Review | Marvel’s Avengers: how has it been improved since launch?

LifeisXbox’s Marvel’s Avengers review | I first played this game on Xbox One and playing it on Xbox Series X is literally a SHIELD and Hydra difference. Almost instant loading times, smoother performance, and a substantial difference in the draw distance. I can’t shake the impression that the main developer Crystal Dynamics could have done a much better job with the Avengers property. I applaud them for delivering so much free content but the gameplay core remains the same throughout. The most powerful defenders of Earth are reduced to farming resources, as ants collecting food for the colony.

Like most people I’m a huge fan of the Marvel movies, I think it is a milestone in cinematic history that Marvel has accomplished with the Avengers movies. I hoped that the gaming audience could finally get a similar epic experience but that’s sadly not the case. Marvel games still remain a loss of potential in most cases. Insomniac is doing fantastic work with Spider-Man but can you name another must-play game with a Marvel character? Maybe Wolverine’s Origin from 2009 but that game is almost as old as Wolverine himself. So yeah, I was looking forward to Marvel’s Avengers, how couldn’t I? Only by looking at the army of developers who worked on this game is impressive, two studios from Crystal Dynamics, two studios from Eidos and Nixxes but alas. Publisher Square-Enix released a disappointing game experience and despite the additional content, it remains a bag that is best explained by Ryan Reynolds Marvel Movies. A bit of the hilariously bad Green Lantern and a bit of the excellence of Deadpool.

We played Marvel’s Avengers for 15 hours on Xbox One and 8 hours on Xbox Series X. The game is also available on pc and Playstation 4/5. Spider-Man character is coming exclusively to the Playstation platform.

Since the beginning of Marvel’s Avengers main issue has always been the grinding nature of gathering resources, this hasn’t really been changed. However, the overall gameplay has been massively improved with extra missions and more challenging levels to play with friends. It was light on content when it released but with Kate Bishop and Hawkeye operations, that’s a thing of the past now. Recently the roadmap for 2021 was announced and it shows promise and things to look forward to, for example, Black Panther. It is clear that Square-Enix isn’t giving up on this game and I guess that’s good news for the small and declining player base. I feel that with the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 improvements Marvel’s Avengers can have a great second-breath, as the game is definitely worth a try. The core single-player content was great to play, especially with Kamala Khan. So if you backed off for the mediocre reviews when it first launched I would really suggest giving it a try now, it performs and looks great and you have a fun selection of Marvel heroes who all play differently.

We applaud it a while ago but I really appreciate that new content is constantly in the works, for free. This would have been even better if the speed of new content was faster but even The Avengers couldn’t stop Covid-19. That said, it was no excuse to launch the game barebones. Which ultimately created the negative release buzz and reviews in the beginning. What still annoys me a bit is the setup of gear and forced resource grinding, they haven’t done anything to improve this, quite shockingly it is even worse now as characters level up A LOT slower. Bit of an odd decision here, kinda how Finn Jones was cast as Iron Fist.

How much can two new heroes do right? (Hawkeye and Kate Bishop) Thanks to the fact that all heroes play completely different it does wonders for replay value and gameplay length. I dare say that Marvel’s Avengers should have launch how it is today, with enough content and mission tweaking. Do yourself a favor as a Marvel fan and be sure to try out this game. The ant colony needs your grinding work!