Why I Will Not Buy Marvel’s Avengers

As I type up this post, we are literally a day away from the release of the new Marvel’s Avengers video game that has been anticipated since the game’s first trailer was shown in 2019. I’m sure the game has a healthy number of pre-orders and many people will be stoked to play the game on day one. But as much of a Marvel fan as I am, I will not be forking out any cash towards the purchase of this game in its current state.

For starters, the game does look really good. It has some great aesthetics that at least make you give the game a glance, especially if you watch the trailer. But too often with modern games is that while looking absolutely fantastic, they can end up lacking in features and possess highly questionable gameplay. It’s like looking at a new shiny Corvette only to look under the hood and see lower end parts. Great graphics mean nothing if there is no meat to the game. Yet having a good quality and well flavored piece of steak is only further enhanced by good aesthetics.

My core reason for declining the purchase of the new title is based on what looks to be a significant lack of content for the game. For starters, to only have well under 10 characters to choose from is a very small roster. Apparently more characters will be included down the line as downloadable content (DLC), but how many will be released and how long will it take for them to be released? If you do some research on the Avengers, you’ll find that there are a multitude of different members the group has had over the years. Also, consider how many more characters were featured in the Avengers movie saga. So six main characters to begin with is ridiculous and it comes off as if Square Enix is being stingy with its roster. LEGO Marvel’s Avengers contains hundreds of characters that can be used in the game with even multiple versions of some characters. Even before including the DLC characters in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 on the Nintendo Switch, the game had more than 30 characters to use in its base roster.

Marvel’s Avengers’ developer Crystal Dynamics has claimed that the campaign will take 10-12 hours and completing all the side missions can extend that playing time to nearly 30 hours. Depending on how the game is paced and the variety within the missions, it could be a fun ride. Tomb Raider (2013) was a great example of an action game that had a similar completion time frame, was excellently paced and had a natural progression over the course of the game. This was a game also developed by Crystal Dynamics published under Square Enix. Yet, if the side mission content is as uninspired as that of Final Fantasy VII Remake and many open world games, then it could definitely feel as if the game is lacking and a chore to play through. It doesn’t matter how many hours of content a game has if many of them are not meaningful. According to IGN’s review in progress, the missions seem to come off as “generic filler.”

In my opinion, Square Enix could offer much more than what is offered in the base game. Yet some content will only be accessed through microtransactions and spending more money beyond the $60 game price. And why not? I am not a person who believes that microtransactions are inherently a bad thing. If Square Enix has the rights to the Marvel license, I agree that the company should maximize the return on their investment. A rule for microtransactions is that they should be worth the cost. Yet for people paying the price for a full game, what they should be given is a full game that literally can stand on its own at launch even if no DLC was ever released in the future or microtransactions included. That would be fair to the consumers.

For all intensive purposes, this could be a really great game. I’m just choosing to wait until I see the full vision of the game come to life and then I will decide. Perhaps if I see some things I like along the way and the price drops low enough, I may purchase it sooner than I think. But there is not enough meat on the bone to warrant a purchase now. To give a bit of context, when I bought Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, I was happy with my purchase but the several months it took for the DLC to be released to finally play as the Fantastic Four, X-Men and other characters was a long time to wait. Although I enjoyed the game overall, I found myself wishing I had just waited for all the DLC to be released before purchasing the game. Because I had already put so many hours into the game prior to the extra characters, once they were released, my interest had already waned considerably.

These are all just my opinions. You may find the game enjoyable and if you do, I wholeheartedly support you and am glad that you are happy with your purchase. But for those who are on the fence as whether to buy or not, hopefully this post will give you something to consider. The benefit of living during this age of gaming is that there is a whole library of games from the past that we can play if the present games aren’t up to our expectations. Here are some alternatives to Marvel’s Avengers:

LEGO Marvel Avengers
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

Those six games above are all action games that will provide a great Marvel video game experience for you. What’s more is that they will also include more characters for you to use and also feature more characters overall from the Marvel universe within the games. The games are fully complete, meaning that when you purchase them, there is no other content to wait for. They do have DLC that can be purchased but the base games provide a solid number of playable characters.

Have a great rest of the week and happy gaming.

-TVGA