When Marvel’s Avengers was first announced, it was difficult to discern what kind of game it sought to be. The trailers gave a vague look at the opening mission, but it was unclear what the world should expect from the game based on the largest movie franchise of all time.
Over the following year, developer Crystal Dynamics unveiled their vision for the game. Marvel’s Avengers was to be a long-term game as a service focused on multiplayer experiences and grinding for loot. Looter games are a tricky thing. On one hand, there’s the potential to keep bringing players back time and time again due to enticing new grinds, engaging activities, and deep, multi-chapter storytelling. The Destiny franchise from Bungie is an excellent example of this. Having just celebrated its sixth anniversary, Destiny stands as a prime example of the success that looter games can bring.
On the other hand, not every looter game clicks with the audience and can lead to catastrophe. This genre can be exceedingly expensive to make and challenging to get right, thus the risk is high. BioWare learned this lesson the hard way in 2019 with the devastatingly negative launch surrounding Anthem. While EA continues to fund the re-development of the IP, it’s unlikely Anthem will ever be looked at through an objective lens again.
As with the launch of every loot-based game in the last five years, the questions around where on the quality spectrum Marvel’s Avengers falls are everywhere. Though there are obvious nods to Destiny’s Power/Light system in Avengers’ gear, there is much more in the game that remains more comparable to Anthem than any other game in the genre. Here’s why Marvel’s Avengers is more like Anthem than it is the Destiny franchise.
Avengers Loot Increases Power But Not Style
The loot in Marvel’s Avengers can provide some interesting and powerful buffs to hero capabilities. Improving ability regen, providing status effects on hits, or granting healing upon certain actions are only some of the benefits provided by Marvel’s Avengers’ high-level gear. One thing that loot does not do, however, is change the way a player looks. Aesthetics are linked entirely to skins, also known as patterns, for every character. These skins in Marvel’s Avengers change nothing about gameplay except for the character model.
Anthem uses this same model in that many of its most powerful pieces of gear are completely invisible. While weapons technically fall under this category as well, and can be seen during gameplay, this argument is focused mainly on armor since the Avengers don’t carry lootable weapons.
In Destiny, loot and cosmetics are treated as one category instead of two. Some items can only be earned as loot from pinnacle activities, thus players can show off their accolades through how they decorate their character. In addition to this, if a Guardian finds loot that they enjoy, but don’t like the look, they can transmogrify individual pieces of gear using Ornaments which also act as loot.
All of these games have cosmetics that can be brought through a store, but how Marvel’s Avengers treats their skins as a completely different set of items compared to the invisible loot is much more akin to Anthem than Destiny.
Avengers’ Gameplay is Unique, Fun, But Also Fractured
When Anthem launched, it came with the promise of feeling like a superhero: Fly around in the rocket-powered Iron Man simulator Javelin suit, unleashing powers like never before. Unfortunately, when players entered the BioWare’s new open-world, they found this to only be half-true. While the feelings of flight and powerful abilities were present, players were also met with a constant barrage of jarring hindrances to their power fantasy.
Once in the air, Javelins could only stay afloat for a short time before “overheating” their engines. If the suits glided too close to a wall while flying, they’d harshly crash to the ground with no method of recovery. On top of this, many enemies that players fought against had the ability to control or even remove these things that made Anthem so great. The game was actively taking its own fun away. On purpose!
After completing the first few chapters of the campaign, new enemies are introduced into Marvel’s Avengers that inspire these same feelings. The game is supposed to simulate the best feelings of being an inhuman or super being. The fantasy is quickly stripped away, however, when enemies can actively remove the hero’s ability to run, jump, or use any abilities whatsoever.
In addition, Marvel’s Avengers is currently tuned in such a way that many enemies at once can stagger a hero, leading to instances of excruciating stun-lock in a game focused on power and mobility. Loot that increases damage output and ability regeneration do little in the face of a complete silence of everything that makes players feel like an Avenger.
Like Anthem, Avengers Struggles With Variety
One of the main complaints from players that wanted to enjoy Anthem long-term was that there were simply too few novel experiences once the main campaign was complete. The endgame was almost entirely focused on replaying story missions and strongholds at increasing levels of difficulty. In addition to this, the objectives almost always followed one of 4-5 profiles. Players were constantly tasked with either standing in a circle, retrieving items nearby, or killing X number of enemies. This seems to be the same hole that Marvel’s Avengers is falling into moving into the endgame loot grind.
Conversely, the Destiny franchise is currently considered too wide. There are too many different things to do, too many different sources of loot, and too many tasks to complete for new players to get their bearings. This is where Destiny has always excelled/struggled. The main campaign remains the launching point for heading into a wide array of other content. Once the main narrative is complete, it’s actually difficult for Guardians to find their way back to those setpieces.
Avengers needs to look to Destiny in this respect. Start considering how to use assets, enemies, and locations in ways that are different than what players might expect. Marvel’s Avengers is undoubtedly not ready for any degree of PvP which Destiny fans tend to enjoy, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t endless possibilities.
Sharing Respects With Anthem Doesn’t Seal Avengers’ Fate
Creating content that is repeatable, meant to be completed with teammates, and rewards players accordingly is the key to long-term success. Funneling players into the same missions where they do the same 4-5 tasks day after day will achieve similar results to games like Anthem that have depended on such strategies in the past.
One thing to keep in mind is that just because Marvel’s Avengers is currently more Anthem than Destiny, doesn’t mean players should expect the same results that BioWare experienced in 2019. The Avengers name carries fundamentally more weight, thus fans are likely to stick to this franchise longer. The game also had one of the most successful betas ever experienced. Compare this to the very rough beta players experienced for Anthem and it’s easy to see why players are more excited now than they were then.
The key now is how Crystal Dynamics focuses their attention moving forward. Do they double down on the cosmetics and small gameplay loops that have taken such a strong foothold already? Or do they understand that the audience that plays the game 3-6 months from now is a philosophically different group than those that are playing today?
Hopefully, players can look back at launch and see it as the worst the game ever was, not the best. Anthem was not the horrible game its legacy might suggest. Unfortunately, it just never had the agility to make the larger changes that players needed to stick around long-term. With lots of new content, heroes, and more on the way, Marvel’s Avengers is already looking far better off than Anthem ever did, and that is a very good thing.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC.
