A fun gameplay experience with just enough new ideas?
Engaging heroes and characters that have a lot of tactical depth?
A smooth online experience that doesnt crash?
Squirrel Girl, a Duelist in ‘Marvel Rivals’NetEase Games
Just different enough
Marvel Rivalsis NetEases next big push into console and PCgaming.
Ostensibly, the game looks like a copycat ofOverwatch.
The Hulk can jump into battle and soak up damage in a similar way to the equally oversized Winston.
Additionally, the maps and mode structure feel almost identical.
Maps can dynamically be destroyed in key areas, changing up players lines of sight.
Some of those are taken from previous appearances in media, while others are brand new.
While Hawkeye has his bow, he also has a sword that he can pull out to deflect projectiles.
His loving personality hasnt been removed, he can also heal allies.
Jeff is an adorable menace here, and hes quicklybecome an internet darling.
The game encourages finding a character and mastering their abilities or making use of the heroic team-ups.
Competitors naturally gravitate towards picking complementary characters that unlock these abilities because they are effective in matches.
Instead, they chose to make it fun.
Jeffs whirlpool attack dooms anyone to a quick death if they are caught in it.
If everyone is broken, then no one is.
Already theMarvel Rivalscommunity is breeding creativity and experimentation in a way thats blown up on social media.
But with Jeff at her side, the combination feels unstoppable.
Another popular combination seesDoctor Strangeplacing a portal above an enemy team on the objective and at his spawn point.
That philosophy also means some of the more restrictive features in the genre can be omitted entirely.
Players can have six damage-dealing heroes and still win.
Learning the lessons
Arguably,Marvel Rivals biggest achievement right now is that everything just works.
Servers have crumbled with a fraction of the numbersMarvel Rivalsis currently achieving.
Most games take multiple seasonal updates to even get close.
Marvel Rivalsis now available free-to-play for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
