GameCentral reports back from the first day of the Marvel Rivals beta and finds the game to be suspiciously similar to Overwatch.
If you assume the average video game takes around five years to make, then anyone planning a new online shooter back in 2019 would’ve considered Overwatch to be the obvious game to crib from. Back before Overwatch 2 and Microsoft’s purchase of Blizzard, it was still the quintessential hero shooter and the obvious point of reference for anyone looking to make anything other than a Call Of Duty clone.
It’s an especially obvious inspiration if you’re looking to make a game based on Marvel superheroes – even if relatively few of them use actual guns. That’s easy enough to work around though, so you just have to find an excuse for them to be using ranged attacks, set the maps in recognisable Marvel locations, and let the money roll in.
The only thing that leaves out is any sense of artistry or creativity – the illusion that the game was made because those involved were passionate about an idea that they wanted to see realised. Unfortunately, Marvel Rivals gives every impression that it was designed by marketing executives rather than game developers.
Overwatch’s influence is especially relevant because it was clearly one of the main inspirations for Sony’s Concord, which had its own beta earlier this month. In many ways that game was less original, since it’s basically just Overwatch with different characters, but it was at least made with some amount of thought and mechanical competency. And yet already, the early Steam numbers show that Marvel Rivals’ beta has been far more successful.
Marvel Rivals has proven 20 times more popular, which is all the more impressive given that Concord was an open beta and Marvel Rivals was invite only. You’d assume that’s the power of the Marvel licence but given how many Marvel console games have flopped recently perhaps it’s just superior marketing in general.
Given the alluded-to similarities to Overwatch it’s not hard to picture how Marvel Rivals works, but for the record it’s a 6v6 third person shooter, where you get to play from a selection of 21 different Marvel characters, from Spider-Man and Iron Man to gun lovers such as The Punisher and Rocket Raccoon – as well as more obscure picks like Peni Parker (an alternative universe Spider-Man with a mech) and Luna Snow (an ice powered superheroine who’s also a K-pop singer).
The character variety is by far the game’s strongest feature, not just in the sense that there’s a good range of different heroes but because they all have peculiar abilities that are appropriate to their lore, even if, predictably, many of them are copied from Overwatch. So, Namor can summon a bunch of octopuses to fight with him, Loki can create decoy illusions, Hulk can leap really far, and so on.
On top of this is the ‘dynamic hero synergy’ feature which means that teaming up certain characters with each other creates special bonuses and even opens up new abilities.
This can range from simple health or power buffs to Rocket and Groot becoming almost unstoppable when teamed up or Scarlet Witch partnering with Magneto (her dad in the comic books) to give him a sword that he wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
Some characters are clearly unbalanced – Venom is almost impossible to take down unless everyone gangs up on him at once – but that’s hardly an uncommon problem for any shooter while it’s in beta.
A bigger problem is that the game can be a complete visual mess at times, exacerbated by the fact that it’s third person and many of the attacks are so over-the-top. Although the game is clearly aiming to encourage a competitive esports scene it’s hard to imagine anyone watching the game for fun, as it’s hard enough to parse what’s going on even when you’re the one playing.
We’re sure Marvel Rivals would be quite happy to be regarded as Overwatch but with Marvel superheroes, but it does feel different in that so much of the damage you do is not through ranged or melee combat as it is through special abilities and ultimates.
Even in Overwatch, most of the time you’re just shooting people but here that’s not necessarily the case, which is good in theory but a lot of the time it makes it very unclear whether you’re doing any damage or why you’re receiving so much of it. With so many of the characters able to fly or wall climb – or teleport or turn invisible – the game has a steep learning curve and feels very random at first.
That lessens the more you play it, as it does with any game, but the lack of feedback when both dishing out and receiving damage is disappointing, with movement in general feeling twitchy and imprecise. It isn’t one, but Marvel Rivals looks like and feels like a mobile game, which is a shame because we imagine that’s precisely what publisher NetEase was trying to avoid.
It clearly didn’t care about the Overwatch comparisons though and some of the steals are just shameful. None of the characters are 1:1 copies, although some come close and everyone has at least one move or ability that is very clearly inspired by an Overwatch character. Often comically so, such as Bruce Banner being left behind after the Hulk is damaged, instead of D.Va losing her mech.
What’s almost more shameful is that all the game modes are near identical and even parts of the maps (there are three in the beta) are suspiciously similar to Blizzard’s game, as are many of the sound effects and the commentator. Although the game does have time to add in faults of its own, with the destructible scenery gimmick being very disappointing, as it bizarrely resets after only a minute or so, ready to fall down again later.
Marvel Rivals isn’t a terrible game but the lengths it goes to in order not to come up with anything new is depressing. There’s so much to work with in terms of the Marvel lore that there’s no reason this needed to be a reskin of Overwatch – something which is made clear in the few abilities that aren’t copied from elsewhere. But it’s free and it has Marvel in the name, so its success is guaranteed to at least some degree. It’s absolutely not the new Overwatch though, it’s just the old one but not as good.
Formats: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5
Price: Free-to-play
Publisher: NetEase Games
Developer: NetEase Games
Release Date: TBA
Age Rating: 12
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