General Gaming Update: RIP in Peace, Marvel's Avengers

[skillzdadirecta]

So far so good with this game... the single player campaign is pretty well done and the world they set up differentiates itself pretty distinctly from bot the comic book continuity and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's a little bleaker than both but nowhere near as bleak as Injustice. Gameplay wise, I've only spent significant time with Kamala and JUST got to the Hulk. BOTH are a BLAST to play but feel distinctly different from each other... I look forward to fully tanking The Hulk out. Not sure WHAT I'm gonna do with Kamala just yet. I'm looking forward to diving into this game and teaming up with @JPDunks4 and @ARZ for some multiplayer. This game should definitely hold me over until Outriders and Godfall hit.

[Brian]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

The more Jim Sterling videos you post ITT the more jimmies you will rustle.

[Brian]

[skillzdadirecta]

 This guy didn't like the Beta... enjoying the full game.

 

Quote

Based purely on the content of the beta and what Square Enix had shown of the game prior to today’s early-access launch, I was quite worried about Marvel’s Avengers. I worried it would be a dull, repetitive plod through missions built for multiplayer without a strong character focus. I worried the character models, ridiculed since the game debuted, would keep me from fully enjoying the game. Though I feel my worries were justified, I’m pleased to report that they were, for the most part, unfounded.

 

[XxEvil AshxX]

8 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

The more Jim Sterling videos you post ITT the more jimmies you will rustle.

 

If Jim Sterling had his own jimmy rustled a little more often he might not be in such a shitty mood all the time.

[Phaseknox]

I was planning on getting this Friday for the single player campaign since it looks really good, but I've discovered that it's only like 10 hours long which is too short for a $60 game IMO. I'm not interested in the multiplayer aspects of the game, so I'll get it when it's a lot cheaper.

[skillzdadirecta]

4 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I was planning on getting this Friday for the single player campaign since it looks really good, but I've discovered that it's only like 10 hours long which is too short for a $60 game IMO. I'm not interested in the multiplayer aspects of the game, so I'll get the game when it's a lot cheaper.

I get that but you DO know they're going to be updating the game with free content for quite sometime including story content, right?

[Phaseknox]

20 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I get that but you DO know they're going to be updating the game with free content for quite sometime including story content, right?

Yeah, and I think that's really cool but I would rather get the game after some of the additional characters/story content are available instead of getting it now and having to wait for it. If I was interested in playing the game multiplayer then I would get it now, but since I'm only interested in the single player content it's something that I can wait to get when it's cheaper and has even more content to offer.

[Keyser_Soze]

I will agree though it is pretty lame the gear doesn't change the look of your character. Even Destiny gets this right.

[skillzdadirecta]

14 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I will agree though it is pretty lame the gear doesn't change the look of your character. Even Destiny gets this right.

It's lame but it's in no way a deal breaker. A bigger deal is the lack of co-op drop in.

[skillzdadirecta]

 

For those that care about such things... I will say that based on what I've played so far, it has one of if not THE best single player campaign of these types of games.

[skillzdadirecta]

 

 

 

 

[Spork3245]

Wow, WhatCulture did not like this:

Spoiler

2/5

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Captain America is the best character and you unlock him pretty much at the end of the game. 😕

[skillzdadirecta]

17 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

Wow, WhatCulture did not like this:

  Reveal hidden contents

2/5

 

 

Gameinformer DID.

 

Spoiler

8.75

 

6 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Captain America is the best character and you unlock him pretty much at the end of the game. 😕

 

If HE'S the best character then he must REALLY be good. I've unlocked all of the characters in the game so far except Thor and Cap and so far they're ALL good. Black Widow is my personal fave right now. @JPDunks4 has finished the story campaign so he can speak more about the different characters than me.

[Spork3245]

16 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

Gameinformer DID.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

8.75

 

Did you watch the WhatCulture review...?

[skillzdadirecta]

6 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

Did you watch the WhatCulture review...?

I skimmed it. Sevral things he said I disagreed with but that's not surprising. I always found those guys to be hit or miss with their movie and gaming videos.

[Keyser_Soze]

6 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

Did you watch the WhatCulture review...?

 

I think Skillz fits in with the wide eyed Kamala Khan who wants to play as the avengers and nothing more.

[skillzdadirecta]

Just now, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I think Skillz fits in with the wide eyed Kamala Khan who wants to play as the avengers and nothing more.

Nah if the game sucked then I'd say so. It doesn't 

[Brian]

GameFly shipped a copy to me. I will be the true judge of this game. 
 

[Spork3245]

I posted that review because I was surprised by it, and it wasn’t one of those “I’ll give it a bad score for attention!” kind of bad reviews: it came off as someone who really wants to like the game and was looking forward to it. I was really disappointed going by his thoughts on the SP, in that it wasn’t really all that fun until the end and it felt like ultimate alliance with better graphics.  

