Marvel’s Avengers: Kamala Khan is the hero this game needs, but deserves more

Within minutes of starting the Marvel’s Avengers campaign, I breathed a sigh of relief. The fun feeling that Kamala Khan (aka Ms. Marvel) gave her last month’s beta It was immediately apparent and I quickly got carried away with Crystal Dynamics’ version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It may not be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it doesn’t feel quite as different as the one in the game. E3 2019 reveal suggested it would be.

The sense of calm came from the game’s emotionally engaging intro, which sees a young Kamala connecting with the Avengers one by one. Her first encounter with Captain America, right after she quotes an iconic line from the Civil war movie and the comic arc, is particularly poignant and highlights the developers’ deep love for the universe.

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Telling a Marvel story

In the early chapters of Marvel’s Avengers, you play primarily as Kamala, taking advantage of her super stretchy polymorphic abilities, as she navigates the rooftops of her hometown of Jersey and later in a dismantled helicopter (which later becomes your base). These sequences look like something out of one of the modern Tomb Raider games, also developed by Crystal Dynamics, with springy arms that add a super-powerful twist to the ride. Some of the Quick Time Events (QTE) and obviously scripted moments feel mechanical, but these areas are still fun to explore.

After you run into an out of luck Bruce Banner and go on the first team mission with the Hulk, the game Marvel Ultimate Alliance-Style squad elements become apparent. Throughout the rest of the campaign and beyond, you will fight countless hordes of AIM robots; there is some variety in the way you fight different units, but they are visually repetitive. The game also suffers from a lack of supervillains; there are a total of four in the game at launch. Given the legion of incredible villains from Marvel’s 81-year history, it’s disappointing that you don’t see a wider variety of baddies as the story progresses.

The campaign lasts 12-15 hours if you focus on the main missions – it’s an energetic cinematic journey that will satisfy anyone who has invested a bit in superheroes and prepares you or the post-game elements.

Reuniting the band

After the first few missions as Kamala, you’ll be forced to play as different Avengers as you recruit them: Iron Man, Black Widow, and Thor reintroduce themselves in suitably spectacular moments. It’s nice to try each one, but I was happier when I got to choose who I wanted to play with. Leveling up Kamala and learning his combos added satisfying depth to the combat.

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If you’re not sure which hero you want to focus on in post-campaign content, you should definitely play the HARM training missions that are unlocked by recruiting them. They all feel completely different, and the short training sessions will teach you how to apply the invisibility of Black’s Widow’s Veil of Shadows and Hulk’s Rage – it’s more technical than you bargained for. If you just push the buttons in the game, it will be a boring and frustrating experience.

Read more: Marvel’s Avengers: Which Hero Is Right For You?

Seeing the helicarrier come back to life as you recruit characters creates a fun center to wander around, but also highlights weak elements of the game’s live service; A bunch of faction providers start offering teams that rotate periodically and it’s a bit overwhelming at first.

There are a ton of different currencies to collect and perks to choose from, but I didn’t feel compelled to do so. Using the best gear that I came across naturally was more than enough to advance the story – maxing out my characters each turn would have slowed the pace too much.

I also encountered some disruptive glitches: a frustrating music loop wasn’t fixed until I entered the next area, and a chest open button similarly remained on screen. It’s not disastrous, but thinking that I would have to restart the game to get rid of them completely broke my dive. Those were also a bunch of weird graphical glitches and loading on a mission took too long. Otherwise it worked quite well on my base PS4.

Keep assembling

Dive into the Avengers Initiative’s cooperative multiplayer mode (you can team up with up to three friends) and add a whole new dimension to the experience. It’s best to leave it until the campaign is over, however, as evidenced by the big SPOILER warning you’ll get the first time you pick it from the menu.

I assumed that the post-campaign content would lack narrative, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it ties into the story (primarily through voice acting rather than full cutscenes). It’s not as engaging as the campaign story, but it does expand this version of the Marvel universe a bit more.

Read more: Marvel’s Avengers Endgame guide and tips

Unfortunately, it makes up for the repetitive nature of the missions. You will go through a lot of almost identical enemy bases and complete the same objectives; AIM apparently has a lot of servers that they need to hack or destroy. It can make you question how much real progress you are making; More than once, I wondered if I had accidentally replayed a mission instead of choosing a new one.

If you dive into this part of the game, multiplayer is definitely the way to go – your CPU allies are so out of focus they feel a bit worthless. Playing with random people online is more fun than doing it alone, but teaming up with a trio of friends is the best way to play. Planning a mission and maximizing your team’s strengths makes everything more satisfying, although you will likely get fed up with tedious tasks in no time.

For those concerned about in-game microtransactions, they are pretty mild and limited to cosmetic items like costumes, emotes, and character profile nameplates. You can buy in-game credits for real money or win a limited amount through rotating challenges like killing a certain type of enemy or completing a particular mission; the latter option is slower, but will unlock many of the items on offer.

Read more: First impressions of GameSpot’s Marvel’s Avengers review

Playing the long game

Since Crystal Dynamics has revealed ambitious plans to add new characters for free: Kate Bishop Hawkeye, Clint Barton Hawkeye, and the PlayStation exclusive. Spiderman they’re confirmed, with a ton of undisclosed characters as well; it is clear that the Avengers will evolve enormously over the next year (PS4 and Xbox One owners also get a free update to the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions). Each of those characters will come with a new villain, addressing one of the repeating elements. If the developers add a wider variety of missions and fix the various glitches, it will feel much more complete.

At launch, Avengers is a fun and messy first draft. There’s enough in the campaign to satisfy your immediate yearning for Marvel, but the other elements are unlikely to hold your attention for long. So it’s doubtful Ultron age for now, but a few months of updates and tweaks could bring it closer to an epic Endgame.

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