051MARVEL’S AVENGERS
take out two more enemies that
are at range.”
In practice, moves like this hit
the gaming sweet spot: they don’t
feel too complicated to pull off,
but do make you feel inventive
for performing them. Combat is
robust, full of options, and
incredibly satisfying. This is
thanks in large part to the diversity
of playstyles and individual skills,
the latter ensuring it feels unique
too. Amos isn’t afraid to admit the
team has learned from other
games in the genres they’re
gunning for – think God Of War
meets Marvel’s Spider-Man – but
by mixing it with their own
talents as a studio filled with
accomplished team members, itfeels very much like
their own.
But while the combat
feels like Crystal’s own,
the different heroes can feel
completely yours once you’ve got
your hands on them. “Thor is a
God, so Thor should fly, so being
able to fly I get to control the
battlefield. So I put all my skill
points into recharging my heroics,
having more lightning strikes,having faster speeds to do those
attacks,” says Amos. “But Mark
back there likes melee attacks, so
Mark put all his skill points into
making Thor’s melee moves
stronger and faster and stunning
enemies, being able to do more
types of finishing attacks and
making more health by tanking up
his Thor. They’re both Thor, they
both feel and play like Thor –
mine’s better – but they both play
like Thor. And you can choose
how you want to do that with
your character for the fine-tuning.”
Depending on the skill points
you assign or the gear you equip,
you can give your character
different bonuses. Better gear will
give you more buffs, and is earned
through completing harder
missions (outfits, unlike gear, are
purely cosmetic), giving you plenty
of reasons to return to missions
with co-op friends. Just as the
comics keep coming every month,
we see no reason why we won’t
want to play as heroes just as
frequently come 15 May 2020,
when the game assembles on PS4,
with an exclusive beta period for
PS4 players before that.SpeakingofA-Day,there’sa reasonwhytheteam
is being celebrated: Amos tells us it’s to open their
West Coast branch (usually these Avengers operate
out of the East Coast’s New York City). Perhaps
this means we’ll see heroes more traditionally
associated with that team? Originally founded by
Hawkeye, it has included Jim Rhodes (pretending to
be Iron Man, but who is more well known these days
as War Machine), The Black Knight (who has strong
ties to the Inhumans and will be in next year’s MCU
film), Vision, and Quicksilver.
WeknowAIMaretheantagonists in the initial main
campaign, but something catches our attention.
We’re told by Casey Lynch that “if AIM is left
unchecked, they could unleash the greatest threat
the Earth has ever known.” Similarly Scot Amos
says that “AIM’s pursuit of a technocratic utopia
could result in one of the greatest threats Earth
has ever faced.” But what could such a large threat
be? We already know Taskmaster and Abomination
will appear as supervillains, but who else might AIM
either call upon, or unwittingly unleash? The super-
intelligent Modok is often associated with the group
in the comics, but even he might not be big enough.
Could it all end up being something more... galactic...?WEST COAST AVENGERS THE BIG BAD
“THE DIFFERENT HEROES CAN
BE CUSTOMISED TO FEEL
COMPLETELY YOURS.”
Once you start
customising, your iron
man will be very different
from your friends’.