Starting from Mark I: Experiencing the First Weekend of ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Beta

This past weekend, those who do their gaming on the PlayStation 4 console that pre-ordered Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers lucked out on early access to the Beta for the game. Personally, as one who games on occasion, I saw this new release as an opportunity to grace the online community by playing my part in the fight against Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M. for short. Just as with any first play, one must get acquainted with both the world and how to navigate it by means of gameplay mechanics.

For anyone who’s seen the gameplay that’s already been released, you know the game begins with the alternating between heroes during the events of A-Day. Each character has light, heavy, and ranged attacks, along with their specials, which do prove abilities to be versatile in any given situation. With this many controls, however, I’ve found a challenge in mastering them, especially in later missions when enemies come at you from nearly every direction. Furthermore, the camera isn’t as wonky as most similar games, but maneuvering to your desired targets, even with locking, can be taxing.

Beyond the gameplay, the characters and their journey seems intriguing. I’d rather not get too into detail besides what previews you may have seen. Playing as Hulk and Ms. Marvel opened up those characters more, but also revealed how I’d like to play the game myself. Between the acquisition of gear and skill points, I realized that as nice as it is to be selective, I wish the gear was simultaneously cosmetic. The enjoyment of collecting resources, dismantling gear I won’t use and upgrading the gear I will is still satisfying. Overall, in the characters I am free to continually play as, heroes such as Ms. Marvel and Black Widow are preferable. Iron Man and Hulk offer either too much or too little to the gameplay experience, which also make me yearn to play as Thor and Captain America again.

Missions themselves don’t go too far in the realm of story, as this is the Beta after all. The multiplayer missions are pretty expansive despite the fact this isn’t an open world game. The exploration, combined with teaming up online & tackling varying difficulties indeed gives said mission types much potential, but plenty of what was offered in the Beta had very little variation besides duration. My hope in the future is that environments become more creative, as do the objectives. Even though it is a Beta, wider variation between missions is something I wish was included for us to get a solid perspective on the scope of what the game could evolve into.

These are just some first impressions, however I intend to delve further and intend to give an update next weekend when I better familiarize myself with what may be problematic to me at the moment. Overall, though, I haven’t had a gaming experience like this since Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the first game I ever played on my PlayStation 3, only it’s definitely been extremely improved upon for today’s play styles.

Have you played the Beta yet? What were your thoughts? Let us know! Tweet us @thecinemaspot and follow us for more experiences like this!

If you’d like to play online with me, my PSN ID is RomnlogUnleashed