To celebrate Spider Man being back in the MCU (I can hardly believe it!) I have decided to take another, more in depth, look at Square's Avengers now that we have some actual gameplay to look at. Previously I have been somewhat lukewarm to the title, perhaps parroting the general consensus, but I feel that there have been enough new developments for this title to warrant an evaluation upon my original opinion. (Whether that will change said-opinion remains to be seen.) FYI, I will be assessing footage from the almost 19 minute gameplay video that was released on the PlayStation Europe YouTube channel, so if you want to see the footage for yourself I suggest that you head there.
Just to recap, this is the project that Square Enix have been teasing for years now. Everytime people find themselves wondering why Marvel seems content on just dominating Hollywood and haven't tried their hand at the most profitable entertainment medium in the world, they've just pointed at Square and said "We're working on it, anyday now!" And Square have been throwing every resource they have at the project it seems. "What's that? 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' underperformed critically and commercially? Not to worry, Crystal Dynamics, we'll just roll you into the Avengers team! Huh? People didn't like the narratively stunted 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' and the way it neutered itself in order to setup a trilogy? Well, screw the 'Deus Ex' fans then, Eidos, we'll put that entire franchise on hiatus whilst we bring you on board with Avengers." (Maybe I'm projecting a little on that last one.)
With all the blood, sweat and tears that Square seemed to be pouring into this project, likely with the intention of creating something as applauded as the movies, you'd have thought that they'd be proud to show off everything at E3 this year. Instead we got a joke of a conference that was so pitiable and pointless that it ended inspiring all types of new concerns with it's vagueness. They'll be adding Antman for free after launch? What does that mean? He'll be added into what? How much are you thinking of charging for other heroes then? Is this a MOBA? Is this a live service? Will you stick heroes in Lootboxes? Where the heck is Hawkeye?
For months rumors and speculation ran abound about this game, as well as general complaints over the design of the heroes themselves. Square seemed to be going a different path from just copying the likenesses of the actors from the MCU (Despite this game piggybacking off the popularity of the MCU in every possible fashion.) and instead designed their Avengers to look like a bunch of creeps in fancy dress. (And why is Iron man's head so small!) Even to this day the public are still trying to shake the remnants of deja vu as the look at unfamiliar people and voices dressed in familiar attire and think: "I've just been in this place before!"
Fast forward to... 9 days ago? (Wow, Square really did a poor marketing this gameplay. I only found it two days ago by accident.) Finally the good folks over at Square Enix have deemed the general public worthy of looking upon the gameplay that made journalists all over the world go "Huh, this could be cool I guess." They released the footage to practically no fanfare and consequently the video I'm pulling my screens from has sub 500,000 views. (For an Avengers game? That's not a good sign.) Given all that has happened in the gaming world over the past two years, I can't be the only one wondering if this is pig-headed incompetence or plain subterfuge. Does Square have something to hide about this game? So far, I'd have to err towards caution, something about this game reeks of microtransactions and I just can't put my finger on what yet. We'll have to wait until May to see if this whole thing falls apart like I'm most certaintly sure that it will. But enough worrying about what might be, we have gameplay to look through.
This gameplay take place in the prologue section and is supposed to set the stage for the rest of the game. For those that have forgotten, and I can't blame you there, this Avengers game takers place years after a terrible tragedy that the Avengers failed to prevent. Somehow the Avengers got blamed for it, which is the kind of stupid nonsense that only happens in comics and movies, and now they must work together to weed out the real culprits and Avenge their fallen comrade; Captain America. (Who I'm sure is really definitely dead. That's why Square took time animating an entire fighting style and move set for him. So that he could die in the prologue and never be played again. Sure, I'll believe that...) This prologue should establish exactly what happened on that day so that we can see the terrible events for ourselves.
Despite that, these 18 minutes do feel a bit more like a stunt show than a story driven segment. The focus of the game appears to be around following each individual hero rather than painting the picture for the rest of the game. Therefore I will follow Square's example and go through the heroes one by one and explain what I think of how each one has been realized. Again, this is just what I can see from the provided footage, no one has played the thing yet so this is all we have to work with. Keep that ever present in your forethought.
First off we start with Thor. He appears to have been designed off a mix between Chris Hemsworth's Endgame look and a more traditional comic book interpretation; the result is a design that doesn't look entirely finished, but that seems to be running theme for this entire game so I'll just mention it now and move on. From a gameplay perspective, the combat seems to resemble something similar to traditional action adventure beat-em ups or, more specifically, Devil May Cry; with players fighting enemies in a small play space before being allowed to move forward. Square have gone out of their way to make that space feel less restrictive, however, by allowing Thor to use his flying abilities as well as having bodies fly out of the play zone. (Back in the early days of Action adventure they would just hit the invisible borders of the zone.)
