Multiversus is released?

 

Some time ago there was a new entrant to that rare space of the video game online sphere- the Smash Bros alikes- to use a reductive label- The Warner Bros. Multiversus. Piggybacking off the inevitable success of Space Jam 2, this was a game that smashed as many licences as the team could get their hands on together into a fighting game smorgasbord of personalities and sass. It was a simple idea on the face made impressive by the level of detail needed to make stock-based fighting games feel right. Game feel is so important with fighting games and I have to say, Multiversus gave Smash Bros a run for it's money some times! Although that may just be because I was playing Multiversus with an actual controller, whereas for Smash Bros I'm forced to use the godawful Switch nunchakus that are terrible. Either way, I had a lot of hope for the title.

I mean sure, there's something undeniably corporate-driven about a game that chucks Aria Stark, Lebron James and Velma onto the same screen in a desperate bid for cross promotion- but honestly the crossover multiverse ideal actually gelled a lot better in games than it did for the movie. It almost feels natural to want to sneak all these brands together in a casual party game setting, instead of cramming them into the running length of a supposed narrative to score 'Oh look!' points. And honestly, with all the quality of life features the game offered, it really did feel like the team were taking a serious leap at keeping the game as player friendly as possible. As long as corporate greed remains only in the casting- that effects me so very little I can't even consider it an entity.

And then the game went quiet. After a few updates and releases of new characters and bug fixes, Multiversus just stopped being updated and eventually the community started to drift away. Smash Bros. may be able to get away with months of silence but that was an established franchise with an entry fee that people are invested with- Multiversus still had to prove itself to keep players around and it was largely failing too. Thus the begrudging drying up of matches and eventually the game just sort of unceremoniously stopped being open to play. "Well, that's it." I thought. "Another font of potential drained in a mad spurt of throwing everything out up front and leaving nothing to drip feed over the coming months. A live service journey underestimated once again." And now I'm being told that I'm completely off base with that thought and the original Multiversus was a beta?

Yeah, that wasn't the release of the game at all but a very early access version of the game, presumably to gauge interest, which was why no real updates schedule was committed to? Did anyone know that going into the supposed 'Beta'? Weren't they actually accepting store purchases during that Beta? (I can't quite recall but I vaguely recall a store.) And the game had absolutely no set boundaries of a beta-play period... I'm starting to think the team is lying to save face and this is actually a total relaunch. Afterall, the original game was pretty feature complete on a basic level, it was just lacking in content to use all those features on. This extended year of silence has flown by with barely any anticipation besides some odd rumours of a Multiversus 2 being on the horizon, because that's how it was always discussed online. Mighty suspicious if you ask me...

But strike my misgivings from the record and rejoice- Multiversus is here and done! Or so it would seem at first glance. Now we have a full release of the game with many more characters to toy around with, one of which being a Mark Hamill voiced Joker because this game has been on the back burner for so long that some of these characters were voiced back when Kevin Conroy was still alive! (Which is sad, but a nice reminder of the legacy of a legend- I suppose.) God knows why some of these characters were chosen, however. Banana Guard from Adventure Time? (My Beloved?) Gizmo from Gremlins? The most hench looking Jason I've ever seen in my life? Oh, and the kept Reindog. Of course. (Also, I am astounded that their Velma still doesn't have a Mindy Kaling variant skin- what's the matter, HBO? I thought you stood behind the series!)

Oh, what's that? Multiversus drama? The game is apparently less feature complete after all this time than when it released as a beta? There's that cooperate meddling I was expecting! You sure kept me waiting! Yes, there are quite the grumblings from folks online who claim that several steps were taken backwards in making Multiversus pop, perhaps because the 'beta' was so well received that the team released they didn't need to sacrifice so much in order to generate goodwill with their fans anymore. For example- why allow players to play offline when that doesn't directly assist their active player numbers? No more offline play! Why let players try out any not-unlocked character in training and run the risk of them not liking how a character plays and not grinding for/ outright buying them? No more free training trails! And now there are no end of match stats and leader boards because... actually that one makes no sense to me, is that just an oversight?

