Marvel's Avengers

Marvel´s Avengers is a very ambitious game, with a spectacular single player campaign and multiplayer designed as an MMO, with an enjoyable combat system and the promise of lots of content and new heroes incoming. Some missions can get repetitive.

Avengers is in great shape right now, dazzling with its story and action. I’m hooked on the end-game content that is available now, and I want to see just how powerful these heroes can become after leveling them completely.

For right now, Marvel’s Avengers is constantly fun to play with its easily accessible combat and a story that should not be missed. Yes, some assembly may be required but like every great superhero story, you need a great origin.

With a stellar campaign and set pieces that rival anything in the MCU, Marvel’s Avengers already delivers a ton of value. But add on the endless multiplayer and future characters, and this game is poised to be a classic. Some early bugs distract from the fun, but the bones of the game are solid. Marvel’s Avengers is an amazing achievement.

If all you want is to play through the video game equivalent of a Marvel movie, then it does an excellent job. If you're hoping for something you can play for infinite hours with constant updates, the truth is that it's too early to tell. What we played was fun for a few hours of co-op, but I have my doubts about its long-term viability. It's by far the best Avengers game ever made, and with the exception of Hulk (whose Hulk: Ultimate Destruction remains the pinnacle of Hulk gameplay), it features the best video game version of the superheroes to date.

Marvel's Avengers leaves us with a title loaded with a multitude of options and fun with the most powerful heroes in the world. The campaign created by Crystal Dynamics shines and hooks, although the multiplayer mode can become heavy and repetitive after many hours, the room for improvement is vast, although the result for now passes with flying colors.

Marvel's Avengers is a strange and somehow unexpected hybrid. Considered on its own, the campaign is an excellent action adventure, able to capture the spirit of Marvel characters both in battle and in everyday demeanor with an enthusiastic cinematic approach. The forced mashup with a Destiny-like multiplayer, however, does not benefit the game as a whole: online features are just weak, to the point they partially water down the singleplayer campaign. Perhaps Avengers Initiative’s time will come, but for now the game deserves to be played mainly for Kamala Khan’s story, which is joyful and inspiring.

Marvel’s Avengers isn’t quite a slam dunk, but as a co-op friendly superhero game it does a lot more right than wrong. Major tentpole features such as the game’s story campaign and diverse roster of heroes are further bolstered by accessible progression systems, well-balanced team play, and the unshakable resolve of protagonist Kamala Khan. The game is obviously better with friends, but even as a solo venture it makes a strong showing out of the gate while also teasing plenty of future potential.

At the moment, there are few major Marvel baddies (I’ve only seen side quests to face the aforementioned two), but imagine Square adding, say, Red Skull or Loki in the coming months. Already, more heroes (Kate Bishop and PlayStation exclusive Spider-man) are on the way, and that alone will enrich the experience.

The Ms.-Marvel-centric campaign is almost worth the cover price alone. Deep hero customisation sets the stage for a strong online mode with plenty more to come. [Issue#180, p.67]

It would be hard to recommend Marvel’s Avengers to anybody who is looking for a rich multiplayer experience. Despite being a live-service game, this is no Destiny. But Destiny was also pretty sparse when it first came out. There could be a lot of quality content in the game’s future, and it does seem that the developers want players to stick around for a while. There is a slew of post-launch content planned, after all. Spider-Man, who will be exclusive to PlayStation consoles, isn’t even due out until 2021. It is difficult to imagine what is meant to keep players grinding from now until then. The game is amazing for a weekend, but for several months? For the moment, it seems unlikely. Hopefully that will change.

Marvel's Avengers is a triumph of a superhero team-up game, with tight gameplay, tons to do and collect and the promise of more to come in the future.

The campaign is brilliant, and despite its flaws I've had a great time with Marvel's Avengers - and I'm not done yet.

You come to Marvel's Avengers to play their campaign and leave it a few hours later, fed up with repeating tedious missions just to get that gear or skin that you think you need.

