Marvel Rivals Closed Beta Impressions
Marvel Rivals came out of nowhere for me when I saw it during the PlayStation State of Play in May. During that Showcase, developer NetEase had announced a closed Beta in July for their hero-shooter, which was now to be sandwiched between PlayStation’s very own PvP hero-shooter, Concord, and Riot’s console release of Valorant, which was shown off during Summer Game Fest the following month. It suddenly felt like a bundled crowd of live service titles in what is already a saturated area of gaming. There are rightfully mixed feelings towards this current trend, alongside not one single formula working out for every game.
Fortnite and Epic Games are seemingly at the top in terms of player retention across the years, but there are also indie success stories like Inner Sloth’s Among Us who have turned their success into a developer-focused fund for other studios to get their games off the ground. Regardless of opinions, it’s here to stay and if these few months are any indication of the future then it may continue on for a while.
I’m someone who likes to dip their toe in anything multiplayer and I have currently been inundated with all the aforementioned games – Marvel Rivals being the latest. The closed beta for it went live on Tuesday (23rd July 2024) at 11 PM here in England and you bet I stayed up to play a round at the very least. However, I ended up playing way, way past my bedtime. So suit up, equip your hero gear and let’s get into what Marvel Rivals currently has to offer.
With Great Power…
As of the time of writing this, it’s been almost a week since the closed beta’s launch and I’ve played twelve or so hours of Marvel Rivals in that time. I could have probably given impressions a lot sooner but NetEase is feeding players new content as we speak, making me want to jump back in and report to all of you. It’s not a complaint, just an observation and a realisation that I’ve not seen other developers do that. It’s not something I can expect every time now with other demos or betas, but I think NetEase are cleverly instilling what the livelihood of Marvel Rivals could be upon release.
On the first day, you could play across an absolutely stacked roster of Marvel’s most popular characters: Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Storm, most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Venom, Hulk, Magneto. There were 21 different heroes/villains to play and this weekend Thor and Jeff the Land Shark also joined the party, totalling 23 overall before the game is even properly out. I think it’s an overall positive for the game to have so many characters to have fun with, but as I get into more of the gameplay, you may understand that it’s not without some baggage.
NetEase gave players the first 24 hours to sharpen their skillset and find their favourite characters to play with in two separate modes. Quick Match, which featured a genre-popular escort/defend payload objective – something you’d see in Overwatch or Team Fortress 2. As well as a King of the Hill objective, something you’d probably find in all team-based multiplayer shooters. The other you can choose from is Conquest AKA Team Deathmatch. Then after the first day, players could jump into Competitive which features the two quick match modes.
…Comes A Lot Of Liabilities
In all the modes you’ll be playing from the third-person perspective with your chosen character in teams of 6v6. Each hero will have unique abilities to utilise in the match. Some may have an ability that does damage, others can block incoming attacks, and some may even be able to heal. If you’ve played any hero shooter before, you’ll know there are classes which group the characters separately.
The idea is to have a team with an even amount of each class to create a synergy between teammates and get the win. In Marvel Rivals you have your Vanguards (tanks), Duelist (DPS) and Strategist (support). Whilst each hero might have a kit that matches their class, there is a vague feeling that there’s more of a spectrum.
For example, a Strategist like Rocket Raccoon does support his teammates by healing and buffing their weapons, but they’re more proficient at getting eliminations than say Mantis, who is also a Strategist. On the inverse, Peni Parker is a Vanguard with a high health pool to take oncoming damage but has healing abilities within their basekit.
There are some early door contenders for heroes that are must-picks and some who you’ll seldom see being picked. For better or for worse, Marvel Rivals doesn’t assign a limit to the classes you pick and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a team full of Duelists vying to be that player who gets all the kills and becomes MVP. It’s frustrating, to say the least, as from the moment you’re locked into a game and you see everyone wanting to be DPS you know the match is done for.
