Earlier today, publisher Square Enix hosted a digital stream called "The Marvel’s Avengers War Table". It was meant to be a deep dive into the upcoming game, showing off new gameplay footage, and detailing what players have to look forward to when Marvel's Avengers launches this September.
We discovered that the game's central villain would be none other than MODOK, who folks might know as the bad guy with a comically large cranium. In Marvel's Avengers, him and his clearly-evil organization, AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics), has some serious beef with the titular team of heroes.
There was also talk of a new game mode centered around team-based missions, called War Zones, that are primarily co-op focused but will provide AI compatriots should players choose to go it alone.
Over the course of the stream, there were often many things happening on the screen. We got to see Thor, Mjolnir in-hand, beat the ever-living crap out of robot spider things. We witnessed Black Widow do those action-y summersaults that she does. Heck, we even saw the Hulk in full gladiator gear doing what Hulk does best: Smash.
Despite a flurry of stimulating visuals accompanied by an insightful developer commentary, there just wasn't anything to get particularly excited about. The worst part is, I know I'm not alone in feeling this.
Ever since the game was first revealed during last year's E3, Marvel's Avengers has continued to ooze generic in all that has been shown - character models, voice acting, dialogue, presentation. I think most of us, myself included, thought that the game would evolve over time, that what we were initially shown was more of a proof-of-concept not indicative of the final product. As it turns out, that assumption has proven to be false.
While there are no doubt dozens of folks working hard and pouring their souls into this game, everything about it just feels uninspired, which is the last thing you want to see in a game that's trying to engage its player-base over a long period of time.
For those that are still excited for Marvel's Avengers, I can't blame you. Despite the perceived short-comings, it is still looks like one of, if not the most comprehensive game based on the Avengers IP ever made. That said, today's stream offered the most in-depth look at the game yet, so it might be worth a watch.