Marvel’s Avengers impresses with a well-written, dramatic campaign. From a gameplay standpoint, the combat is as fun and satisfying as one could hope for in a title based on the superhero team. Though the online live service aspect is bogged down by overly complicated menus, systems, and matchmaking woes, there’s still a fun experience underneath. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix deliver a perfectly adequate adaptation of an iconic property with Marvel’s Avengers.

The future of Marvel’s Avengers’ ongoing success will be completely dependent on the quality and regularity of content. However, as a game available today, it’s a solid entry into the loot and shoot RPG space. The single player story is worth the price of admission alone, leaving the fun but dated approach to multiplayer a welcome addition for fans of the looter style approach.

The story campaign in Marvel's Avengers is a wonderful treat for fans of Marvel as it's full of superhero fun. Beyond that, the experience unfortunately doesn't quite maintain its level of excitement in its multiplayer component.

Crystal Dynamics has released a half-cooked Marvel's Avengers game, but it has a lot of potential ahead. We are completely sure that, in a year, this game could be completely different, since it has plenty of possibilities and there is still plenty of content to spend hours without stopping. But it is true that it has arrived without being reviewed properly in some of its sections. Even with that, the game is full of epic action and Marvel fans will love it.

All in all, there were elements of Marvel’s Avengers that I greatly enjoyed. I found that the single player campaign was largely entertaining, and I greatly enjoyed Kamala Khan in particular as a main character. Still, logging through the game’s multiplayer is currently a chore. Until further DLC and updates come along, the ten hours of single player content is arguably the strongest element of Marvel’s Avengers, which makes me hesitant to say it is a must-buy at full price. If you’re a Marvel fan—particularly if you’re a Ms. Marvel fan—then odds are good you’ll find at least a few elements to enjoy here. However, I’d probably advise waiting for a sale before diving in to Marvel’s Avengers completely.

Marvel’s Avengers is basically a high production value Marvel Ultimate Alliance style action RPG, built around the structure of a game like Destiny. This is a powerful combination, featuring spectacular action and endless possibilities, but developer Crystal Dynamics stumbles in their ambition. Therefore the game’s stability is horrendous (although the performance mode might help) and navigating its many options is unnecessarily convoluted. The future of Marvel’s Avengers does seem to shine bright though.

Two weeks after launch, Marvel's Avengers seems to have already outlined its nature: that of an atypical Games as a Service, more focused on narrative development than on the variety of the multiplayer offering.

For all of my criticisms, Marvel’s Avengers is still a game I can’t wait to get back to playing. While there’s a lot of work to do, it gets one main thing right: it’s fun to be an Avenger. Crystal Dynamics captured this incredible feeling of being a superhero and distilled it into a digital environment. Combat is deep and nuanced, with far more complexities and character than your traditional superhero brawler. Right now, Marvel’s Avengers is a bit rough around the edges, but “good isn’t a thing you are. It’s a thing you do.” If Crystal Dynamics can smooth performance and squash bugs, as well as build out a more compelling endgame experience, it has a lot of potential to be one of the most memorable and replayable loot brawlers of this generation and next.

Marvel’s Avengers knows how to recreate the essence of the heroes it portrays, but it is a bit rough around the edges, and needs time to polish the experience and provide what you would expect from a game like this. This is just the first step, so we hope it all improves as it evolves.

If you're a fan of Marvel's superhero universe, you'll frequently feel like a kid in a candy store. But after a while even the most diehard Avengers groupie will have to admit that the game gets rather repetitive... and suffers from a number of technical issues to boot.

There are moments, when Marvel's Avengers shines really brightly. About a year from now, the game will certainly be less Thor: The Dark World and more Thor: Ragnarok, hopefully shining at all times. The developers need to polish the interface, fix some technical issues and add some more "stuff." Until then, we get a product that's more than satisfying.

Technical flaws and a lack of variety prevents Marvel’s Avengers from reaching the heights achieved by the comics or the MCU, but powerful writing, heartfelt dialogue and loose but fun combat make the game something to be experienced by all.

Marvel's Avengers has it's downsides, but all in all, it's a fun looter-brawler with a wonderful single-player campaign and great combat. It's repetitiveness hampers it quite a bit and the performance issues are annoying, but it has a solid foundation to work with.

Marvel's Avengers is a better game than we expected, but even if the outside is appealing, it's still very repetitive, and the microtransctions are a hard hit on the fans.

Marvel’s Avengers at launch is a solid-foundation for Crystal Dynamics to build upon and develop into a fantastic live-service title that joins the ranks of Warframe and Destiny 2.

Marvel's Avengers has a shallow and linear campaign, saved only by a brilliant start and the exciting finale. Multiplayer mode offers good mission variety, but the success of the game con be already compromised by the repetitiveness and the generic combat system.

Multiplayer online games rarely, if ever, emerge from the developmental womb spit shined and bug-free. That doesn’t mean that Marvel’s Avengers gets a pass for releasing a multiplayer game with poor multiplayer, but it does mean that, as with most MOG’s, the game will only get better. Right now, Marvel’s Avengers is in its baby Hulk infancy, but it has a bright future as a World Breaker.

This is the perfect example of "Games as a Service" done right. Marvel's Avengers offers up a superb campaign story to play through that is promised to be expanded on in the future. The gameplay may be repetitive, but it includes just enough to keep players interested and invested in the endgame content that is available now to keep this game going until the next step in its roadmap. The possibilities and potential in the future here are hugely exciting.

Marvel’s Avengers turns a childhood dream into a reality by letting us fight as our favorite Marvel superheroes. Like candy, the game is an incredibly fun treat best consumed over time and in small doses. Its only drawback is in the game’s own midlife crisis as it can’t seem to focus on what it is: a single-player campaign or a multiplayer ultimate inventory alliance.

With a campaign that has an interesting story and deep interactions between characters, tons of collectibles and action gameplay that is well tailored to each hero, Marvel’s Avengers succeeds in delivering the appeal of this iconic team of characters in game format. However, access to the game’s modes feels unnecessarily inconvenient, and an often cumbersome UI makes the experience feel less smooth than it could have been. Depending on the updates and new contents planned in the future, Marvel’s Avengers could very well reach its true potential, but at this point, there’s still a lot that needs to be addressed.

Marvel Avengers is a roleplaying action brawler video game. The combat is good and responsive. It has similar hub-style play similar to Monster Hunter and Anthem which is not everyone’s cup of tea. The main single-player campaign is short but there is much more once that is over. Quickly though it can feel repetitive once you reach the endgame.

The explosive story campaign will keep you glued to the edge of your seat from start to finish, but the game runs woefully, the AI is stupid, the loot is uninteresting and the endgame is downright boring.

Marvel’s Avengers is launching with a few cuts and bruises. It has a charming story and a surprising amount of depth and detail in the massive Initiative missions, but trying to experience it all inevitably leads to running through the same types of areas over and over, multiplied by however many Avengers you choose to make time to level up. It might not be as easy to love this crew compared to the cast we’ve been laughing and crying with for the last 10 years, but the groundwork is here to create a potentially epic-sized superhero fantasy. It just has more work to do to get there.

Attempting to provide both satisfying big-budget narrative adventures and an online squad-based loot-grinding platform, Marvel's Avengers is an extremely impressive effort that falls short on long-term incentives (at least so far), but nails the campaign.

Marvel's Avengers features fun combat and an endearing campaign that showcases Kamala Khan. Unfortunately it also features a post-game experience that is repetitive, lifeless and a slog to play through.

The bottom line is that Marvel’s Avengers works better than I would have thought. But the discrepancy between single player and multiplayer is large.

Marvel's Avengers, as a package that tries to offer solid single-player action and durable multi-player experience, is a failure at its current state. It's not necessarily a bad game and it's actually fun and entertaining to interact with many of the super heroes from the Marvel's universe, but the final product can't keep up with the expectations.

The current state of Marvel's Avengers is not much different from how we find Bruce Banner in the game's campaign. They are both in a bad position and they don't shine as brightly as they should. However, they also have the potential to be something bigger, stronger and special. In Marvel’s Avengers you will find a brilliant really good campaign and a competent looter multiplayer, but Crystal Dynamics still has work to do.

The fighting system is right, the powers are right, the balance is right: every superhero is fun to play with. The heroes' designs are debatable, but the unlockable costumes solve that problem for most people. It is a shame that it was decided to put so much emphasis on multiplayer, because at the moment there is a lot of fun to be had with Marvel's Avengers, especially as a single player game. The multiplayer is now on level The Incredible Hulk (2008). Let's hope it doesn't take Crystal Dynamics eleven years to reach your level of Endgame.

The parts of the game that work are a solid start to what is supposed to be a live service game with years of free updates ahead of it. Frankly though, I’m surprised at just how many issues the game currently has. At the end of the day, I’m ultimately enjoying my time with the game, it can be a lot of fun. However, when asked to present a final score, I simply cannot ignore the many issues that are holding the game back at launch. Hopefully the developers can get things sorted out and these issues that are currently hindering the game will soon be a thing of the past.

Marvel’s Avengers is both a fantastic story and a dead-average grind for meaningless loot. When everything comes together, it’s a brilliant power fantasy with heart and a true passion for its source material. Those moments are fleeting though, held back by a range of technical issues, shockingly sloppy design, and no solid idea of what kind of game it really wants to be. Some assembly, definitely required.

Marvel’s Avengers has buried in it an excellent story and single-player experience. But all the good it does is overshadowed by technical issues and corporate greed. In its current state is more similar to a beta, rather than a fully polished AAA game. The main campaign of the game is truly delicious and is worth experiencing by every fan of action games. The several climaxes masterfully weaved into it manage to make you feel like a part of the Avengers. But even these moments cannot make me forget about the technical issues, and the sacrifices made to turn the game into a live service.

Marvel’s Avengers isn’t the superhero adventure I was hoping for, but it is an adventure I didn’t mind playing through. There are moments of gameplay where you feel like a member of the Avengers, but that requires you to look past some repetitive stage designs and surface-level combat systems. Regardless, there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of fun to be found here, and I’ll for sure keep my cape ready for any future experiences this game offers.

For every part of Marvel's Avengers that you might love, there's another side to it that drags it down. There really is a lot to love here, like it's fantastic combat, loveable characters and fun multiplayer, but there's also plenty of glitches, unbalanced economies and poor missions that can make playing feel like a drag. Having some of my favourite Marvel characters decorating a pretty great third-person-action-brawler was enough for me to see it through and feel like I would be coming back for more, but at the moment it feels like one that only Marvel fans will really enjoy.

Although my ultimate verdict is weeks of multiplayer away, the first slice of this cake is a tasty one. Even casual Marvel fans would do well to keep Marvel’s Avengers on their radar.

Marvel's Avengers is a fun and explosive game but, given the importance of the license to which it is based, can only be considered half successful.

Marvel's Avengers tells a surprisingly gripping tale and has gameplay that packs enough of a punch to (almost) make you forget about the messy loot system and less than stellar performance.

There may well be the feeling of a missed opportunity here, but no matter. Almost worthy is still pretty good.

Marvel’s Avengers offers a new approach for a superhero video game, yet one that still feels all too familiar for anyone who's played Destiny, The Division, or Anthem. It’s eye-popping in its technical prowess as well as how much it leans on live service hooks, anticipating players will come back day after day. And a lot of players definitely will, especially if they can squad up with friends. Past its flaws and behind the grind, Marvel’s Avengers is still a fun superhero brawler that has plenty of room to grow in the coming months.

Marvel’s Avengers has proven to be a pleasant surprise, even if its live service identity arguably hinders the true potential of its world, story and characters. Engaging combat and rewarding progression have established a solid foundation for Crystal Dynamics to build upon with new heroes and scenarios in the months and years to come.

It could’ve been a great single player title. The publisher chose to go down the game as a service path though, and those who prefer to play solo need to tackle run-of-the-mill co-op missions. The multiplayer on the other hand is messy, chaotic and in the long run boring. When the developers manage to fix the most pressing bugs and find a way to bring more variety to co-op, this might become a solid game. Right now, I can only recommend it to the biggest fans of the Avengers. [11/2020, p.26]

As it stands now, the campaign is great, and playing as each of the Avengers is fun, but the game just offers too little post-campaign content to warrant continued play. The performance issues are just unacceptable for a AAA game of this caliber. It's clear that this game should have released later in the year or delayed for another year. It really feels like this is yet another game shoved out the door while saying, "We'll fix it later."

Marvel's Avengers is held up by a surprisingly excellent single-player campaign and let down by its stagnant gameplay loop and widespread technical issues. We definitely can't do this all day.

As a whole, the game is interesting, thanks to a (too?) complete customization system and complementary superheroes. On the other hand, the player often finds himself confronted with awkward choices and great redundancy synonymous with repetitive missions... Although Crystal Dynamics has, unlike BioWare with Anthem, avoided the trap of unbalanced loot, the game remains, as it is, simply attractive if not essential.

For Avengers to entertain any thought of survival as a service game, then, there is a huge amount of work to be done. Most games in the area falter in their early days, if not necessarily to this extent, and there is the kernel of something good here, with strong combat and definable superheroes that are fun to stomp/fly/bound around with. With new heroes on the way to bolster out the roster, if Crystal Dynamics can find a way to hone the game closer to its strengths than its borrowed weaknesses, there may be hope for the Avengers yet. Otherwise the decision to compromise its otherwise solid campaign in the pursuit of all-consuming longevity could prove fatal.

As a triple-A holiday blockbuster from a renowned studio and a major publisher released after years of build-up, it doesn’t feel like a product that has justified this much anticipation. Furthermore, as yet another live-service title expecting players to sink who knows how many hours into its ecosystem, it completely fails to convince me that anybody will be playing in a year without a great deal of work needed to elevate it out of mediocrity.

Marvel's Avengers is at odds with itself every step of the way. Thanks to a great story that spotlights Kamala Khan as the heart and soul of this game there is enough to justify its existence. The multiplayer, however, is riddled with bugs, bad level design, and a lack of diverse content that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, Marvel’s Avengers makes an attempt at breaking into an already flooded market of battle passes, cosmetics, and surface-level systems that attempt to show some kind of variety. There are better options out there for players to enjoy with fewer caveats and bugs.

Marvel's Avengers has some good ideas, a satisfying campaign and enjoyable combat across a variety of heroes. But it suffers from repetitive and shallow missions, borrowed mechanics that aren't executed particularly well, and not least of all, pronounced technical issues.

Square Enix heavily marketed the title as a games-as-a-service affair, so a long road is ahead. With a substantial amount of new content in the future, as well as some variety in mission objectives, Marvel’s Avengers could be worth a player’s time and effort. At the very least, the roughly 8-10 hour campaign is worth experiencing if only for the amazing portrayal of Kamala Khan. Right now, though, you may want to steer clear until more updates arrive.

Marvel's Avengers is a typical holiday blockbuster with bright special effects, explosions, chases and familiar characters, which periodically descends into dullness with boring missions and tasks. Without all this tinsel and service elements, Marvel's Avengers would probably be a much more complete and interesting game. At the same time, Crystal Dynamics managed to create a really interesting character with Kamala Khan, who deserves much more attention than the rest of the Avengers squad.

