With mere weeks until the full launch of Marvel’s Avengers from developer Crystal Dynamics, more players are now getting the chance to finally see what this game is all about. The beta offers an inside look into multiple different mission types, gear progression, and character customization. It also provides a chance for the developers to figure out where the pressure points are for the game leading into its full release.
Instead of taking this opportunity to do a full review of the Marvel’s Avengers beta, which has already been done to a great extent, it is also important to think about how the game might also be improved on a more granular level. Nitpicking the game’s systems, experiences, and frustrations can help flesh out a more positive experience for players in the long run.
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With that in mind, here are seven quality of life changes Marvel’s Avengers should consider addressing sooner rather than later.
Make the Required Square Enix Account Registration Optional
Upon opening up Marvel’s Avengers for the first time, players hear the swelling music and see title page, but are then immediately transferred to a screen that prompts them to register a Square Enix account before moving on. There is no way to bypass this option. At the beginning of this second beta weekend, players were left helpless and unable to play the game. Not because Marvel’s Avengers was broken in any way, but because there was a bottleneck in traffic on the Square Enix account registration website.
Instead of making this registration compulsory, why not make it optional with some sort of cosmetic reward in return? Telling players that they cannot access the game at all until they leave their console to interact with a backed-up website is a very poor player experience. A better method would be to reward players for signing up at their leisure instead of punishing players unable to do so at launch.
Instant Loot and Material Pickup In Marvel’s Avengers
This is one of those recommendations that might only be recognized by others who play games in the looter genre already, but the current loot experience in Marvel’s Avengers is slightly lacking. One of the problems is that simply running over glowing loot on the ground does not allow players to pick it up as they’d expect. Instead, picking up loot requires stopping and standing on that loot for a moment before moving on.
Making the loot an instant pickup improves the experience in a couple of ways. For one, players can enjoy the constant flow and movement of gameplay without having to break that immersion for the sake of loot. Secondly, players can also pick up loot while they fight without having to worry about standing still. While holding a position might be okay for the tank-like Hulk, Black Widow thrives through constant movement and is greatly hindered by stalling that movement for the sake of loot.
Allow Players To Roam After Missions
Upon completion of all the mission objectives in Marvel’s Avengers, the gameplay immediately halts. Characters freeze and no more action takes place. There is something fulfilling about that instant gratification of completion, but something meaningful is lost here. If a player doesn’t pick up all of their loot before the objectives are complete, they don’t get to feel that loot pickup, which is one of the main drivers of loot games like Avengers in the first place.
One thing that remains unclear whether or not that loot is gathered and rewarded in the post-mission screen or lost completely. Instead, once the mission is complete, Marvel’s Avengers players might benefit from a short 10-15 second timer that counts down to zero, thus allowing them to roam the final area and pick up everything that dropped from the enemies they’ve killed.
Chests And Interactives Should Open Significantly Faster
This is one of the pettier recommendations, but important nonetheless. Loot in Marvel’s Avengers is earned in many ways. Enemies can drop gear, it can be rewarded after mission completions, and commonly it can drop from opening chests scattered throughout the missions. One annoyance that popped up during the beta surrounding these chests was the time it takes to open them. During Marvel’s Avengers secret mission especially, there are many chests for the players to open, but each one feels like a hurdle that needs to be jumped before advancing.
Again, the eye-rolling nature of this request cannot be understated, but it’s obvious that players would appreciate the timed button press to be cut in half (or more) before they can pull their loot. This is doubly true for the consoles that players need to interact with to proceed through missions. Some require a questionable 5-7 second hold before the associated loading elevator even unlocks. This seems like it would be an easy way to improve mission flow and player experience.
Allow Players to See Stat Outcomes of Power Boosts
One really great feature in Marvel’s Avengers is the ability to invest resources to improve gear found in the field. During the leveling process, this allows single pieces of gear to remain relevant for longer periods of time. The main purpose of these Power Boosts is to unlock specific passives on each piece of gear. Investing more resources unlocks more abilities. In addition to the passive unlocks, Power Boosts also increase the stats provided by Marvel’s Avengers’ gear.
The problem is that the improvement in stats that players can expect as a function of these resource investments is not made clear. All Marvel’s Avengers players can do is see how much the numbers change after the boost has been applied. Instead, players would benefit greatly from seeing the outcome of the investment before they apply the boost. Then they can decide the value of the Power Boost versus looking for higher-level gear.
Teach AI Teammates The Objectives
Missions in Marvel’s Avengers have a wide range of different mechanics that require players to complete a number of different objectives to proceed. These objectives can range from destroying power generators to standing on plates to entering codes in a locking mechanism. Avengers has very intelligently given solo-focused players the ability to use their alternate unused characters as AI teammates. This gives them the unique ability to customize their teammates’ gear, abilities, and looks for every mission.
One problem with these teammates, though, is that they’re only good for one thing: fighting. They make for great meat shields for the many enemies players will face, but they don’t know anything about objectives. This becomes especially tedious during missions where multiple objectives need to be held. Solo players have to constantly traverse entire areas clearing objectives because AI teammates have no idea how to hold ground. It’s likely that this is a technical restriction as AI behavior is extremely complex and challenging to do well. Perhaps there will be improvements to this behavior as the game evolves.
Hero Challenge Cards Should Progress Through XP
One form of progression used in Marvel’s Avengers is the Hero Challenge Cards. Similar to the current trend of Battle Passes seen in many live-service games, these cards reward the completion of daily and weekly challenges with cosmetics such as emotes and skins. In their current state, the only way to make progress on these cards is the bounties themselves. Because of this restriction, there is a daily and weekly cap on progression that will choke dedicated players’ progress.
Instead of allocating all progress to bounties, XP gains through mission objectives should also contribute. This rewards players for dedicating their time to a certain hero and not just a specific bounty such as “Save 10 Hostages.” Bungie learned a similar lesson in Destiny 2 this year by allowing players to acquire new Umbral Engrams in any activity which contributed to Power gains as well as the loot chase. Unlocking that progression allows players to approach the game how they see best.
Marvel’s Avengers from Crystal Dynamics does a lot right. Making each hero feel powerful and unique while still maintaining balance is a big ask, but seems to have been accomplished here. There’s still a lot left to discover within Marvel’s Avengers, as the beta only provides a brief look into what the game has to offer. While it’s clear that very few, if any, of these concerns will be addressed by launch, hopefully they can be put on the list of things to address in the near future through patches and updates. The final open beta for Marvel’s Avengers players on all platforms begins on Friday, August 21st, with the full game set to release September 4th.