Marvel's next game

 

It's been a little sad watching the mainstream bigwigs of the entertainment industry dodge our platform like the plague- scared of some little things like 'not understanding the medium' and 'risking funding on a volatile investment'. I won't lie, those others tend to suck at making games. Disney, bless their black hearts, funnelled largely trash when they were publishing games- and Warner Bros. seems adamant on fighting the quality work of their world class studios to turn them into trash. Even Amazon, battling hard to win a piece of the MMO pie and investing practically everything they had to do so, only managed to pull off a decently successful title that stays alive but earns no relevancy currently. Google straight up couldn't even release a single game even after developing a whole unique console to potentially play the thing on. What I'm saying is- I know why Marvel is so standoffish.

Well, it's not just the reputation- I suppose. It might also be because as a whole the Marvel brand is undergoing something of an identity crisis right now, as the high quality story factory seems to have fallen into the passionless noise maker that legendary curmudgeon filmmakers were accusing it of being all this time. Every slip up by Marvel in these coming years will be like a dagger in the back of a dying Wyrm struggling to make itself stand up straight, and I don't want to see the Wyrm wiggle like that- it makes me feel bad. And I'm sure it makes Marvel feel worse. Given that they are the Wyrm in that scenario. Being stabbed would feel bad. I'd imagine. Haven't been stabbed. Currently. (Stepped on a upwards pin once though. Wasn't fun.)

Marvel going hog-wild supporting Square Enix's Avengers was a really big investment for them, and so it should be given it was hosting the company's biggest heroes in their first debut game. And Hawkeye. After Spider-Man it should have been a slam dunk! And it was. If one 'dunked' by launching themselves through the basket hoop and slamming face first onto the asphalt- which I've been told is actually not the way Basketball is played. (At least not if you're a coward.) Avengers was a dud and a low-scoring mess that sunk the companies chances of scoring big with their chosen player base- live service chuds. Of course, they still had the licenced Guardians of the Galaxy game with Square for the Single Player heads! And that was also a flop. Just a financial one, mind. Critically it was beloved- I'm playing through it slowly now and I think it rocks! But- well: my opinion doesn't sway investors. For some reason. (I have pretty cool opinions, guys; you should really listen to 'em.)

But that doesn't mean the big M is out for the count- oh no! Just like with their movie division which is handily skipping 2024 and leaving the playing field open for Ryan Reynolds and James Gunn- (Hmm? I'm hearing that Superman Legacy is a 2025 movie? Guess it's all for Ryan- go team!) Marvel was merely regrouping and making sure they come back with a bonafide hit. Whatever that looks like in this age where Marvel is a walking punchline. And rarely the funny kind. In terms of games- Marvel has turned to talent production company Skydance Media, of many hit movies, to make their next game. And if that sounds a bit iffy to you, Skydance were partners with Skybound (apparently that naming convention is a complete coincidence. Bet it still inspired the partnership though.) on 'Waking Dead: Saints and Sinners'- pretty much the best VR game you can play for under a grand. (Sorry 'Half Life: Alyx')

'Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra' might be an objectively terrible title for a video game (Which is why it's already been stylised as just 'Rise of Hydra') but it does represent a very unique endeavour in the Marvel gaming universe that so far has not been attempted. You see- every single game so far has launched itself off the strength of an existing brand, utilising the strength of already laid marketing efforts even within the Marvel motherbrand. Avengers, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy- all supremely successful movies that call to audiences naturally, on the otherhand a game designed to not at all evoke the MCU but still was under that Marvel logo, Midnight Suns- went undersold. (Which is a shame, the game was half decent.) Rise of Hydra might bring us Captain America and a previous Black Panther we haven't yet met- but who knows what that is going to feel like in action?

Which is why it is oh-so important for reveal trailers on such projects to be explicit about the kind of game we should be expecting. And from this trailer I can derive that this is going to be... a CGI movie? A really high-quality one, those models look incredible in motion, but... like there's going to be gameplay in the final product, right? We hear a lot of guff about CGI reveal trailers, but curiously I don't think this was that. (Besides, we already got a CGI teaser announcement years ago.) Judging from the spoken dialogue, the scene selection and the cutting- these appear to be cutscenes from the finished game but... unless I'm missing something there was an active choice not to give us any gameplay. And sure, I know this was the story trailer and all that- but marketing usually does the story trailer after people know what the game is on a basic level. This could be a turn-based tactical game with virtual novel relationship cut-ins for all we know- which is currently nothing. They forgot to show us all the things.

Scrambling to read through the lines of scant materials provided, I assume we're looking at an action adventure game here designed to be a high-quality cinematic experience to the visual quality of The Last of Us. I doubt we'll get that degree of survival gameplay, but I get the impression the team are trying to call upon that same sort of feeling we get playing a game like that the moment we hold the controller. I'm thinking heavily directed and largely linear levels with supreme visual storytelling focuses intercut by- well let's be honest, this is a Superhero game so... a Batman Arkham light style combat. They're all Batman Arkham light, afterall- it's just the done thing in Superheroing. Only Guardians of the Galaxy managed to bring their own sort of feel being a shooter with AI teammates- and I guess the card-based gameplay of Midnight Suns- but then what did you expect?

You see what I'm forced to do when you give us nothing to work with, Marvel? It's not like I can get all excited about the prospect of exploring the origins of Hydra and how deep into the Nazi-backed war criminals we're going to get- because the trailer seems more interested showing off the Cap vs Black Panther drama as though we don't already know they're going to resolve their differences and fight together by the end of the first arc. That's Shonen anime one-oh-one guys, come on!  Overall- I'm a bit annoyed that we're still in the dark, but quite impressed by the cutscene quality. These guys should be in the movies! Oh wait...