[skillzdadirecta]

11 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

I posted that review because I was surprised by it, and it wasn’t one of those “I’ll give it a bad score for attention!” kind of bad reviews: it came off as someone who really wants to like the game and was looking forward to it. I was really disappointed going by his thoughts on the SP, in that it wasn’t really all that fun until the end and it felt like ultimate alliance with better graphics.  

I'll just say that from what I've read and seen, his opinion about the single player is in the minority. A couple of points that he said that I agree with and a couple I don't. 

 

Agree

Kamala Khan is awesome and gives a great performance.

Agreed, the levels play out pretty much the way he described... outside of a few secret areas that you can't access unless you're playing as certain characters, he's right about that.

It IS disappointing that loot doesn't change your appearance (Not as dissappointing as I inititally thought though)

 

DIsagree

It does not take until the end of the game for you to accumulate enough talent points for the combat to get interesting. At least it didn't for me. There's alot of depth to the gameplay but maybe he played it on normal and it doesn't require much beyond button mashing? I'm playing on Hard and @JPDunks4 played it on brutal. You HAVE to pay attention to gear and use everything the game shows you, dodges, parries, everything or else you'll get melted.

 

Gear does more than just "tick numbers up" especially if you;re into min/maxing and specializations. I'm speccing Iron Man out for range and for him to do fire damage. Widow will be my DPS character and The Hulk will be my tank. You match the gear to your playstyle and there's alot of flexibility.

 

Once again, like Shadow of War which he mentioned, The microtransaction thing is grossly overstated. Are there microtransactions? Yes. Do you EVER have to spend money in this game to experience everything it has content wise? No not at all. If you care enough to WANT the cosmetic items in the game you'll probably be playing long enough to earn the in game credits to get them... unless you're impatient then that's on you.

 

I'm pretty sure there are some premium cosmetics that you can only get by paying real money but most of the stuff you can get without paying a dime. I've seen worse examples of this type of stuff (I'm looking at you PUBG) but the fact that you're going to get a steady stream of free contentI really don't see what the big deal with microtranactions are. I really don't. 

 

I'm enjoying the game and haven't even TOUCHED the multiplayer yet and I'll continue to enjoy it until I don't. 

 

If you're interested in the game, I'd suggest checking out a few more reviews or streams before you make a decision. The what culture dude came across to me like he wanted the game to be something else and was pissed that it wasn't. Not that he played the game for what it was.

 

[JPDunks4]

I am not a big Comic Guy or a big Avengers fan.  My fandom comes from the Movies which I enjoyed, but that's about it.

 

I started skimming the review, and it seems pretty obvious they go into the game with the bias of "Corporate Greed" ruined the game.

 

I finished the main campaign, but still have all the individual Character Story's to go through, as well as some other story stuff that pops up after.

 

The biggest gripes I have with the game right now are still the invisible loot and lack of crossplay/progression.  And I can agree, both of those things were probably due in part to corporate greed.  The skins being purchasable in the store would be far less meaningful is Loot changed the appearance.  And I still think Sony's deal for Spiderman has something to do with lack of crossplay/progression, just like it did on Destiny 2.

 

That being said, this is a game that is promising FREE content updates in the forms of both Characters and Missions/Story, and the cost of that is they need to make money elsewhere.  Destiny and Division both sold for $100 for the full versions, both sold additional DLCs after that, and still sell DLCs.  Both also have the same exact cosmetic Micro-transactions in their stores for cosmetics.  I don't remember either of those games getting nearly the hate for their format, and they charge for both new content and cosmetics.  So question for me is, is the fact I will continue to get FREE playable characters and content worth more to me than loot changing the look of my characters?  Not totally sure.  I may rather pay for the content and character, but then it could splinter and divide the player base up.  Not a totally clear cut answer.

 

*Also Destiny had 3 playable Characters and Division essentially has one, with a pretty limiting number of skills to choose from.  Avengers launches with 6 that are all far far more unique than Destiny's or Division's characters in how they play. 

 

I haven't reached End Game yet which is where you need to really judge these types of games so I can't fully evaluate how it'll play out.  

 

I really enjoyed the campaign, and I don't think any one character is the best character.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses.  I think thus far I've done the best with Kamala.  I haven't played as much with Thor and Captain though to really judge them fully, and you need to unlock more of all their skill trees to get a better feel for them.

 

Loot is a bit deeper and I think it'll be fun trying to min/max builds around certain specializations, especially factoring in playing with a Squad.  I've been playing all solo so far for the Campaign stuff.

