050
MARVEL’S AVENGERS
for example, but there’s a big
difference in the result depending
on whether you’re chucking Thor’s
hammer or unleashing Ms. Marvel
mid-range fist.
Amos continues: “Then you
have to get into ‘How do my
Intrinsics work with those moves?
How do I use these moves in
certain ways to do the most
efficient kills or blocks or whatever
that might be?’ [When you play
as Ms. Marvel] it’s an amazing
experience where you go ‘Oh, if I
hold the i button there’s an
Intrinsic, and then if I use the
light and heavy attacks differently,
if I hold them versus tap them
versus combo them – you start to
see the different ways for her to
fight different enemies.”
This mix of ease of play and
deepertacticalcombostringsiscommon to all the different
heroes. “The more you invest
time in them, the more you
can start mastering these
combos and these skills,” says
Amos. “And then you start
adding, on top of that, the skill
trees and the perks and the
weapons and the attributes
and it’s like ‘Oh my God,
there’s so much here I can
min/max my characters out of’.
So I think there’s a ton of
depth for people who want to
go after it.”POWER COSMIC
Beyond the characters simply
feeling different from one another,
you can get into their setups and
make them work for you. Adding
moves to a character’s repertoire
will unlock more options, and
you’ll learn how to pull off more
devastating combos with those
advanced movesets.
“As you invest skill points into
his repulsor tree, you’re going to
be able to change and upgrade
even how his repulsors behave,”
says Amos as he takes us through
Iron Man’s robust gear and skill
menus from the game’s alpha
build. The menus tease plenty of
intriguing customisation options.
Amos explains, “You’ll also be able
tounlocknewtreesandnewattacks like lasers and rockets.
[See the screen on the right.] You
can also switch between these sets
of attacks on the fly using your
D-pad right in a combo. So if you
start with a repulsor attack, you
can swap to laser when you hit the
ground and pull off a big melee
attack and then switch to your
rockets with an auto-lock andR
atherthanpicka readymadeMarvel
storytobasea gameon,Crystal
Dynamicsis creatinga uniquestory
packedwithsignificantdetails.In conversation
withScotAmos,hedropssomelittlehintsabout
thingstolookoutfor.Butwhatdoesit allmean?“Whyis therea bluebackgroundforthe‘A’?
All of this stuff, literally to that level of detail,
has some story behind it,” says Amos, and we
realise he’s right. Only in marketing materials
have we seen the blue, opaque-looking
background behind the Avengers’ A. In the A-Day
celebrations, it’s simply transparent. Could
this link in to the Terrigen energy? Perhaps
something to do with the Infinity Stones? Or,
again, a link to a wider multiverse?Scot Amosteases ussome extra details.But what do they mean?
SANCTUM SANC-LORE-UM
“WhydoesCap’sshieldhavea largerstarthanit
usually does? There’s a story behind that,” says
Amos. Thankfully, in this instance, he provides
an answer: “The Avengers have expanded to the
West Coast, so they’re actually covering more of
the world so they actually have a unique image.
Everything that we do has a story to it.”CAPTAIN AMERICA’S
SHIELDTHE AVENGERS’ ‘A’
“Why are there little
phalanges on the A
on the Avengers
logo? Well, we have
a story for that,”
Amos continues,
but reveals nothing
more. While other
Avengers ‘A’ logos
have featured
the arrow, they
don’t usually
have the little
indentations at
the top and bottom of the letter. Looking back
in Marvel history, the very first Avengers logos
did have a little extra serif on top of the A, but
on the other side. This time, it looks to us as
though multiple As would stack perfectly on top
of each other. Perhaps this represents multiple
branches of The Avengers being able to slot
together? After all, A-Day is a celebration to
launch their West Coast operations. Or perhaps
it speaks to a wider multiverse.Thank God AIM has robot
minions. Their necks are way
less harrowing to snap using
Ms. Marvel’s weighty fists.While all the heroes have
ranged attacks, throwing
Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir,
is uniquely satisfying.THE BLUE BACKGROUND