Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics will shortly publish the beta version of Marvel's Avengers, it will be available for those who have already pre-ordered the game and spread over various dates depending on the platform on which the title itself was pre-ordered. We have had the opportunity to try the Beta version with a few days in advance, being able to give you then our impressions of the first few hours of the game as the superheroes of the Marvel group.
Towards A-Day .. and beyond!
As soon as the beta version is launched, we are immediately catapulted to San Francisco, precisely during A-Day. We had already had the pleasure of trying this section at both Gamescom 2019 and Lucca Comics & Games 2019, which ends with a sound blow for the supergroup, which loses one of its most important pieces. The mission in question consists of various sequences, one more spectacular than the other, where we are presented one by one the initial members of the team and their peculiarities: Thor who can use Mjolnir as a boomerang and uses lightning bolts to take out the enemies, Iron Man who makes flight and his energy beams his peculiarity, Black Widow who juggles in skillful and fantastic melee combos as well as Captain America with his inseparable shield and finally the Hulk who… obviously breaks!
During this juncture we begin to get carried away both with the basic mechanics of the game and with the specialties of each of the heroes and in the meantime we also begin to see some familiar faces on the other side of the fence, such as Taskmaster. Overall the first impression seems to be positive: script, fights, settings, everything seems to be promising for what is to come but unfortunately this is not the case. After completing the A-Day section we are involved in another mission, always part of the main vein, where, alternately driving Kamala Khan and Hulk, we look for news of Jarvis and Tony Stark. In the midst of the woods of the northwestern US, we will begin to face hordes of synthesizoids and AIM gunmen by becoming even more familiar with Miss Marvel's general commands and skills. But when the amount of enemies has started to get important, the combat system creaks a bit 'e animations have small uncertaintiesFurthermore, seeing the Hulk punching enemies half the size of him without even moving them, although it is so for gameplay reasons, is annoying to see, in addition to the fact that there are sequences of cutscenes whose language suddenly changed English.
Destroy the AIM
After completing the second mission of the main plot, the strategic table (the famous War Table) is unlocked where, using the cursor, we can select the various areas of the globe to choose our next assignment from those available. In the Beta there are three areas, including the Chimera, which is the new flying base of the Avengers within which we can move freely and complete the HARM simulations, something similar to the X-men Danger Room. In the version available to us there were 3 simulations, within which we faced ten waves of enemies, all different from each other. One of the positive notes is that there is a good diversification of the opponents, well structured and each with its strengths and weaknesses: you will therefore have to make good use of dodging and counterattacks, not to mention the special moves that will load over time, both giving and taking blows. Even the heroes, based on their abilities, will have a different approach to the fight: for example Hulk will be fine for heavy close range combat while Miss Marvel is a good alternative for medium range combat.
The title focuses strongly on the clashes, occupying most of the time spent on the mission, and despite being structured quite well, it seemed to us perhaps a little too linear and shallow. Although it is possible to equip each hero with four gears and various artifacts, which can give an extra bit of strategy to the whole, adapting to our fighting style, we did not seem to reach particular peaks from a strategic point of view. Nor does it help the fact that the secondary missions, at least those available to us, did not seem so varied: often we always ended up in very similar locations (AIM laboratories), where the aim was to get rid of elite squadrons or hack certain targets, which resulted in a sort of conquest of chunks of land to allow Jarvis to hack into enemy systems.
Being a Beta obviously some flaws that we noticed will certainly be obviated (the "mixed" dubbing, some animation that doesn't work) but considering that there is only one month left to launch, thinking that the secondary missions may vary from those presented seems like a utopia. The same goes for the combat system. However, we reserve the benefit of the doubt, having only tried some of the initial missions and not the title in its entirety. Square Enix has already pointed out that new heroes will also arrive to add to the roster, including Hawkeye and Spider-Man. Furthermore, the incipit of the main plot starts with good ideas, on which we will keep our eyes focused, having the potential to be able to prove to be an excellent story arc. All that remains is to wait for next month!
► Marvel's Avengers is an Adventure-Action type game developed by Crystal Dynamics Eidos Montréal and published by Square Enix for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 04/09/2020
