Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Features

I’m sorry in advance to all my future Marvel Rivals teammates

By
A lot of heroes fight in Marvel Rivals
Netease
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

I have one memory from my Overwatch days that still haunts me to this day. A friend who played the game religiously invited me to play with his competitive crew one day. I’d only played the game casually at that point, but I thought I could hold my own. I loaded into a round and picked Bastion, only to be totally crushed by the other team, who were clearly at a higher skill level than me. When the end score screen came up, one of my friend’s crew members passive aggressively scoffed at my low damage output. It was that moment where I realized I simply would never be able to hang with the top players.

That feeling came back to me during my very first round of Marvel Rivals at this year’s Summer Game Fest. NetEase’s impressive superhero shooter seems like a rich multiplayer game full of diverse strategies that’ll make it a blast to watch and play. But as someone who mostly jumps into games like Overwatch casually, I already feel like I’m out of my league. I’m sorry in advance to all my future teammates.

Recommended Videos

Marvel Rivals has a concise elevator pitch: it’s Overwatch with Marvel heroes. And I don’t mean that it’s Overwatch-inspired, but doing its own thing. Everything from its game modes to its UI and in-game announcer feels like its peeking over at Blizzard’s notes. I can understand why; Overwatch is an iron-tight concept that simply struggles with consistency. Marvel Rivals is in a much better position to deliver that thanks to NetEase’s expertise and tons of Marvel characters who are begging to be turned into superheroes.

Rocket rides on Groot's back in Marvel Rivals.
NetEase

On its surface, that’s a winning combination. Every character I played during my few matches felt entirely distinct from one another. Magneto can use his powers to call up a shield, while Spider-Man can swing off of buildings and pummel enemies up close. Those playstyles are wildly different, but they all mesh in the hero shooter formula. There’s immediate fun in loading up a beloved character and seeing how NetEase was able to bring them to life.

I’d be lying if I said I grasped the complexities of gameplay in one sitting, though. In its early state, Marvel Rivals can feel incredibly overwhelming compared to its peers. The diversity of hero powers can make it difficult to jump into a game and understand what exactly is happening. That’s made a little tougher by the fact that heroes are constantly quipping during matches. The gameplay systems can feel confusing at first. Healing is so frequent, for instance, that sometimes I felt like I’d shoot enemies and they’d immediately regain all their health in a split second.

All of that made for a frustrating first two matches. That started with me selecting Hela, but having trouble understanding the best way to inflict damage with her. After going 0-7 on kills, I switched to Spider-Man. His playstyle felt clearer at a glance, as I could swing around and sneak attack enemies, but that came with a similar learning curve. The incredibly fast pace of gameplay, coupled with the fact that his punches don’t have real impact behind them, left me struggling to move or inflict damage.

Team up abilities in Marvel Rivals
NetEase

I must stress again: I don’t think this is necessarily a problem with Marvel Rivals. Hero shooters are supposed to be mechanically complex, rewarding those who really stick with a character and learn their intricacies. For dedicated fans, it feels like Marvel Rivals will be a treasure trove of team strategy. I’m just already feeling a little left behind, as I can already sense that intimidating Overwatch skill ceiling creeping in.

That probably won’t stop me from playing it. After all, I’m just excited to see my personal favorite heroes come to the game (I’m dying to see NetEase’s spin on Daredevil one day). It likely just means that I’m already resigned to sticking to casual playlists rather than venturing into a ranked mode. I’m sure anyone whose unfortunate enough to end up on my team will be grateful I stay in my lane.

Marvel Rivals will get a closed beta this July for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC players.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni Colantonio
Section Editor, Gaming
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
This retro platformer is like Super Meat Boy or Celeste if you couldn’t jump
Wall jumping in Splodey.

What if jumping in a challenging platformer like Celeste or Super Meat Boy was impossible? That's the idea at the core of Splodey, a new game from Send It Studios and influencer-owned game publisher Mad Mushroom.

A surprise release at June 4's OTK Games Expo showcase, Splodey is a platformer where players must throw potion bombs to propel themselves forward rather than jump. Clearly inspired by speedrunning-friendly platformers like Super Meat Boy and Celeste, Splodey changes how just one core mechanic works to craft a unique identity of its own. This next week or so is going to be full of surprise launches and exciting game announcements, but if you can take some time away from those to try a new game, pick up Splodey.
A platformer where players can't jump
Splodey has the pixel art aesthetic and simple story of a retro game. It's about the titular character, who struggles to make potions that don't explode at the Academy of Potion Making, so he decides to take down the entire establishment. From there, players are let free to complete four worlds worth of platforming challenges. Splodey can't jump, though, so it must use those explosive potions to propel itself forward to the portal at the end of each level.

Read more
Flock launches this July, and you can watch its hypnotic new trailer here
A character flies on a bird in Flock.

Publisher Annapurna Interactive's next title, Flock, has a new summer release date. The oddball nature-classification game will launch on July 16 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. It will launch as part of Xbox Game Pass on that date, too.

Flock is the latest game from Richard Hogg and Hollow Ponds, the indie team behind Wilmot's Warehouse and I Am Dead. It's a cozy exploration game where players ride through the skies on the back of a bird and categorize different animals. Digital Trends has an exclusive release date trailer for the game, which gives a glimpse of what players will do in the world.

Read more
Behemoth blends Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus into one VR epic
One of the title characters in Behemoth looms in an image from the upcoming game.

Skydance Games has something big on its hands with Behemoth, an upcoming fantasy action VR title for Meta Quest 2 and 3, PlayStation VR2, and PC VR. And when I say “big,” I’m talking about its titular Behemoths themselves. From the first person perspective of the lead character, standing near the base of those beasts has a way of making you feel very small by comparison. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to fight them, and the entire plot of the upcoming VR game hinges on their defeat. 

Digital Trends was recently invited to Skydance Games’ office in Santa Monica for a hands-on demo of Behemoth. Shawn Kittelsen, vice president of creative for Skydance Interactive, was there to walk me through the demo, which takes place about three hours into the game. According to Kittelsen, the area explored in the demo will be populated with more enemies in the final game. But in order to keep the demo to just 45 minutes, some subtractions were made. In the short time that I had to play, I got a taste for what feels like a promising cross between Skyrim VR and Shadow of the Colossus.
Slaying the Behemoths
Behemoth is a first-person VR adventure with an emphasis on sword-swinging combat and light exploration. Both Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus are apt comparisons because Behemoth thrusts the players into a dark fantasy realm and puts them into the mountainous terrain of the cursed Forsaken Lands. The player character is a mighty warrior who has also been cursed, and the only way to cure the land is to rid it of the Behemoths.  

Read more