Unsurprisingly, Thor fights with a combination of electricity and his Dwarf-star hammer, which he can use to knock people around the map for miles. Every strike of Mjölnir comes with a satisfying crackle of lighting that really sells the whole effect, and Thor's ability to juggle his opponents mid-air promises for some Dante-level combo streaks. I also noticed that Thor seems able to free-throw Mjölnir in whatever direction he wishes, resulting in the cool effect in the footage wherein he pins one man to the underside of an overturned truck whilst tussling with the others with his god-like tree trunk arms. (It would seem that Thor is still capable of knocking people an unrealistic distance back without his hammer.)
We really get a solid look at his powers once Iron Man joins into the fray. (Hi Nolan North. I can instantly identify your voice now.) Thor seems capable of drawing upon the heavens to fuel his lighting powers, much X-men's Storm, and use that to pull of some impressive looking moves. The highlight undoubtedly being the part in which he summons mini whirlwinds under each of his opponents (Okay now he is defiantly ripping off Storm.) and strikes them with enough electricity to light the southern hemisphere. (Yeah, those guys are dead.)
Next up perspective switches to the view of Tiny-Head, I mean Iron Man. This scene starts with the one thing that I was dreading the moment I saw that an Avengers game was being made; an on-the-rails shooting section. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against on-the-rails... in Star Fox; anywhere else and it is almost always just an excuse to be unforgivably lazy. In this instance, it doesn't look exciting or challenging in the slightest, it's the video-game equivalent of a CGI fest, a flurry of mildly impressive visuals that have no actual bearing on the player/viewer. As Iron Man, you are flying through all the impressive explosions instead of causing them. (God, I actually hate on-the-rails with a passion.) To be fair to Square here, the section doesn't appear to be long in this footage, but I worry about what we might get in later levels now that this precedent has been set.
Once we actually get control of Iron Man, things start to open up a lot more from a gameplay perspective. Firstly, flying. I think everyone is excited to fly around and shoot lasers to our heart's content. Secondly, the environment appears to be destructible. We got a hint of this when Thor was knocking enemies into trucks, but we actually get to see Iron Man blow up a truck with his chest-mounted Uni-beam. (Although, surely that counts as wanton destruction of public property. Just throwing that out there.)
Iron Man's gameplay seems to feel more like a third person shooter than Thor's beat-em up style. We see Tony trading Repulsor blasts with gun toting badguys and turrets, and I can't help by conjure up memories of the Iron Man tie-in game from the last generation. (Let's hope this game is leagues better than that abomination upon mankind.) I will say that my initial reaction is that this gameplay does look more exciting then that-game-which-must-not-be-named, but I still think that Iron Man looks to be the least versatile hero out of the offering in this footage.
Now we have the chance to play as everyone's favourite wrecking ball; Hulk, as he rampages his way across Golden Gate Bridge in a manner that appears more harmful than helpful. (But I guess that's the Avenger's whole MO in this game.) I will admit, this is the character who aggrieves me the most aesthetically. (And I'm not just talking about the way that he dons Mark Ruffalo's purple shirt for some reason, or the way that his Hulk incarnation appears to be identical to the movies just with a slightly lower nose. Oh, and no facial stubble.) My issue is with the conflict of styles we see as Hulk fights. From the outside, this incarnation is built to be realistic; he moves with his bulk, carries weight in steps and is even coloured a more muted hue of green than in the comics (more akin to his depiction in the movies.) and yet, when he punches the enemy there is this inexplicably cartoony green flash every time. It seems like Square have no idea what direction they wanted to take this character and it ended up being a bit of an onscreen mess. (Wait, I said I wouldn't focus on this. Back to the gameplay.)
Unstoppable power is the name of the game when it comes to Troy Baker's Hulk, (Yup, heard you too.) and it is very evident in his playstyle. A lot of Hulks powers seem to revolve around sending enemies flying or picking them up and using them to batter someone else. The whole scene reminds me of a more dynamic version of 'Hulk: Ultimate Destruction', only that game had more environmental interaction whilst we have yet to see how that aspect is handled in Avengers. That being said, it's still pretty cool to watch Hulk slam two enemies into each other with inhuman strength or use his powerful clap shockwave from the comics. (It may have been in a movie at some point, I can't remember.)
What follows is a... on-the-rails running section, are you kidding me? Okay, in this instance it is more of a run-as-things-fall-apart-around-you section, which is more akin to the gameplay found in the modern Tomb Raider games. (I found Crystal Dynamics's contribution!) We see a whole lot of jumping and wall running, as well as launching off of curiously red ramps that tickle the edge of my immersion sphere. It looks a little fun, however this running bit does drag on if I'm being honest. Scenes like this, if we compare it to Tomb Raider or that Namakli level from 'Mass Effect 3: Leviathan', are usually only 30 to 40 seconds long, because the developers know that this kind of gameplay can get old fast. Here it lasts for almost two minutes, and you start to feel every second of it towards the end. Perhaps I'm being a little nit picky here, but I did find this section to be boarding on becoming boring.