What strikes me is the way that Mutliversus, like many other modern online games, seems to have pitted itself so directly against solo play in the most perplexing way. As though stopping players who don't hop on with a large group of friends is the same as driving away an undesirable element from your neighbourhood. The entire competitive multiplayer genre is undertaking vast cultural gentrification and I can't stand it! No offline play, no player versus AI, no trial characters, no co-op - they've even taken away Battlepass progression through basic matches in order to force you to play their challenges so they direct the way you play- including one particularly insidious challenge that asks you to go into combat with someone else which, lacking co-op, means you have to convince someone else to install Multiversus to play at the same time as you. Crafty.

It is perplexing that Multiversus has taken such an aggressive stance with their playerbase, (and ironic for a developer called 'Player First Games') and a testament to the confidence of Warner Bros. that they think such a stance will pan out for them in the long run. To be fair, the game launched exceedingly strongly, hitting just over a hundred thousand at drop and regularly seeing 10's of thousands as the day's wax and wane. We'll see how many stick around as the problems start to compound and Multiversus agonisingly relearns the lessons that every other game in these genre's have already learnt on their behalf. Such as not lacking Battlepass progression to challenges, not blocking offline play- you know, the absolute bare basics! I hope they get it together before people just leave for the second time. 

Multiversus: That thing we all already knew about is real

 I am the night

What do you call a leak when it deposits so much about a project that we know it's name, it's weight, what it looks like, how it wants to present itself and even a greater list of it's participants than their initial reveal wants to put out? Well I think at that point we're looking more at a flood than a leak, but thus is the circumstance we face when considering Multiversus, Warner Bros. latest eye-rolling attempt to shove all of it's disparate properties into one almighty super project as though they've got themselves their own cinematic universe on their hands. Space Jam 2 was the first attempt to this end, and it earned a recoil in disgust at how ham-fisted and ungraceful the whole thing was, but then Space Jam 1 could also be fitted with those attributors, so no one was too taken aback. But a whole video game? Well that's something else entirely, and it leads to strange questions such as: how the heck will this all work together? How are they going to artistically envision this and- are they really going to make Ultra Instinct Shaggy a real thing more than a year after the meme petered out? Well wonder no more.

I genuinely wasn't expecting to see Multiversus revealed so soon, but in hindsight I suppose none of the leakers really specified how far along any of their materials were so I really should have been waiting with a Google alert out for the past few weeks. Then again, this was dropped randomly in the middle of November, and that's just a weird looking time to throw down games for anyone, but I guess with this new idea in their stable: weird is what Warner Bros. are going for. Yes, with the prolonged break that Super Smash Bros has decided to go on, it only makes sense that the void needs to be filled with something just as... explosive. Who could have figured that so many were rubbing their hands, eager for the moment the king put down their crown, so that they could seize the prize? And you know what? I don't mind it so much. I mean, it's better than everyone jumping aboard the 'battle royale' train. (Are you still on that, Battlefield? Give it up, please!)

My first biggest question has been sated right off the bat, and it's one I have only because I didn't go seeking out those leaked screenshots during the early reveal process. I just wanted to know how all these characters would be bought into the same artistic space, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they chose a cartoon-aesthetic close to the human proportions of modern Scooby-Doo and matched everyone else to that standard. Makes sense, although I would have been really excited for a game like this which smashed totally distinct and wild art styles together to highlight the diversity of the cast being gathered. Or heck, they could have done an old school Mortal Kombat stop frame live action set-up. (Nah, they never would have gone for anything as cool as that, unfortunately.) And as much as I hate to say it, given my icy perception of this entire project from the start, it actually doesn't look that bad. Both in artistic direction and in action, this thing is really eye popping.

Right away I think the people involved knew how to reveal a game like this in a satisfying manner, recognizing that this is the sort of title that fans are familiar with, and how a basic CGI fest wasn't going to swoon anyone from that crowd, they instead opted for a spoken walkthrough with lofty promises, but a least a bit of humanity to it. This also allowed the team to hone in on, off the bat, how this is a game catering towards cooperative play, which other fighters of this type have always had, but none have ever lauded this aspect as a key 'focus'. Already we're seeing how characters like Steven Universe are being fitted with abilities exclusively catered for team play, and (god how are these words coming out of my mouth) that sort of design decision is a major step towards distinguishing this game from it's competitors. They also mentioned how they wouldn't just be throwing solo play to the side (that's me) but I think it's pretty obvious where priorities will lie, and that makes it quite interesting to consider questions like; how will a cooperative infrastructure change the face of E-sports in this genre? (Rather considerably, I would think.)

