Review in progress: Approaching ‘Avengers’ endgame, heroes’ skills stand out over loot

It’s not a spoiler to say Captain America returns in the story. But the circumstances of it was handled well, with the appropriate amount of pageantry, along with one surprisingly beautiful scene. It’s a credit to the game’s writers that an Avengers story can manage to make me think, “That’s a fun moment for Cap and Tony.”

Once the Avengers are reassembled, the feeling of accomplishment is undeniable, and that’s once again thanks to the story’s strong connection with Kamala Khan, and her satisfaction in seeing her dream of reuniting the band through to the end. And it’s a pretty great end. While the game so far hasn’t offered many amazing villain encounters, a penultimate combat sequence with a large vehicle is a spectacular replacement. It reminded me of the Scarab setpieces from the original “Halo” trilogy, a comparison I never expected to make about the “Avengers” game.

The campaign can take you anywhere from eight to 12 hours to complete, a pretty hefty offering considering how this game is marketed heavily as a multiplayer live service. There’s brewing discourse over whether the game was marketed well. Even watching Tuesday’s “War Game” update announcing Kate Bishop as an upcoming playable character, I found it hard to get excited over a game I’m already playing and enjoying. Some critics are now wondering why Kamala wasn’t centered more in the marketing, as the story entirely revolves around her. I agree, especially since her superhero alias Ms. Marvel is quite beloved, albeit not as iconic as the other characters. I’d also argue that makes the case for pushing her stronger, since there’s less baggage around her than the rest of the team, and she offers a new perspective to the Avengers story.

The promotional material also heavily focused on the “live service” aspect of the game, promising loads of things to do once the campaign is finished. Games like “The Division 2” and “Anthem” both also heavily promised post-launch support, as these games typically see turbulent launch news cycles by offering little to do. But this aspect of the game is also much harder to review, since it takes more time than any week of play can offer. “Marvel’s Avengers” is meant to be played for months, not a dozen hours. The assurances still matter, since this type of game still comes with a lot of baggage and expectations. But it also failed to communicate that this game is front-loaded with an excellent, true-to-character Avengers story. In another era, a 12-hour campaign with thrilling moments, compelling character arcs and even new surprises for old characters is well worth the price of admission alone. But this is a live service, and it’s also important to judge the game as such.

The ennui of the gameplay loop is starting to settle in to my brain, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For one, the combat system continues to surprise me in how engaging it is. First impressions of this game said the fighting system centered around “button mashing,” but I’m finding it to be more considered. I’m currently using a Level 40 Captain America as my main build. Certain combo finishers can knock enemies away, which might seem counter intuitive for a short-range boxer like Cap. But sharp control of the combat system makes these blows useful for crowd control. Leveling him up and unlocking his skill tree also gives me even greater controller of his long-range shield throw, which can also be used in combos. Suddenly, he’s pulling off those same crowd-pleasing, shield-kicking combos he used against Thanos in the “Endgame” movie.

My impressions of the loot grind are still incomplete, as I’ve only just begun to collect “legendary” class equipment. And it’s hard to say how character builds will fan out. My Captain America currently wears two gold “legendary” items. His “Adept Graviton Explosion Resonator” gives me three perks, including a “17.3 percent chance of defeating enemies in their weak point” which “grants a Willpower Burst.” He also sports an “Apex Blessing Protector” with a 19.8 percent chance of takedowns granting a Heroic Charge Burst for all Heroics. If that sentence put you to sleep, don’t worry, the perks aren’t all that exciting either. It’s hard to tell how this would change the way I would play Cap. The percentages of the perks are still too low for me to gauge, and hopefully I’ll start seeing improved statistics sooner rather than later. It’s early yet and it’s promising that legendary drops are happening early. I picked those two up from during the campaign, and random equipment continues to drop even from enemies.

The various mission types are starting to feel familiar too. Much of them are variations of defending certain areas from hordes of robots or pushing enough buttons while fighting hordes of robots. It’s repetitive, but that’s the nature of these games. And again, the combat keeps it feeling engaging. It just seems like so far, unlocking skills promises a more fun future than the loot I’m getting. That might be trouble if the game hopes to stay alive for longer than several months. But unlocking every hero’s skills will also take up time. Once I get at least one character to a high enough level (above 100), that’s when the real endgame begins.

Before the beta, I was starting to form the opinion that the “Avengers” video game should have been free to play. After about seven hours with the final product, I’m no longer convinced that’s the case. The game might be worth the full $60 cover charge.

