the festivities are interrupted by a terrorist attack led by Taskmaster (voiced by Walter Gray IV) who causes much destruction which forces the team to stop him. But the aftermath of the battle results in much of San Francisco and the helicarrier being destroyed and the apparent death of Captain America (voiced by Jeff Schine). In addition, the crystal that was powering the helicarrier gets destroyed and the power within turns many humans into Inhumans. The Avengers disband and Kamala makes a desperate attempt to clear their name and bring them back together which in a world where superheores have been outlawed, may be easier said than done. The game plays as an action adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The game can be played alone or with up to four other players online at certain points. Customization is a big deal in the game as is upgrading each character's skill tree. Costumes can be bought as DLC or found in-game.

The first thing I will say is that this game is not going to get any year-end awards. The character models seems to be inspired by the films, but fail to actually be appealing and just look ugly. The gameplay is not all that innovative as most of the aspects have been done a billion times before. The story is unoriginal, but does seem to have some merit in that it is an Avengers game centered around who would become Ms. Marvel and this game also serves as her introduction to the world before her own Disney+ series and at least for that bit, they did well. So overall it's not the Avengers game that we were hoping for. It's not outright dreadful nor is it perfect, but it gives the fans something to enjoy if you ignore all the problems it has. 6/10