While I enjoyed my time with the single-player campaign in Marvel’s Avengers–which surprised me with its warmth, fun, and energy–its multiplayer components haven’t quite come together just yet. As a game that revolves around assembling its team of iconic heroes, Marvel’s Avengers at this time still feels a bit at odds with itself. Granted, Crystal Dynamics clearly is planning to make this experience evolve over time with the introduction of new heroes and storylines into its online modes, so the Marvel’s Avengers a year from now may look very different than today. For now, we’ll have to see if these heroes can find a way to regroup to face the challenges ahead.

Marvel's Avengers' campaign is fun and endearing, but the loot-based post-game meant to be the meat of this meal is unrewarding and overly repetitive.

A snappy, fun campaign full of great VO ends too soon, and the game-as-service that comes after is paper thin.

Marvel's Avengers allows players to play through an entertainment main story but is held back by its uninspired Destiny-like gameplay and numerous technical issues. Square Enix should have allowed Crystal Dynamics to create a more full on AAA single player game instead.

If you’re looking for an Avengers campaign and nothing more, you may enjoy what Marvel’s Avengers has to offer, especially if the performance and be polished up with post-launch patches. But if you’re looking for another persistent world looter shooter, there are far, far better options out there right now. Marvel’s Avengers is only just starting its journey with plenty of content due to release in the future, but right now it’s a tough sell.

Marvel's Avengers portrays the superhero theme from a whole new perspective, and it's really refreshing. During the cinematic missions the game really is everything we wanted from an Avengers game, with flashy attacks and rock-hard action like the movies it was inspired by. However, the multiplayer focus means that some annoyances penetrate into our offline sessions.

In another timeline, this would have been a wholly linear experience, tightly paced with a fun narrative that focused entirely on Ms. Marvel’s growth as she sought out the different Avengers in exciting locations, both on Earth and off-world. This could have been complemented with an entirely separate co-op experience.

There’s some might in these heroes, just not enough to keep things interesting.

At launch, Marvel's Avengers is a passable experience, with some big upsides to be found in its combat, stellar voice cast, and fun single-player campaign. However, its loot system, repetitive endgame missions, and technical hiccups seriously hold it back from reaching its full potential. But it's worth keeping in mind that Marvel's Avengers is a live-service game, and so a year from now, it may be a far better package. Those on the fence should wait for Crystal Dynamics to address some of these issues, especially since the superior next-gen versions are right around the corner anyway.

Marvel's Avengers' least advertised aspect turns out to be its greatest asset, and it's exactly what hardcore fans were craving the most. The story and everything that comes with it is a real highlight, allowing the exceptional Kamala Khan to take the lead and bring with her enjoyable combat systems and fun parkour. The shocking framerate, along with bugs and glitches, should be fixed in the near future, but it's what the game has you do after the credits roll that quickly becomes its biggest downfall. Marvel's Avengers has a single player campaign that thoroughly excites, surprises, and delights. What follows brings it crashing back down to Earth.

Marvel’s Avengers is a pastiche of game mechanics and structures that go opposite paths without a definite direction. It offers a single player campaign that could have been really interesting but that never takes flight because it is restricted by multiplayer-type missions.

When Avengers isn't getting in the way of itself with its tacked-on campaign, it's a bit of silly arcade fun. If a lot of these concerns are answered via post-launch patches and the DLC characters are fun to play, there's plenty of room for improvement with Avengers. At launch, it's not going to wow everyone. Maybe Marvel wanted this out as soon as possible, but it could have used another delay.

Between a disappointing campaign and a whole "service game" aspect with significant content but limited interest, Marvel's Avengers didn't convince us. We'll have to see how the Crystal Dynamics game evolves, as there's clearly potential behind its progression system and its superheroes with very distinct styles. But for now, we suggest you think carefully before jumping into the adventure. In addition to all the structural flaws and lack of variety, the game has a plethora of irritating technical problems, including bugs, crashes and framerate issues. We'll see in 5 or 6 months.

As someone who plays nearly all superhero games, watches all the movies, and still reads the comics, I can’t help but be let down by the Avengers. Square Enix was in development way too long to turn out something that’s just fine and I didn’t even get into all the bugs and glitches that this launched with. I am optimistic though, that this game will grow if the community continues to support it. Avengers is meant to be a “games as a service” after all and once we start seeing some DLC and the type of support that Square Enix gives we can get a better idea how this franchise will grow. If you’ve played all of the Arkham games, Ultimate Alliance games, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man, you really have no other choice for a Marvel experience, but if you haven’t I would sadly recommend any of those other games over this.

Crystal Dynamics had an ambitious idea with Marvel's Avengers. It attempts to seduce players into endless sessions of heroic carnage in a bloodthirsty hunt for increasingly satisfying gear. In reality, however, the loot drops are brutally bare, leaving the repetitious core without a shoulder to lean on. Somehow Marvel's Avengers finds itself packed with content but also feeling incomplete. Upcoming DLC characters may revive its fleeting heartbeat, but until then, the experience was a bit too depressing for me to enjoy.

There have been plenty of moments during my time with Marvel's Avengers where I’ve genuinely had a great time. But this game keeps finding ways to drag itself down- at times it almost feels like it goes out of its way to do so. There’s just so much here that I can’t overlook, no matter how hard I may try. An unnecessary and broken loot system, a litany of horrible technical issues, uninspired and one-note mission design, and a story that fails just as much as it succeeds- it doesn’t matter how mindlessly fun the combat is, it isn't enough to overcome such a heavy list of problems.

Marvel’s Avengers is a truly saddening experience which has a huge potential to be or become a truly good game with its interesting character combat and story. In its state, it is riddled with problems like terrible bugs, non-functional multiplayer, microtransactions, and an average and problematic enemy design.

At the end of the day, Marvel’s Avengers is two very different experiences. The campaign is great, and Kamala is an absolute superstar that I can’t wait to see get recognized for more outside of the comics. The multiplayer end game, on the other hand, is bereft of purpose and content, serving only as a poor conduit towards a loot grind that feels meaningless beyond “making this number bigger.” There is promise here, and maybe in a year, Avengers will be a great game. But if you don’t feel like waiting a year, if you need to know if you should buy this now, don’t bother. There needs to come a point where we stop paying full price now for the promise of a good game later. Let this be it.

If Marvel's Avengers was just the single-player story campaign, it would be amazing. There, Crystal Dynamics sells you on its version of the Avengers and introduces the charming and endearing Ms. Marvel to players everywhere. Combat has depth to it, and each hero truly feels distinct. Unfortunately, the endgame is where our heroes falter, with broken matchmaking, rough options in terms of progression, and endlessly reused environments and enemies. Surely, Marvel's Avengers will see improvements, but here at launch, the endgame needs a good deal of work.

A jumbled mess that’s trying to be at least three different types of game at once, drowning out the enjoyable combat with a tsunami of repetition and meaningless loot.

Marvel’s Avengers squanders the potential of what might have been a fun superhero romp by grafting on an annoying, overly repetitive games-as-a-service component. Playing as the cast of heroes offers decent thrills, and the campaign tells an enjoyable enough story, but odds are good you’ll get bored long before you grind your way to the top.

Everything truly good in Marvel’s Avengers is compromised by its mercenary feature set.

I cannot in good faith recommend people pay for Marvel’s Avengers. At it’s absolute best, the game is fine. More often that not, it does not reach those modest heights. The live-service approach to a franchise that does not suit it has rendered so much of it bland and lazy when that’s the last thing a game of this nature should be. This may be a game that we come back to in the future and find a completely reworked, satisfying experience that doesn’t put all its effort into blocking the player from enjoying themselves but not right now. At launch, Marvel’s Avengers is an imperfect and frustrating mess.

Marvel’s Avengers offers a reasonably entertaining campaign, but it’s highly derivative. Everything in it has been done better elsewhere. And the longer it goes on, the more it’s hampered by desperately repetitive missions and a mindless upgrade structure.