How is that? After all, this game is going to charge $10 per battle pass for each downloadable character in the future, news that didn’t sit well with a lot of critics. And I was inclined to agree with them. The beta gave us the impression that it’d just be a cringeworthy, jerry-built narrative designed around multiplayer arenas, similar to older loot grind titles like “Warframe” or even “Diablo.”

Immediately, the final product makes a far stronger impression. From the beta, there was good potential in telling a story where teenager Kamala Khan plays audience surrogate, and kudos to Shana Bryant and the narrative team for living up to it. By portraying her anxieties and vulnerability, her personal stakes make it easy to invest in her character. It’s all in her earnest sincerity in wanting to do the right thing, and the escalating excitement as she tests the limits of her newfound powers and courage.

This is less an Avengers tale than it is Kamala Khan’s coming-of-age story, guest-starring the Avengers. Kamala’s story is a mash-up of previous up-and-coming young superhero stories like Spider-Man, complete with wise father figure. But the tale Crystal Dynamics tells here is a good reminder of why that formula works, and Kamala’s written with enough enthusiasm and cheer to sell it.

With her driving the narrative, the game avoids forcing the audience to re-acclimate to five new iterations of the iconic Avengers heroes. Instead, they’re familiar enough to anyone who’s even remotely aware of them. And the games missions and story bits don’t feel out of place in a big-budget, single-player story, which likely comes from the studio’s experience working on the “Tomb Raider” trilogy.

This is so far the greatest unique success of the “Avengers” game. “Live service” games like “Destiny,” “Fortnite” and “The Division” don’t have narrative so much as they have a premise. Forget character arcs, these games simply lay out the circumstances in which players are grinding and fighting for loot. “Call of Duty: Warzone” has an ongoing story, but it too is a loose one.

Not so with “Avengers,” which tries to marry a multiplayer-focused game with the “prestige” storytelling of Sony’s first-party efforts like “The Last of Us.” And it’s very nearly a resounding success. There’s confidence and ease in how the cutscenes weave in with the standard, brawler-based gameplay. There’s important context driving the gameplay.

For example, one of Iron Man’s earliest scenes finds him in the desert looking for parts to build a new suit of armor. This properly contextualizes billionaire Tony Stark having to scrounge around for parts, and it all ends with a playable sequence of him tearing through a canyon blasting AC/DC, a scene ripped right out of his movies. In a beta, this might seem like pandering, like it was trying too hard to mimic the film. In the context of the game, it’s a thrilling set piece.

The other Avengers also come off strong, all based loosely around their known archetypes. Thor is aloof and noble. Black Widow is unflappable and capable. Bruce Banner is a bit more neurotic than usual, but that comes after several years of trauma that kick off the game’s plot. Only Tony Stark comes off as trying a bit too hard, with just a few one-liner jokes too many. Voice actor Nolan North hews a bit too close to the Nathan Drake brand of delivery here, and it’s hard not to notice.

After eight hours, the core gameplay loop has solidified itself in the campaign and largely remains the same from the beta. It’s a solid foundation for brawlers, but far less complicated than the combat you’d find in more robust single-player stories like Batman’s “Arkham” games and the PlayStation 4 exclusive “Spider-Man.” If that didn’t excite you, the final game won’t.

But if you thought it was engaging enough, I’d say it gets a lot better once you unlock all the characters and their skills. I have most of Iron Man’s lasers and repulsor moves unlocked, and the combat feels varied enough to turn this game into the best Iron Man video game I’ve ever played. He can fly forever, a merciful departure from EA’s “Anthem” and its flying limits. The Hulk may be the game’s weakest link, at least for me, mostly because of an inability to get over how the Hulk could “five-hit combo” a single robot. But I know other players are enjoying playing him, which speaks more to suspension of disbelief.

It’s to the studio’s credit that all heroes still control differently enough to make playing each one feel like a new game altogether. This becomes more evident as you unlock more skills and play more of the campaign.

The loot grind has yet to really settle in, but so far navigating the inventory hasn’t been as fussy as I expected. Yes, the game has several different resource types for you to track and craft for upgrades. But they also flow freely enough where I’m not having to play “fake colorful money accountant” in my head every few minutes.

As far as technical concerns go, there were a few graphical bugs, and one moment where I was unable to progress the story. A simple restart made the proper story mission pop up. And the game runs well on the PlayStation 4, with little slowdown and no crashes.

So far, “Marvel’s Avengers” is shaping up to be well worth the cover charge. That’s a redemption arc I didn’t see coming.

Read more: