“Marvel’s Avengers” Game Review

Story posted September 13, 2020 in Arts & Entertainment by Colton Pleslusky.

Square Enix’s newest title, “Marvel’s Avengers,” is one of the first major game releases of the fall. Introducing a whole new take on everyone’s favorite superhero team of the past decade, “Avengers” seeks to put the player into the hammer-wielding, repulsor-blasting, hulk-smashing and shield-throwing minds of the Avengers themselves.

This is something the hack-and-slash title does well, with each character having his or her own diverse sets of skills and abilities, all upgradable within the ability tree.

The individuality doesn’t end here, however, as each character shows his or her own unique personalities throughout the main story campaign, eliminating any fears that this new generation of avenging heroes could be one-dimensional.

The game isn’t just any normal hack-and-slash title either. With in-depth skill trees giving the player access to more signature moves for its character, “Avengers” puts forth the feeling that every hero is special in his or her own way. Thor feels god-like, Hulk feels menacing, and Black Widow feels like a super spy. It all works in favor of the heroes feeling different from one another.

This makes the experience unique for each character, giving the player six different ways to play—at least until the free DLC heroes come out to bolster the roster of heroes fighting against Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.).

Unfortunately, the game isn’t without a few hiccups.

Small bugs, rendering issues and lag have plagued the game at launch. On the bright side, things like this are to be expected, and Square Enix has already released a game update that has fixed most of the issues. However, some players are still experiencing some minor issues.

Moving onto the story itself, “Marvel’s Avengers” puts the player into a timeline where the Avengers are broken apart by tragedy. It’s no secret that we lose Captain America in the prologue, caught in the explosion that destroys the helicarrier known as the Chimaera, all seen in the game’s trailer.

The meat of the game takes place five years later, with a teenage Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) seeking to reunite her childhood heroes to fight A.I.M., which has taken over most of the world and is fostering it with a vile and false sense of security.

Led by M.O.D.O.K., the corporate giant seeks to quarantine and “cure” all Inhumans, people with powers gained from the Terrigen Mist and something that occurs in the prologue as well. This is the setting the game starts the player in, and its corporate dystopian undertones hit a bit close to home, as we reach ever closer to automated everything.

The campaign itself is solid, with the only small complaint being that there’s too many multiplayer missions. The game does give the player the ability to set his or her companions to be A.I., but it feels as though this takes away from the cinematic experience.

That being said, all the missions are a blast, especially the cinematic ones with a particular emphasis on the last one. These missions can vary from using the hero of the player’s choice to a swap in perspective from hero to hero, which is a unique gameplay mechanic rarely seen in games today.

Overall, “Marvel’s Avengers” is a title worth some attention. From the fun the gameplay provides with each hero and its unique story that differs from any we’ve seen in the recent movie universe, “Marvel’s Avengers” is proving to be quite the unique experience for the gamer and Marvel movie-goer alike, with only more to come this October and November when Kate Bishop and Clint Barton join the fray.

Rating: 4/5

 

Colton Pleslusky is a junior majoring in telecommunications. To contact him, email csp5289@psu.edu.

About the Contributors

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Colton Pleslusky

Fourth-Year / Telecommunications

Colton S. Pleslusky is a fourth-year from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania majoring in telecommunications at Penn State. He is a director and writer for the CommRadio Arts & Entertainment Department as well as the host on Nittany Stories and a co-host on Nittany Record Club alongside Emily McGlynn. He does behind the scenes tasks, including directing, producing, programming and more for the Centre County Report. To contact him, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).