The gameplay then puts us in the shoes of the man who looks like he spent the least amount of time in the character design lab, Captain America. (At least his gameplay looks pretty cool.) Square Enix seemed to know exactly what fans wanted out of playing as Steve Rogers, the ability to throw that shield around like a pin ball. We see Cap free throw his shield and watch is bounce of of people like a boomerang, and one moment wherein he charges his throw to have it clear the room before coming back to him. I will say that it appears that his shield is magnetized to Cap, rather than the natural trajectory of his throws working the shield around to him, but I understand that the change helps things remain somewhat believable, so I won't complain about this too much.
The rest of the melee fighting really did appeal to be in this scene, It seemed to be the same sort of 'action/response' fighting that was popularized in the Arkham games. Whilst we don't actually see Cap pull off any slick counters, each enemy does have a helpful marker above their head when they're about to swing so I think it's safe to assume that we'll be countering up a storm in the final product. Overall, I think that Steve has my favourite fighting style out of all the Avengers in this footage, as he is the only one who I feel like I could play for hours on end without getting bored, my close second favourite just happens to be up next.
After plowing through hundreds of nameless bad guys their leader steps out of a van, and it's... some dude in a mask. Am I supposed to know who that is? Oh, Taskmaster! (Thanks, Laura Bailey! I get it, 'All star cast' or whatever.) Black Widow's section consists of a multi-tiered boss battle with all the grandiose and pomp that one would expect from an Avengers property and I have to say, it's looked good. Yes, there was a little section of gliding around all the carnage, but it was short and sweet and just a cool; interim rather than the whole fight. We get to see Natasha use her iconic twin pistols (Does she even use those in the films? I honestly don't remember.) as well as her action-movie luck to battle all across the Golden Gate Bridge in spectacular fashion.
The action reminds me of the Firefly fight from Arkham Origins, which was my second favourite boss battle in that game. (Nothing beats the Deathstroke fight.) There is an impressive amount of changing things up in terms of fighting grounds before you even start the main fight, and even then things don't get too samey. We get to see a lot of Widow maker's agility as she switches between using her guns and batons, as well as some diversity in Taskmaster's fighting style as he mimicks the abilities of the other heroes. If you can get around the teeth-grindingly awful dialogue, this actually looks like a decent boss fight.
After we finally got a chance to look at Gameplay, I can understand the general feeling of "It's 'aight", from the gaming media. Avengers doesn't look like anything revolutionary that will knock your socks off, but that isn't what anyone was asking for. We just wanted a fun Marvel adventure that invoked the same one-to-one feeling between the player and the hero as the Arkham games did. (So it's good to see that Square seem to be borrowing some ideas from Rocksteady, there.) I will say that the dialogue didn't particularly seem snappy, despite the considerable voice talent behind the game, but I can overlook that as long as the game itself is fun and responsive.
The problem is, yet again, not what we've seen about the game but more what we haven't seen. Everything from this prologue has been a highly curated and linear gameplay chunk that is designed to highlight the strengths of each heroes design, however, we have reason to believe that some later levels will be interchangeable between heroes, so is this footage even remotely representative of the wider game? Even with this info blowout, and the plethora of interviews that the team has been conducting, there is still a crazy amount of mystery surrounding the core structure of this game and it doesn't leave people intrigued, it leaves them worried.
From face value, most of what I have seen from this footage alone looks promising. Captain America and Black Widow seem to be the most fun to play as, but the rest appearing to have some admirable quirks. I find myself worried as to how much lasting power this game might have, as well as to the strength of the storytelling. (If you can't even manage witty back and forth in the opening, how am I supposed to trust you to tell a compelling narrative?) There is a lot of time between now and release so maybe there is still time to clean up some of the rough edges, (get rid of the green tinge to Hulk's punches, for the love of god.) but I've seen enough demos to know that what you see is usually what you get with games like these.
As you can likely deduce, I'm of two minds when it comes to this game. There are parts that intrigue and others that bore me, the key is figuring out which way the majority of the experience will lean. I suppose for the most part I'm just eager for this game to be over and done with so that Eidos can get back to working on Deus Ex. Which is certainly not what I should be feeling in regards to the very first Avengers game. The biggest issue, for me at least, is the fact that Square seems to have taken considerable steps to ensure that this game is not linked with the movies. Why? It's a multi billion dollar franchise with world wide recognition who's success is propping up your entire venture, why try to distance yourself from that? It makes it hard for me to care about the game and I think that translates to the audience too. Why do you think that Sony and Marvel got back together with Spider Man? Because people don't care about solo adventures anymore and they want their superheroes to be part of a wider universe. I realize that I'm comparing a video game to a movie here, and the situation isn't exactly one-to-one, but I still feel there are lessons to be learned from that scenario that Square don't want to see. We likely won't hear anything more on this game until next E3, so we'll discover how things will play out between now and then.That's when we'll see if Square have something up their sleeves that'll really sell this game to the masses. (I won't hold my breath.)
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