Living up to a phenomenon is difficult and, when it comes to video games drawn from narrative universes that the public knows like the back of their hand, has loved, appreciated and supported for years, then the responsibility is higher than ever.
If then the narrative universe to be honored is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a giant entertainment machine colonized by Disney capable of bringing Marvel to the fore by proposing his heroes in a sparkling and powerful way over the span of thirteen years, then the task of any software house borders on recklessness.
Crystal Dynamics he chose to play the game with his Marvel's Avengers, and to do it in an ambitious way.
Maybe too much.
Beyond the tie-in
To talk about Marvel's Avengers and what it wants to be, it is necessary to start from what the Avengers have been in recent years: a modern myth, which starting from comics has literally conquered cinema becoming one of the four supporting legs of Disney.
Such a success, with billions of dollars raised, a continuously developing franchise and an almost total applause from critics and the public, could only land in the world of video games massively, sooner or later.
Crystal Dynamics decided that this was done in a way that was as “clever” as it was full of potential.
The Avengers are symbols that gather around them huge fandoms of people who find themselves under the banner of their favorite brand. The reasoning of the production was simple: "We have in our hands one of the largest potential audiences and a narrative universe that makes concepts such as cooperation and the fight against evil its strong points, why not combine them in a gigantic cooperative that makes relive the thrill of a Marvel movie? ”.
And hence the idea of make the brand-narrative universe par excellence an immense gaming environment, made of the possibility of gathering communities of online players to make them face vast arenas full of enemies or to have the upper hand in spectacular assault actions. All of this, of course, ensuring that players can play the heroes of the Avengers (Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor and, finally, Khamala Khan aka Mrs. Marvel).
In between, a game concept that makes the Marvel's Avengers experience a powered game as service, which could go on forever, with skills and upgrades that allow players to upgrade their heroes to earn from mission to mission.
A titanic undertaking.
Yes, we really are beyond the concept of tie-in. Really beyond.
A multiplayer to be taken in small doses
As it was logical to expect, Marvel's Avengers is a game that thrives on two connected but distinct souls: the multiplayer sector, which we had already investigated in the preview of the game released a few weeks ago, and a single-player campaign which, however, is nothing more than a narrative pretext to introduce the core of the game.
As for the first, in fact we are faced with a substantial confirmation of what we tried in August. A good series of missions to be faced together with other players in large game environments, rich in scenic elements and a certain depth of play, at least on paper. In fact, what we have in front of these sections is the perfect realization of the basic idea that Crystal Dynamics, that is make the players the protagonists of a series of matches against the super villains on duty by making us feel at the center of a regular Marvel series, but with the substantial difference of being able to face such an adventure through the tool of cooperative play.
Let's add to all of this a series of collectibles to take home, between comics, Challenge Cards and other little gems that will delight all completists.
On paper, therefore, the experience could work, were it not for a defect that perhaps unfortunately can only be corrected through the release of new content and heroes in the coming months: at a certain point, in front of yet another super-secret laboratory of 'AIM to conquer and explore, the "ghost" of repetitiveness has begun to peep out suggesting that at least in its first phase Marvel's Avengers could tire the player and make him sated, prompting him to take long breaks from the game.
A situation in which not even a combat system all in all spectacular and rich in nuances manages to keep attention, and that's a problem.
“Civil War”
If multiplayer is an essential aspect but with some questionable, the single-player side of Marvel's Avengers deserves an even more nuanced discussion.
At the beginning of the game, the Avengers epic changes dramatically when, during a big promotion event for the group of heroes in San Francisco, a group of ferocious terrorists attack the demonstration killing Captain America and releasing the radiation that contaminates most of the population and those present, transforming them into inhumans, people with genetic mutations that allow them to develop extraordinary abilities.
Among these people there is Kamala khan, a passionate girl fan of Tony Stark & ​​co. During the incident Kamala gains the power to stretch her body out of proportion and to use giant punches and kicks as spring weapons.
Five years those tragic events, the Avengers have been held responsible for what happened in San Francisco and most importantly, the government has let a mysterious government agency named AIM led a military and scientific campaign aimed at the eradication of inhumans from American soil through cutting-edge care.
Kamala, old fan of highly respected superheroes like Hulk or Captain America, he's not there and investigating he discovers a truth that could clear the Avengers of his sins and unmask the true plans of the AIM (which, no, they are not beautiful). Obviously Kamala sets out on a risky mission, which is to gather all the Avengers left on the loose and form a resistance.
Kamala and the other Avengers' adventure unfolds at that point in the most predictable way, with a series of missions around the United States in an attempt to build an army opposed to the AIM and acquire different powers and equipment; you can already guess how the canvas lends its side to a series of missions with a fairly similar plot, in fact explaining the repetitiveness of the assignments even in multiplayer.
While this feeling of deja-vu is present, I am telling the truth: some parts of the campaign have pleasantly involved me, how an average superhero story fan might be involved in the face of a discreet story.
Of course, to make it really go down you need to be prepared for blatantly rhetorical touches, to a typically Marvel-for-kids basic "do-goodness", to a certain lightness of tones that it could making me want to invoke ThanEHM meant that it might not be appreciated by everyone, especially if you are a demanding and long-time player.
The latter will in fact find themselves in front a heavily scripted and cinematic video game, with sections strongly oriented towards the story rather than the freedom of approach.
A creaking building
The flaws of Marvel's Avengers are what we could easily define "execution problems".
Despite a valid game concept (both for players and for producers and developers), through which it does not seem so impossible to see some long-term potential, and capable of doing Avengers a game as service with personality, the latest effort by Crystal Dynamics shows a series of shortcomings of the technical apparatus.
Everything that Crystal Dynamics has orchestrated, all the gameplay functional to the type of game, collapses under the weight of glitches, bugs, frame rate drops, sudden freezes in the most excited moments (as in the final segment of the campaign) which can make the experience frustrating. This is serious, especially if these issues arise in the heat of the action and during an online match. The impression is that the game would have needed the "usual two more tweaks".
Not completely convincing in the in-game dynamics are also some gameplay segments, such as those where you control Iron Man, undoubtedly one of the most iconic characters who, however, proves to be a PC cumbersome to drive and extremely imprecise combat system.
All features that certainly do not spoil a basic gaming experience that will give its best with continuous updates and that is it oriented towards genuinely pop and carefree entertainment, but in the end they turn up their noses and not even a little.
Marvel's Avengers is on paper a perfect cooperative game that brings together various strengths under its wing, starting with a successful brand to ending with a gameplay system that is mostly fun and suitable for players eager to spend entire sessions in the center of frenzied action. However, the final rendering of the game seems decidedly subdued, between a certain repetition of the missions in both single and multiplayer and obvious optimization problems that do not favor a certain memorable impact. Being a game as service it is likely that the various problems will be solved in the coming months, but the impression that Marvel's Avengers leaves is that of a title that has yet to grow and that perhaps could have said something more at the time of its release.