Now of course this wasn't the first game to jump into the void left vacant by the departure of Smash, there was the Nickelodeon game that did the rounds and satisfied people to a degree, but that game has one huge downside that most people voiced, or rather didn't; the voices. All of these iconic characters had been bought to life in gameplay, but not in voice, which is insane when considering that these were voice actors who defined many of our childhoods, why not get their talents in on the action? Seems Warner Bros had the same thoughts, because Multiversus features a wide array of original voice talent including Kevin Conroy as Batman (I love Anson Mount, but Kevin is the original) and Tara Strong as Harley Quinn. (After watching The Suicide Squad, it's refreshing to hear that accent not feel so forced) Some may call this a small step, but it lends a legitimacy to the project, with just the names attached alone, so that this doesn't feel like the licence holders running rampant with their power but a genuine collaboration across their franchises. My god, I'm batting for a Warner Bros. video game; how did this happen?

But a multiverse is only as good as how multi it is, and for the characters we've had shown off to us so far... well I am already a bit disappointed. We haven't seen anyone truly wild or out there that makes us start to question our lucidity. There's Batman, as mentioned before via Kevin Conroy, Superman and Wonder Woman, who's voice actors are a mystery, Tara Strong's Harley Quinn, Garnet and Steven from Steven universe, Finn and Jake from Adventure time, Tom and Jerry (that's actually pretty cool, I like them getting in on the action) Bugs Bunny, Ayra Stark with a sword that looks a lot thicker than Needle should be, Reindog (wait, what the hell is Reindog? No seriously, what the hell is that thing?) and, of course, Ultra Instinct Shaggy. (Why won't your memes die!) You know, actually laying them all out like that makes the line-up seem wilder than I suggested, but I still stand by my assertion that Mutliversus is still missing it's big hitters. Where's Gandalf, Rick and Morty and the Pennywise? We need Pennywise! They could throw in character's from Shadow of Mordor, deep cuts DC picks like John Constantine or, and I love this idea, they could resurrect Terl from 'Battlefield Earth'! (I'm sure you could call up John Travolta to drop a few lines, what else has he really got going on these days, huh?)

Smashing all these names together into a Smash-type fighter is going to be very interesting, especially when it comes to grounding moves in actions that character's have displayed in their various pieces of media. (Terl could have a 'chew scenery' down-special, it would be so good!) Although it does seem a little, how do we say, hypocritical for a Warner Bros. backed game to be jumping on someone else's archetype for the fighting game genre. I mean, for any other game's company in the world this is a normal part of the creative process, but let's not forget how Warner Bros. are the guys who jealously copyrighted the innovative Nemesis system from 'Shadow of Mordor' in order to cut off the rest of the industry from one of the most interesting modern mechanics to be introduced to this long0stale gaming genre. Where exactly would you be with Multiversus had Nintendo done the same with their stock-based fighting concept all those years ago? Seems like a little bit of 'rules for thee are not for me', doesn't it?

There's no doubting that I was against this very concept from the getgo. There's something inherently icky about these crossover concepts that so quickly turns corporate and sterile once the dollar signs start to glaze over management. But I can't help myself and admit when my prejudices have been beaten, and for Multiversus that is exactly the case, they managed to worm into my cold heart and impress me, I like it. Of course, this is based on an initial look for everything and there's a huge chance that their promises 'best in class' infrastructure falls apart or the flow of the combat just doesn't feel right, but for the initial hurdle of a reveal, the team have crossed it admirably. The only hanging noose still clouding this project is the business model, free-to-play almost always means something dour is going to fall over this game in terms of monetisation and we just have to hold our noses and try to endure it. Hopefully it's only going to be just cosmetics. Hopefully.