Avengers

While at E3, I was able to see Marvel’s Avengers in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here is my take on Marvel’s Avengers.

The day is finally here and we had a nice new trailer and showing of Marvel’s Avengers during the big event that Square Enix held out at E3 this year. We all knew it was coming and it was a good taste of what the game was trying to bring to us all on the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. This, of course, was only a small look at what Crystal Dynamics has done with the game so far. In a nice little S.H.I.E.L.D. structure in the middle of the convention, some of us were lucky enough to have a closer look at Marvel’s Avengers with some actual gameplay. More substance than anything shown to the full public so far. Here is a bit more of what to expect from the game based on all of this.

If you watch the following trailer for Marvel’s Avengers, you will get the very small basics of the story and action we had a chance to see. The big difference being that each of the five characters announced so far had their own little playable experience during all of the action and we were given a live showing of it all with Thor up first. Just as you could have expected, he swings his hammer, flies, and does just about what you would expect this Norse god to do. Just as you were hoping, it looks like we will have all manner of control over Mjolnir. This blends from the basic throwing and returning, but also using it to pin down a few enemies in Marvel’s Avengers while using your fists. The essence of the character is there in the best of ways.

The next part of the demo focused a bit more on Iron Man and how he will work in the game. He flies, he shoots, he has all kinds of tech, and also has access to many of the icon weapon options from all the other forms of Iron Man out there. This is good, as all of the events in this demo of Marvel’s Avengers came up from stolen Stark Tech and S.H.I.E.L.D. tech. Everything from homing missiles to the massive unibeam is in the weapons locker for Mr. Stark here and it will be up to us to blend it all together while also flying around. It is hard to expand on that without saying it will let you feel just like the Iron Man we have seen over the years but under our control. I guess I just did then.

From here, the action moved into The Hulk and as you should figure, he is a brute that uses his fists and crushes everything. It is also where some of the parkour-like movement in Marvel’s Avengers gets a showing as there is a lot of running, jumping, and wall-running for Banner when not picking up enemies and using them to hit other enemies. Yes, we will be able to use a dude to hit another dude in Marvel’s Avengers and it works as great as you would assume. Mix in more of the iconic moves, like the Thunderclap, and we have another character done extremely well. Although, the Hulk would be one of the hardest characters to not get moved over in terms of gameplay based on how basic he is.

The next, and interesting part of the Marvel’s Avengers demo had to be the shift over to Captain America and him using his shield and hand-to-hand combat to take down enemies within the helicarrier. Not that it was weird to see as he took aim and pulled off some great moves like kicking the shield back at someone for a quick second hit. Weird in the fact that it looks like he can only use other enemies to bounce off and not get past other shields without doing so. I.e. He cannot use walls or other hard surfaces to get behind others in the game, which looks like less of a tactical move for Cap. Maybe it was just this demo, but it was a little off for me. I am sure that Crystal Dynamics will alter things as we get closer to launch.

The last character was obviously Black Widow. A little blending of Cap and Hulk as it came down to fancy martial combat and parkour through the environment to reach Task Master. That would be the mini-boss that she had to take on in all of this. All in a fight scene that looked a lot like Deathstroke and Batman from the Arkham games. This should not be the big takeaway from this part though as it also highlighted a similar style from Avengers where the focus is on this character but you truly get to see all of the other heroes still doing their thing in the background. It was still focused on Black Widow, but you could still see Thor and Stark doing their thing and The Hulk smashing through. Still, focal points in the scene to make sure we knew they were still there, but never drawing it fully away. Something that should be persistent throughout the rest of the game.

I have been interested in Marvel’s Avengers since it was first announced, but was never truly sold on it just on name and the hope of it being like other of the more recent titles. This demo and showing has firmly placed me in the camp of cannot wait and need it now. Even if some of the character models and skins did not look as I would have expected, it looks like the gameplay and storytelling is completely on par. It also looks like all of the fan service of moves and weapons from the comics and films are in there too. They knew who they were making Marvel’s Avengers and any real fan will see that and feel bad for doubting in the past. I know I do at least.