On Your Left
Marvel Rivals requires at least a modicum of cooperation among yourself and five others. Knowing when to push as a unit, when to retreat from a gunfight and when to focus fire on a select enemy is essential to net a victory. The easiest way is to communicate via voice chat but there is a communication wheel that has standard callouts too. It’s not as nuanced as its peers in the genre but it covers your bases.
Other than the maximum effort put into teamwork, your hero of choices kit is an essential mechanic to gain an edge. Cooldowns for all of your abilities are at the most 10 seconds, some of which are even shorter, making it feel like an endless stream of everyone’s abilities flailing back and forth. It’s chaotic, all over the place visually which I think lends itself to that sort of scrappy dogfighting we all saw in Captain America: Civil War.
That’s not to say there are moments inspired by it but every player is forced to depend on their base kit of abilities or else suffer elimination. Through the chaos though are some air-punching and exhilarating moments when players pull off their ultimate. Every hero has one that lends to their class but it’s mostly about having the ability to change the tide in battle.
If you’re at all familiar with Overwatch, you can pick up on about 95% of the characters having powers and ultimates that are adjacent to the characters in Overwatch. It definitely toes the line on being derivative, but the fact that said familiarity actually plays into the characters’ aesthetic and combat style makes it feel more forgiving than maybe it should.
Avengerwatch
The Punisher is Soldier 76, Hulk turns into Bruce Banner when he’s out of health like D.Va, Star-Lord has a diet version of Reaper’s ultimate ability as a regular ability – the list is essentially endless. I would have liked to have seen maybe a bit more originality than what’s on display here and maybe feel like I’m learning a new game rather than playing an old one with the Marvel flavour.
One thing that’s definitely separating it from its peers is the maps. The beta has two different locations with two variants of it catering to each game mode. Players will get to explore a Spiderverse-impacted Japan set in the future and Yggdrasil, the ancient tree in Asgard. Both are visually striking and crammed with environmental storytelling, after many rounds spent on the two maps I was still finding new tidbits to look at. It doesn’t do much for the gameplay, but he speaks to the care and attention to detail NetEase has with the Marvel property.
To play, on the other hand, isn’t quite as exciting. The maps don’t have many avenues to create flanks, play strategically and take advantage of blindsights. This kind of makes the game feel the same as it’s a case of going head-to-head every round. However, there are some destructible environments that can make the moment-to-moment gameplay interesting.
Smaller walls can be broken down to create a new place to shoot, whilst some entire buildings can fall, which are more telegraphed and form a new path. I’m hoping for new areas sometime soon and maybe some early feedback will make maps a little more interesting whilst still being a spectacle.
Assemble
Marvel Rivals also has a really neat feature of creating team-up buffs depending on the heroes you pick. Pair Rocket Raccoon and The Punisher together and the latter will get a buff on their fire rate if Rocket drops one of his buffing stations. Pair Iron Man and The Hulk and Iron Man will get a Gamma buff for his weaponry. These don’t completely change the success of battle but they greatly help secure eliminations against the opposition.
All in all, at this point in the Beta, I’m not sure how I feel. Maybe my love for comics and Marvel is helping me forgive some of the simplicity and derivation but I do feel NetEase have found a lane in the hero shooter genre. The gameplay is frenetic, the visuals are a beautiful blend of realism and cel shading using Unreal Engine 5, and there are sparks of ingenunity with some of the originality that Marvel Rivals has.
Overall, I’m having a lot of fun despite recognising that it might not do enough things differently. Out of all the PvP shooters coming out this Summer, Marvel Rivals will be one that I come back to. There are challenges and quests to unlock new skins and other doodads through the season pass, which at this point in time is completely free. I’ve also bought a few skins through gameplay as there aren’t any microtransactions, though I’m sure they’ll be implemented when the game goes fully live.
The Marvel Rivals Beta will run until 5th August 2024
Marvel Rivals is currently in closed beta PlayStation 5 (preview platform), Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.
There is also the first hour and a half of gameplay from me over on the Finger Guns Twitch channel
Developer: NetEase Games
Publisher: NetEase Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this preview, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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