 

One last bit on the Monetization.  If you do all the main characters "Character Cards", you earn $78 worth of the premium currency in game, as each characters card has $13 worth of it to earn.  That is given to you for playing the the game.  They stated each new character will have a new Character Card that costs $10.  I'm assuming that new character will also have $13 worth of rewards on theirs.  So ultimately, you never need to spend another dime, and you'd still have $68 worth of Premium Currency to buy a few extra skins or cosmetics you like from the store. 

 

On top of that, the coolest Skins I've seen are all buyable in a separate Cosmetic Store that uses only in game currency, not Premium Currency.  As far as I can see, you can't buy that currency at all with real money, its just earned playing the game.  Of course, the Legendary Skins are pricey on there, but you can earn all of it playing the game, and don't ever have to spend any money in the real money currency.  

 

So far I'm digging the game and look forward to squadding up for end game stuff as it releases.

 

 

[JPDunks4]

It does have quite a few technical issues.  On my Xbox One X, one of Widow's skins hair is just always messed up due to a visual bug.  Also had part of Caps head load in invisible.

[Keyser_Soze]

I thought this was a fun glitch

 

https://www.twitch.tv/maximilian_dood/clip/ColorfulPrettiestPancakeBigBrother

 

And this one (Captain America Part) - I guess not technically a glitch but sorta a glitch

 

https://www.twitch.tv/maximilian_dood/clip/TenuousSmoggyBaboonOSfrog

 

EDIT: Had to edit out the embeds because can't stop the autoplay.

 

[skillzdadirecta]

4 hours ago, JPDunks4 said:

It does have quite a few technical issues.  On my Xbox One X, one of Widow's skins hair is just always messed up due to a visual bug.  Also had part of Caps head load in invisible.

Yeah I told you about my menu bug. Widows hair is messed up on mine too. I just booted up and there's a 15 gig update so we'll see if that fixes anything. I was actually surprised at the amount of bugs and glitches because Square Enix games tend to be pretty polished. At least the Tomb Raider reboots were. I also had some significant slow down during a fight last night because of all of the effects going on in the background. I AM playing on the Xbox One S though.

[skillzdadirecta]

4 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I thought this was a fun glitch

 

https://www.twitch.tv/maximilian_dood/clip/ColorfulPrettiestPancakeBigBrother

 

And this one (Captain America Part) - I guess not technically a glitch but sorta a glitch

 

https://www.twitch.tv/maximilian_dood/clip/TenuousSmoggyBaboonOSfrog

 

EDIT: Had to edit out the embeds because can't stop the autoplay.

 

How is Max liking the game?

[ARZ]

The campaign is not even the entire game, it's maybe 1/4 of it. There's harm rooms, individual story missions, multiplayer, raids, etc. Even if you 100% the campaign, there's a ton of content to continue playing.

 

LOVE the game.

Only complaints are

• Handful of visual bugs, as mentioned
• No drop-in/drop-out multiplayer
• No cross play

Regardless, the game is a blast, and if has long legs, i'm pretty sure all of those above gripes are  things that they will address.

[skillzdadirecta]

32 minutes ago, ARZ said:

The campaign is not even the entire game, it's maybe 1/4 of it. There's harm rooms, individual story missions, multiplayer, raids, etc. Even if you 100% the campaign, there's a ton of content to continue playing.

 

LOVE the game.

Only complaints are

• Handful of visual bugs, as mentioned
• No drop-in/drop-out multiplayer
• No cross play

Regardless, the game is a blast, and if has long legs, i'm pretty sure all of those above gripes are  things that they will address.

There's a decent amount of bugs and glitches too. This probably the least polished Square/Enix game I've played in a long time. I just got Cap and will probably finish the campaign tonight.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Does it have the heavy motion blur and frame rate issues that plagued the beta? 

[skillzdadirecta]

4 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Does it have the heavy motion blur and frame rate issues that plagued the beta? 

Motion blur yes... frame rate issues not so much but I did have one instance last night where the frame rate dipped. I'm also playing on the X1S so...

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I wonder if the motion blur can be disabled on the One X

[Keyser_Soze]

6 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How is Max liking the game?

 

He beat it like 2 days ago. Said it was fine gave it a 7/10

[ALIEN-gunner]

On 9/2/2020 at 6:52 PM, Phaseknox said:

I was planning on getting this Friday for the single player campaign since it looks really good, but I've discovered that it's only like 10 hours long which is too short for a $60 game IMO. I'm not interested in the multiplayer aspects of the game, so I'll get it when it's a lot cheaper.

I guess the main story can be beaten in 10hrs if you rush through on easy. The main story is well over 10 hours long bpt to mention each characters unigue stories take up even more time.

 

And you do know that all of those multiplayer missions(minus the raids) can be played solo with AI companions made up of your other characters that you level up? 

 

Come on man.