**PLEASE NOTE: The following game review exclusively covers my experience with the single-player campaign mode. The following game does have online multiplayer modes. For further information regarding the multiplayer, please refer to exclusive articles from professional gaming journalists and communities such as IGN, GameSpot and Metacritic.**
With the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe reaching its full potential, you would think a game such as “Marvel’s Avengers” would be something of a no-brainer success. There’s already a built-in audience that would love to play their favorite heroes such as Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, etc. all in one game. And although only a handful of games have been more anticipated this year than “Marvel’s Avengers”, even fewer end up being more disappointing. This isn’t an unplayable game by any means. In fact, there’s enormous potential to be found here in specific areas. At the same token though, there’s an underlying web of inconsistency throughout the experience that can’t be ignored. When it comes to bringing originality and variety to the superhero genre, this “Avengers” game offers very little and arrives rather late to the scene. It prompts comparisons with the likes of the “Uncharted” games and Insomniac’s “Spider-Man” for the PS4, to which this game suffers by those two comparisons alone.
What you’re doing in this game is somewhat self-explanatory. You’re playing as Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Ms. Marvel (a new recruit to the team for this game’s narrative) and basically defeating bad guys (90% of them being robots if I’m not mistaken). You’re able to upgrade your character’s abilities and strengths further by successfully completing battles and finding collectibles throughout the worlds and levels you’ll navigate. Basically, you’ve played this type of game before various times. As far as its execution is concerned though, it’s a mixed bag of interesting yet simple concepts crossed with a needlessly complicated and messy formation (bugs, glitches, slowdowns, performance issues of that sort). I’m not even kidding when I say that I was fighting as the Hulk in extremely slow motion at one checkpoint in the campaign, and I was confused on whether or not it was intentional for that specific story point and level.
Eventually after I failed in that area and respawned soon after, I realized that it was just the game malfunctioning and acting weird. And while nothing else compared to that slowdown hiccup I just described, this game still has its fair share of performance issues. I suspect that might be due to the issue of this game requiring an Internet connection to work, even for the single-player campaign mode. Needless to say, this marks the second time I purchased a product from Activision (with its notorious reputation in gaming and all) rather than a title that requires the Internet for it to work. The first was when I bought “Spyro: Reignited Trilogy” instead of “Fallout 76”. And after hearing about how the latter was panned and decimated, I have no regrets. To be clear, it sounds like “Avengers” is nowhere near the disaster that “Fallout 76” is. At least you can still play the single-player mode if you’re in no mood to deal with troublesome trolls online in the game’s multiplayer mode.
Just when I thought it was easy to download the game and get to playing, I had to wait four more hours for the game to be fully downloaded and updated on my system. So keep that in mind going in. The game’s visuals best summarize how much of a mixed experience you’re getting yourself into. One moment, you’re in awe of the visual motion-capture performances and the level of expression displayed by the actress playing the woman who will later become Ms. Marvel. Part of me believes that if the game does land on PS5 as it seems to be planned, none of the amazement over the facial animation will be lost in the slightest. The other moment, you’re still wishing that the actual actors from the MCU films or at least their likeness were used in this game instead of the semi-knockoff character models they used in the final product. Namely, the character design for the Hulk seemed oddly put together, almost like it was a Hulk cosplay gone wrong. What’s up with that hair? Did he dye it or is it just me?
The user interface and the menus in which you’ll be upgrading your heroes are something of a cumbersome nightmare to navigate. You’ll feel cluttered doing anything as simple as equipping one thing on your hero, because there’s too much information overload and too many currencies/stats to keep track of that you’ll immediately feel overwhelmed. It makes the idea of playing this game to wind down after a hard day’s work seem less practical. If you’re into the “Uncharted” franchise or some of Sony’s other first-party exclusives, namely “Spider-Man” and “God of War”, you’ll find more than a few similarities to said titles. So many in fact that when you’re questioning what’s really new with this specific IP, you’re pressed to come up with a credible answer. Yes, the controls and combat mechanics are responsive and keep you playing and addicted for a little while. But when there isn’t much innovation being brought to the table, that can only get you so far.
If it sounds like every aspect of this game I’m describing is literally a mixed bag, it’s because A) it is, and B) I’m only reflecting what the game is providing to me. I’m glad “Avengers” at least has a single-player mode and isn’t just exclusively about multiplayer to better extend the lifespan of the game. But because Ms. Marvel overstays her welcome for me and because I’m not that interested in these versions of the Avengers or the narrative for that matter, this credit I’m giving only last for a little while. Yes, you’ll get some enjoyment out of the experience, whether it was the game’s intention or not. After all, you’ll probably find my story on the Hulk enough to check it out just to have fun on that front. But after the MCU provided such high entertainment value over the past couple years, we expected much more inspiration to come from this title. To reemphasize this point once more, this is not a bad title. It’s just not distinctive enough to become the great game that I wanted it to be.