Marvel’s Avengers hands-on preview – assembling the ultimate superhero game

GameCentral plays the first level of Square Enix’s Marvel epic and talks to its creators about skill trees, loot boxes, and cosmetic extras.

Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, can be thrown and retrieved in almost identical fashion to Kratos’ axe, including using it to hit different bad guys when calling it back. Every character also has a variety of special abilities and super moves, with Thor being able to call down lighting and perform a powerful area of attack move. But, like all the characters, he can also perform extensive combos, aerial attacks, and even ‘juggle’ enemies by repeatedly hitting them when in the air.

It’s not the same level of complexity as Bayonetta but once more moves are unlocked it may not be far off, as the developer described how you can switch between different styles of moves, just like Devil May Cry, by pressing the D-pad – implying a combat system of surprising complexity for a mainstream game. The fact that Thor can also hover when fighting only makes it more interesting, even if the mercenaries in the tutorials never offered any real challenge.

Each enemy has a number by their health bar, indicating their level and confirming the game as an action role-player. Attacking anyone sees a familiar explosion of numbers, illustrating the amount of damage you’re doing, which is not something we expected from the game. According to the devs some enemies will be all but unbeatable if you’re not at a certain level yourself, with the implication being that you’ll have to either level up or play in co-op with others that are more powerful.

There was none of that in the demo though and instead Thor quickly switched to Iron Man, who worked in a very similar manner except with repulsor blasts and a unibeam super move. He also had a short on-the-rails flying section, which we hope means that he’ll be able to fly around freely in the proper missions, which Crystal Dynamics has avoided describing as open world but have implied offer a significant amount of freedom of movement.

Although the controls for each of the characters works in essentially the same way all of their moves are completely different, with Hulk having his familiar sonic boom-inducing clap and a move that rips up the ground in front of him. He can also pick up smaller enemies and either hit others with them or juts throw them as projectiles. Hulk’s section of the tutorial also showcases some simple platforming, as he sticks to walls indicated by scratch makes and can jump between similarly besmirched surfaces.

Captain America’s section felt like more of a straight brawler but of course he’s also got his physics-defying shield as well. Each character also has unique finishing moves to use against mostly defeated enemies and Cap’s all seem to be based around wrestling moves – and looked suitably painful as a result.

Black Widow has similar athletic abilities to the Hulk and is also the one to takedown down Taskmaster, jumping onto him as he flies off with his jetpack and taking part in some simple QTE sequences. She gets a proper boss battle with him as well though, which the tutorial uses to illustrate the dodge move and her ability to turn briefly invisible.

It is, of course, madness to try and critique an entire game from just its tutorial but we can say that the fundamentals do seem very solid. There are hints of real depth to the combat system and even without taking the co-op options into consideration there seems to be a substantial amount of game on offer.

The only real complaint we have at this stage is the slightly underwhelming visuals, which are perfectly fine from a technical point of view but a bit bland artistically. The look of the game is heavily influenced by the movies but ultimately comes up short in comparison, especially given the unconvincing human faces – with Thor and his dubious beard looking particularly bad.

The problem is exacerbated because Thor is caught between trying to sound like Chris Hemsworth and being more accurate to the comic books, with the game settling for an unsatisfying halfway house between the two. That sums up the presentation as a whole though and we would’ve much preferred to see a more unique visual style being used. But perhaps that can be compensated for by the unlockable costumes, which Square Enix again reiterated were cosmetic only.

Costumes will either be earned in-game in the traditional fashion, bought directly from an in-game shop, or earned by completing a tour of duty. Each of these three sources has different costumes but Square Enix are promising no loot boxes, which seems in keeping with recent trends at most publishers.

You can also earn loot that’s specific for each character and split into the usual categories of common, rare, legendary, and so on. And while they were a little vague on the specifics it was implied that these are obtained by completing in-game challenges – we assume the equivalent of achievements – as well as simply replaying a level and hoping for better luck.