It seems that our first impressions from the BETA were pretty……far out. Obviously it’s not all our fault is it! Well you know it could be that we didn’t quite treat it as a BETA but as a full gameplay demo, which it wasn’t…
The Avengers BETA failed to explain to us fans that it was only there to test the online waters, mostly, and give us a quick show of the game’s combat system which did seem a bit boring and grindy at the time. Ya know this is the purpose of a BETA after all, but my feeling is there are a lot of fans jumping onto this who don’t usually play that many online games, so we just treated this as a full on demo. I also now understand that Squeenix left out lots of story scenes as they wanted us to really enjoy it on release, which I absolutely have done.
The thing is I am glad that I only played that bridge demo with no context, and then the BETA with some random online missions, because when you come to play the main game and you start as Kamala with all of the cut scenes put in it feels awesome. Then it cleverly drips in other heroes which unlocks various other side quests and lots more stuff that you can play to unlock. When you start customising your skills and start creating your hero as you’d want them then it becomes something else, something better. Combine this with some awesome story and actually really well crafted characters, then you’re onto a winner.
What’s also awesome is that the story line, which feels fresh but also like it’s been lifted right out of a comic, is going to be added to monthly at no additional cost and will also add new heroes (and hopefully playable villains). People can get all butt hurt about paying for battle passes but you don’t need to! In fact you can treat grinding for the credits (1000 of which are needed for future character’s passes) as just more reason to play the game, and this is still free. Yes you can pay to win but that’s up to you if you want to completely waste your money…
However there are still some reservations from me about the online, and this is where the ‘treating it in the right way’ comes in. There is obviously a whole online element to this game, and yes this is where they’re going to make more money, but you know what I think those of us who are late 20s upwards need to forget the good old days because video games are the biggest business and they need to make more money…I don’t like it but it’s the way of the world. Now most of the extra costumes are unlocked by completing daily challenges which generally centre around defeating certain enemies or killing them with a certain attack, this gives you tokens which unlock certain things on your battle pass such as emotes and costumes. This is all free you know, and just gives you more to to be honest! Now when the new characters come out, such as Kate Bishop, you will need 1000 credits to use her battle pass but these CAN be earnt for free in game, or you can pay for them for like £8. And you know we’ve had to pay for game in beat em ups for years, so why is this different? Well it aint.
I’m not saying I now love online games, or that I completely agree with how it’s been put together. I would have for sure preferred to have just been given the whole single player game now and just played through start to finish. But I have started to think about it this way: we have a great single player which will be added to for free and has loads of side missions to play, next to this is a really fun multiplayer online where you can choose your fav Avenger (after unlocking them in story) and go and beat shit up, so I there are really just 2 fun game modes. YES I am still getting my head around it all (factions and daily missions and how the online actually works) but I am quite simply having fun, I’ve played tonnes of single player and online games that are WAY worse than this.
Just get your head of your ass and see this game for what it is, simple fun. I’m actually happy to play and grind more in this game and pay £4 every now and again for characters I really like. This is the way most games will be, but if I’m happy to go out and waste £50 in the pub I’m sure I can spare a few quid for a game I really enjoy. I think we’re all too quick to get angry about spending little bit of money on these games, just chill DUDE.
Anyways sorry for the rant, I’m off to play Avengers……