Marvel Rivals

When Netease Games announced Marvel Rivals, few people cheered with joy. Instead, many turned their backs and dismissed it mostly as a cheap Overwatch copy. The game fell into oblivion - at least until the closed beta that exceeded the developers' expectations in terms of player numbers. More people became curious after trying it out and realised that their scepticism about the game was completely unfounded. Now the completely free game has been released in its entirety and we have tried out this superhero shooter that beats the current main competitor Overwatch 2.

Blizzard's Overwatch had a magical glow about it when it was nearly a decade ago, offering something new that gamers around the world didn't realise they needed. Marvel Rivals is in many ways very similar to its competitor and perhaps lacks that magic that Overwatch brought and in terms of the characters and their abilities, they don't surprise me much, even if they are many and different. However, this does not mean that Marvel Rivals is not good. In fact, it is much better than Overwatch 2 and many gamers seem to have already realised that as the premiere was extremely successful.

Simply put, two teams of six players compete in Marvel Rivals and depending on the game mode, the concept may differ. For example, it may be a matter of transporting or stopping a convoy to its final destination or capturing a base. Here, one team must try to clear out the opposing team to either stop the attack or the defence. Those who don't want to compete in all seriousness can make do with Quick Play, while those who really want to push themselves and climb the ranks can do just that in Competitive Mode (unlocked at level 10). Whether you want to play to win or not, all maps and game modes are activated in both game modes. The Conquest game mode, which is simply Team Deathmatch, is also available where you compete to eliminate as many enemies as possible.

Three different classes are available to choose from in vanguard, duelist and strategist. The first of the three can be translated into tank and are thus the characters that can afford to attract the attention of the enemies as they can endure a lot of damage before falling. They can also be excellent choices for protecting their teammates, as some of them can provide their allies with temporary cover that opens up for a powerful strike. Duelists, on the other hand, can't take as much of a beating, but can inflict a lot of damage, so the primary goal as a duelist is to try to finish off the enemies. Either in close combat or at a distance. Last but not least, the strategist class acts as the team's support, trying to stay behind the rest of the team and assisting them with abilities that either make them stronger or heal them. The interaction between the classes is extremely important where a team really has to think tactically and analyse the battlefield to know which classes are needed at the time and how they should be best used.

The character gallery in Marvel Rivals is certainly not modest. A whopping 33 playable heroes and villains are available to choose from, eight of which are vanguards. These consist of Captain America, Doctor Strange, Groot, Hulk, Magneto, Peni Parker, Thor and Venom. The duelist class is undoubtedly the largest, consisting of 18 characters including Black Panther, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hela, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Magik, Moon Knight, Namor, Psylocke, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Squirrel Girl, Star-Lord, Storm, The Punisher, Winter Soldier and Wolverine. There are seven strategists to play as and they are Adam Warlock, Cloak & Dagger, Jeff the Land Shark, Loki, Luna Snow, Mantis and Rocket Raccoon. In other words, there are plenty of characters to choose from and of course, Netease Games will expand the list of playable heroes and villains over the life of the game.

Despite being spoiled with so many characters, none of them feel the same. While Adam Warlock can revive his fallen comrades, Jeff the Land Shark can swallow an entire opposing team and throw them off a cliff. All while healing their comrades in completely different ways. What is also a little extra quirky is that many of the characters can acquire special abilities when they team up with specific people. For example, Rocket Raccoon can jump onto Groot's shoulders, allowing them to take more damage, and Hulk can catapult Wolverine across the battlefield and dive down towards enemies. In addition to these two, thirteen other unique abilities can be activated when the right allies stand side by side.

What doesn't always feel quite right in Marvel Rivals, however, are the characters and their abilities. Their abilities can differ enormously from one another. In other words, Netease Games really needs to spend the future balancing the characters to create tighter, more even matches. Fortunately, only one person can play as each character which would have been a disaster otherwise. To explain a little better what I mean, you can compare Hawkeye to Black Widow who are both snipers.

With her scope, Black Widow can aim even more accurately which makes it much easier for her to shoot enemies in the centre of the frontal bone, unlike Hawkeye who can only shoot in third person which makes it much harder to hit. They certainly have different abilities beyond this with Hawkeye being able to parry shots and switch between explosive and regular arrows while Black Widow can sprint and then jump super high as well as switching to electric batons which are great for close combat. But when it comes to the choice of sniping, Widow is undoubtedly much better where Hawkeye doesn't stand a chance. Where Black Widow is reminiscent of Widow Maker from Overwatch, Hawkeye is reminiscent of Hanzo from the same game but since these characters are played from a first-person view, it is still easier to aim as Hanzo than it is as Hawkeye.

Having spent a lot of time with Marvel Studios in recent years, we've become accustomed to skyscrapers being demolished and environments being destroyed. On that point, nothing has changed in Marvel Rivals where players can destroy the infrastructure which radically changes the playing field and this can definitely be a strategy to capitalise on when enemies take cover behind it. The game plan is therefore never static but constantly changing which forces players to rethink in order to stand victorious and I love that.

What many of you are probably thinking about is how the game's free concept affects the game itself. Can you pay to get better and win more easily? The game certainly has things that can be bought for real money, but thankfully there is not a single thing to buy that has any impact on the battles themselves. In the in-game store, you can buy everything from costumes taken from both the comic books and the film universe, various video clips that are played when you are named the best player of the match or emotes. In addition, each season has a season pass that consists of things you can unlock for free, or you can buy a premium pass that gives you exclusive stuff to decorate your characters and profile with. Of course, you can think what you want about this, but at least one positive aspect is that when a season is over, you will still be able to unlock everything from a previous season. So you never have to worry about missing anything. Moreover, everything can be unlocked without spending a single cent, but of course it will take a very long time. The choice is simply yours, but luckily the setup never feels very greedy by Netease Games.

Graphically, Marvel Rivals is a really gorgeous game with exquisite character menus (albeit complicated), as well as the environments in the matches. The cel-shaded style suits the game perfectly and the fact that it runs at 120 frames per second and in 4K on the PlayStation 5 Pro hardly makes matters worse. The voice actors also do a solid job, with Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Spider-Man in Insomniac Games' game series, lending his voice to Spidey once again. Josh Keaton, who voiced Iron Man in last year's Marvel's Midnight Suns, also voices Iron Man here. To spice up the atmosphere and make the matches more enjoyable, the characters also comment on each other during the match. For example, Hawkeye and Black Widow can start talking about how something that is happening right now reminds them of their previous missions or that Venom reminds Spider-Man that their collaboration is only temporary, to which the hero gives a comical response.

Marvel Rivals was initially doomed but after having a brilliant premiere, it's clear that Netease Games know exactly what they're doing. There are definitely things to improve on but many of the things are small things that never get in the way of the overall experience which can only be described as really good. This could definitely be a game that will entertain us for many years to come and that we strongly believe will be built on properly and make it even more rich in content (which it already is).