tThe history of video games is, to some extent, a history of subtle iterations of other people’s ideas. The interstellar success of Taito’s Space Invaders spawned the entire shooter genre, with titles like Galaxian, Phoenix, and Gorf taking the basic idea and adding new features. Later, 1984’s Karate Champ spawned the fighting game craze and Tetris brought us falling block puzzles. This is how things have always worked: adapt, expand, pass the baton. The thing is that there is a subtle but deep chasm between imitation and inspiration… and not all titles manage to cross it.
Marvel Rivals, the latest live service game from Chinese mega-publisher NetEase, is Overwatch with Marvel characters. That’s not just the elevator pitch, that’s exactly what is. A colorful roster of comic book characters with varying abilities gather in a series of sci-fi arenas to fight team battles in a small selection of game modes. Punisher, the vanilla guy with the machine gun, is Overwatch’s Soldier 76 with a Bastion twist; Divine healer Adam Warlock is the Mercy man; and like a fist-pumping tank, Hulk is simply laying waste to the less-haired gorilla Winston. Gaming site GamesRadar has even provided a practical guide to show players which of the Marvel cast members are most analogous to their Overwatch favorites.
Many of the genre’s most overused tropes and abilities have at least been remixed to fit the Marvel universe, and playing as these familiar legends adds undeniable appeal. Whether bashing enemies with Thor’s hammer, catapulting exploding acorns as Squirrel Girl, or throwing Captain America’s shield at Black Panther’s armor, Rivals captures the comic book dynamism of this famous cast to such an extent that major skirmishes They look like the most exciting scenes from the X-Men ’97 cartoon. It’s also nice that all 33 heroes are available for free from the start. There’s a store and a battle pass, of course, but they’ll currently only give you alternate outfits, emotes, and other accessories; and by completing daily quests and seasonal story objectives, you earn money to buy these kinds of things without paying a dime.
Additionally, the game has a great new feature: Team-Ups, which unlocks additional hero abilities when at least two players on the same side choose complementary characters. There’s the symbiote bond between Venom, Spider-Man and Peni Parker, which allows the latter two to channel the former’s alien powers, and there’s Ragnarok: Rebirth, which allows Hela to cure or revive Thor or Loki. Kinships can be a real boost to tactical play.
But in many ways, Rivals reflects that key principle from the shooter hero design bible: for every advantage there must be a minus. With its massive roster of Marvel super monsters and their team powers, the game sometimes feels extremely unbalanced. It’s hard to counter characters like Storm and Iron Man when they can stay in the air for an entire match, taking out enemies from afar and avoiding most of the incoming fire. Heavy hitters like Venom and Moon Knight tend to completely dominate any area they fight in, often at the expense of melee combatants who need to get in close to deal significant damage. I never thought Wolverine would become one of the most subtle and refined characters in the Marvel cast, but here we are.
Without a doubt, the game is gorgeous to look at and interact with. The user interface design around the menu systems and information screens is exceptional; destructible locations shine with details; and the characters are beautifully recreated. Once again, however, there is a catch. During the chaos of a superhero riot, with explosions, magic attacks, and “funny” pranks going off simultaneously, it’s hard to know what you’re damaging and, conversely, what’s damaging. you until it’s too late.
Buffs and nerfs for these characters will surely come over time, leveling out the balance, and players will begin to learn how to combine team members more strategically. But even if the balance issues are addressed, what we’re left with is the video game equivalent of a folklore shifter, a preternaturally precise substitute designed to ensnare those who loved the original. The question is: can we really blame rivals for walking so close to Overwatch that they could possibly get a restraining order? As failed hero shooters Hyenas, Concord, and xDefiant have recently demonstrated, the brutal economics of the live services market demand absolute fidelity to established standards. Labeling a massive global license doesn’t hurt either.
Rivals, like many other highly polished and hyper-focused franchise expansions, is entertaining, beautiful, and well-made. But its existence bodes poorly for the games industry in general and for those who work in it. He says that to be successful, especially in the live services sector (where so much is being invested), you don’t need to expand or challenge a genre. You simply need to replicate and refranchise, throwing some low denomination coins into the innovation concept. Meanwhile, studios that release new ideas or original characters are doomed to fail: millions of dollars lost, jobs gone, the game over.
Rivals is packed with Stan Lee superheroes, but its message (about the complete and utter Funko-Pop-ification of games) is as bleak as a Charles Burns graphic novel.