Marvel's Avengers

 I was going to start a series on Making Queen's Challenge followed by a series of articles on the techniques for solving that problem but that will wait until next year. It has been a long time since I wrote a game review so decided after a long invigilation session to relax by writing a review for Marvel's Avengers. I also posted this on Steam.

I received Marvel Avenger’s for “free” with the purchase of my laptop so I can easily say that I got my money’s worth out of the game. While I occasionally will play the occasional shooter, I am not really a fan of action oriented games which is why I quickly gave up on  Final Fantasy XV and will likely never bother with the remake of Final Fantasy VII. Perhaps it is my infamiliarity with looter shooters that kept me playing this game despite mediocre reviews. There is a lot wrong with this game, but even though the cons outweigh the pros, I am giving this game a very marginal thumbs up but only because despite all the flaws I am still playing this game and somewhat enjoying it. Perhaps if I played the better loot shooters first or if I didn’t prefer solo gaming my opinion would differ. 

Pros

Marvel. While not as good as the Lego Marvel games, it still lets you be some of your favorite heroes.

Thor. My least favorite Avenger’s character is one of my favorite characters to play so they must be doing something right! 

Good mix of ranged and melee combat. The variety of attacks and booster powers makes combat, even when overwhelmed, fun to play.

Great graphics. 

Great campaign. While it is a bit too PC, the story was not what I was expecting so rather enjoyed the story line. 

Cons

RPG Elements are pointless as the game scales with your level. This also means that poor players can’t over-level in order to reduce the difficult of the game. That said, as the power level is based on your equipment, you may be able to cheat this flaw by putting on low-level equipment then switching in your good equipment once you have started the mission.

Easy isn’t. This could be my lack of reflexes, but more likely it is because the designers made this game for existing loot shooter players so expect a familiarity with that type of game. Hint to designers, if the player is already playing on the easiest level, DON’T PROMPT THEM TO TELL THEM YOU CAN CHANGE THE DIFFICULTY IF THE GAME IS TOO HARD! It would seem to me that most game companies don’t bother testing their games on people who are new to the genre. In the long term this is why genres die out because new players can’t play the games due to entry difficulty and older players get bored of them.

Timing puzzles. If it were up to me, all timing puzzles would be optional! This wasn’t overly bad until you get to the Kate DLC which requires you break a lock then shoot targets on either side of a cell within an exceedingly short time limit. It took me over half an hour to get by the 3 cells locked this way.

Poor navigation. Having a marker tell you that to get to your next objective requiring you to travel through a wall or mountain isn’t very helpful. Waypoints have existed in games for decades now so there is no reason you couldn’t  put a waypoint in the hard to see tunnel so you can find it and not waist time backtracking to find a path around the mountain.

Chimera sequences require you wander around the airship (or anthill) to complete some vaguely specified objective which wouldn’t be bad if the layout wasn’t so awful. Finding the harm room and interrogation room took way too long and were really pointless tasks as the harm room missions are accessed in the war room once you have found it. No clear directions also was frequent during missions. 

Chest nearby? This message came up frequently but most the time I couldn’t find them.

Ms Marvel as main character. Perhaps because I am not familiar with this character. Perhaps because I am old and male so can’t relate to being a fangirl. Escaping the park was by far the worst part of the campaign, which is sad because it is right near the beginning. Once you get other characters the game gets way better, even when you have to use her.

Multiplayer seems repetitive.  Thankfully you can play multiplayer solo by using bots. That said, the missions I went on were very similar to each other and to the campaign sequences. Yay I get to smash more reactors which spawn hoards of enemies!

Bots not good at multiplayer tasks. It might be more fun with other people rather than bots, but as I am poor at these games don’t want to inflict my bad gaming on other players. That said, when you have sequences that require human players spread out, the bots don’t quite seem to understand the objectives meaning when you have to control 3 points on the map things become annoying.

Mobs attacking are harder than boss fights! I get that combat is the point of this game, but this tends to be far too many enemies attacking you at the same time making most combat a test of reflexes rather than on strategy.

Black Widow Boss Fight was exception to above requiring me to exit the campaign and level up outside of the campaign before giving it another go and even then lost another dozen times before I was able to get through this awful fight. Granted, I was also unable to complete the Harm training so could be that I simply can’t use this character properly.

I am sure I missed a few points. 

TLDR: If you like Marvel heroes, this is fun but has a lot of flaws so wait until on sale.