Marvel’s Avengers coming to Xbox, PS4, PC September 4
It’s been more than a year since the last Marvel movie, but there’s a new game coming to save us from this awful year that is 2020.
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If there has been a year we need superheroes, this one has been it – and we’re getting several of them at once in this latest game.
Marvel’s Avengers, co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix, is due out on September 4 for PC and Consoles.
I was fortunate enough to get into the closed pre-launch beta to try the game out for myself – and I liked what I played.
The game is an interesting combination of action/adventure title, loot-shooter and multiplayer experience, casting you as one of the titular superhero team.
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According to the official announcement: “Marvel’s Avengers is an ambitious game, starting with a global high-stakes race to reassemble and rebuild the Avengers. But that’s just the beginning. To ensure a continuing heroic experience for all players, the narrative of Marvel’s Avengers expands, and threats escalate with each new post-release Super Hero, region and story arc delivered to players at no additional cost once they own the core game.”
The heroes that were playable in the beta were Black Widow, Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Ms Marvel and Thor – all with different abilities and skills.
Iron Man, for example, can fly, while Ms Marvel can use her elasticised limbs to swing across chasms and turn her hands into large blunt weapons.
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Sony have confirmed Spider-Man (the hero of one of the most successful PlayStation 4 games of recent times) will be available post-launch exclusive to people playing Marvel’s Avengers on the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 system, too.
I saw the game at E3 last year and thought it looked interesting but didn’t have quite enough of a handle on what the game was to have my interest piqued, so I’m really glad to have been able to finally play and be impressed.
From a gameplay perspective in the beta, it was a great action game that worked really well – the hero’s abilities all worked as you’d expected – for example, being able to leap off walls and pound enemies into concrete as Hulk was particularly satisfying.
The game opens with a mission explaining how the current state of affairs (Avengers disbanded following terrorist attack that has spread gene-altering material, giving lots of people superpowers and causing all sorts of issues) unfolded and gives you the chance to try out the main heroes – I got strong God of War vibes from Thor and his throwing hammer.
It really was a cinematic experience, capturing the feel of a big-budget blockbuster film as I controlled different members of The Avengers.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Avengers disband and go to ground. But several years later, Dr Bruce Banner (the Hulk in human form) and young superhero Kamala “Ms Marvel” Khan team up to look for a missing Stark Industries bunker with remains of the Avengers AI in it, which leads to the first mission of the campaign – and is a great way to see how the different hero abilities work in a mission
While the beta worked very nicely as a single-player affair, one of the selling points for the full game is the ability to team up with your friends and cooperatively take on missions as your very own team of Avengers in “War Zone” missions – basically you and three other friends (or the AI, if everyone on your friends list is busy) get together and take on a range of missions which scale depending on the character level and team size.
From what I saw and played, the heroes will all level up as you play them, acquiring new items (such as bracers, outfits and other equipment) in a manner familiar to anyone who’s played loot-shooters such as Destiny 2 or The Division 2.
The developers have also confirmed that anyone who buys the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One and later upgrades to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X will get the enhanced version of the game on their new console for free (within the same ecosystem). They have also confirmed that players with the new generation console will have cross-play with previous generation console gamers, so if you have an Xbox Series X and your friends still have an Xbox One, you will still be able to play the game with them.
Player profiles and progression will also carry over to the upgraded console, and the developers have also confirmed players with the new generation console will have cross-play with previous generation console gamers, so if you have an Xbox Series X and your friends still have an Xbox One X, you will still be able to play the game with them.
While the full game is launching on September 4 on PC and console, there will be a beta session running from August 7-9 for PlayStation 4 owners who have pre-ordered the game, and it will be expanded from August 14-16 to all PlayStation 4 owners generally, as well as PC and Xbox One gamers who have pre-ordered the title, with a final open beta running from August 21-23 for PC and consoles.
While I’ve only had a taste of the full experience, I thought what I played had come together well so I’m certainly looking forward to assembling a group of mates for when the game launches next month.
Originally published as Marvel’s Avengers coming to Xbox, PS4, PC September 4