Avengers Beta Impressions

(Marvel's Avengers - Square Enix)

&NewLine;<p>I have been lucky enough to have been reading comics books since I was eight years old&comma; my Father and I happened to wander into California Comics and Cards one Sunday and that was it&comma; I was hooked&period; Every Sunday we would go get comic books&comma; yes the store would change every now and then&comma; but they are some of the best memories of my life&period; Dad and I getting ice cream and buying about thirty comic books to read until school started on Monday&period; Dad never got to see <em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Spider-Man <&sol;em>on the PS4 but he did get to watch me play the Arkham games and he got a huge kick out of Batman whomping on evil ass&period; Dad always liked Batman and and Superman the most&comma; he grew up in the 40&&num;8217&semi;s and those were the ones he remembered&period; He steered what I bought for the first few years&period; I had some input&comma; I loved the Fantastic Four for some reason&comma; then Time Burton&&num;8217&semi;s Batman hit theaters and that was that&period; I became the biggest Batman nerd on the planet&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>I figured would give some backstory to my comic book knowledge and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;author&sol;jokerman27&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">nerddom<&sol;a>&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t get into the <em>Avengers<&sol;em> until the middle 90&&num;8217&semi;s and have stuck with them since&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d like to think my knowledge of their history is pretty good&comma; not as good as DC&comma; but I know a thing or two&comma; cause I&&num;8217&semi;ve seen a thing or two&period; That being said I was nervous about this title&comma; what I had been seeing was not impressing me at all&period; The characters looked off&comma; the story didn&&num;8217&semi;t seem too hot and I was worried about microtransactions and all that evilness&period; The<em> Avengers Beta<&sol;em> dropped today and I took a chance and downloaded it&period; I am so insanely happy that I did not pass up this demo&comma; not only did I get a nice <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;-kHCHxbrw&lowbar;M" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Twitch<&sol;a> stream out of it&comma; I also got to be blown away by Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix&period; Do I still have some concerns&comma; absolutely&comma; but they saved a sale with this Beta&comma; I plan on pre-ordering this title because I am now excited to see where they take Earth&&num;8217&semi;s Mightiest Heroes&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p><strong>The Team<&sol;strong><&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"> &NewLine;<figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img class&equals;"wp-image-162089" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;14231447&sol;Avengers&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Marvel's The Avengers - Square Enix&rpar;" &sol;> &NewLine;<figcaption>&lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Avengers<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Square Enix&rpar;<&sol;figcaption> &NewLine;<&sol;figure> &NewLine;<&sol;div> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>When this title was first announced I was not a fan of the look of the team&period; It legitimately looked like they stole the stunt doubles from the movies and scanned them for the video game&period; They looked off&comma; they still look a BIT off to me&comma; Black Widow looks considerably better&comma; Hulk looks great&comma; Iron Man&&num;8217&semi;s armor looks sleek&comma; Thor looks wrong to me and I&&num;8217&semi;m not a fan of the Captain America costume they chose&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>Hopefully with some time left they can tweak what the characters look like a bit more&period; The beginning of the Beta takes place on a day celebrating the Avengers and what they&&num;8217&semi;ve done for the world&period; Oddly enough it is in San Francisco so I was surprised to see no West Coast Avengers hanging about&comma; but they decided to put an Avengers tower in San Fran&comma; go figure huh&quest; Since it&&num;8217&semi;s a celebration I just cannot see Cap wearing his battle fatigues&comma; it looks like the costume he wore in<em> Ultimate Avengers<&sol;em> the first mini-series&period; I understand that the two universes have merged since then in the comic book&comma; I was hoping for good old star-spangled Cap&excl;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>To be honest&comma; and I know this is picky&comma; but its my love for the characters that is talking&comma; but they need to shave Thor&comma; for some reason he doesn&&num;8217&semi;t look good with a beard in this game&period; Yes&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s had a beard several times and it looks great on him&comma; but for some reason it is unsettling to me in the context of the game&period; Weird&comma; I know&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m a stickler for sticking with what works&comma; his beard in this game just doesn&&num;8217&semi;t&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p><strong>The Controls<&sol;strong><&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image is-style-default"> &NewLine;<figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img class&equals;"wp-image-162097" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;14232930&sol;marvels-avengers-screenshot-05-ps4-06feb20-en-us&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" &sol;> &NewLine;<figcaption>&lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Avengers<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Square Enix&rpar;<&sol;figcaption> &NewLine;<&sol;figure> &NewLine;<&sol;div> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>To be honest&comma; the controls for all of the heroes are tight&comma; except for Iron Man&period; Thor and Captain America play like Kratos in the latest <em>God of War&comma; <&sol;em>they both have a strong and weak attack&comma; both can throw their weapon&comma; Cap his shield and Thor his hammer&period; The neatest thing is that you can call back the Mjolnir at your whim&comma; so you can hit some guy in the face&comma; then his ass&period; The Hulk plays great&comma; you jump&comma; destroy&comma; rinse and repeat&period; Playing as him was the most satisfying to me&comma; they got it right like in <em>Hulk&colon; Ultimate Destruction<&sol;em>&period; Black Widow played like Dante in Devil May Cry&comma; she&&num;8217&semi;s fast&comma; you dodge in and out to land some punches&comma; then when out of fist range you bring out the guns to mess shit up&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine;<p>Ms Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s controls are pretty sweet&comma; I was looking forward to see what they were going to do with her and the developers NAILED it&excl; She has super stretchy type powers and you can destroy the enemies with these in a powerful and fun manner&excl; Her animations are great and getting her to kick a villain in the face is hilarious&excl; <&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>The WORST controlled Avenger was sadly Iron Man&period; When I was playing the Beta there was no tutorial for a lock-on with the character&period; I will add&comma; later Iron Man does get a lock on&comma; it makes his character much easier to maneuver and be successful&period; At the beginning of the Beta they just didn&&num;8217&semi;t let you know&comma; but press R3 is you&&num;8217&semi;ve just begun the Beta&excl; Black Widow has one during her boss fight&comma; but they didn&&num;8217&semi;t give Iron Man on when he was fighting tanks&period; His beams don&&num;8217&semi;t fire fast&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t lock on and while flying he&&num;8217&semi;s harder to control and fire&period; A lock-on would greatly help Iron Man during his scenes&period; Maybe after this mission in San Fran he realized he needs a lock on and adds it to his suit&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p><strong>The Story<&sol;strong><&sol;p> &NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image is-style-default"> &NewLine;<figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img class&equals;"wp-image-162100" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;14235628&sol;screen-shot-2019-06-11-at-03-06-24-1560258089-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" &sol;> &NewLine;<figcaption>&lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Avengers<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Square Enix&rpar;<&sol;figcaption> &NewLine;<&sol;figure> &NewLine;<&sol;div> &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine; &NewLine;<p>This looks like a playable version of the first mission of the game&comma; which is pretty standard right now&period; The Avengers get attacked while in San Francisco&comma; the Taskmaster is blowing up the Golden Gate bridge and our heroes are trying to save as many lives as possible&period; You have to listen carefully because you hear a story element that will give Ms Marvel her powers&period; It looks like the Terrigen Mists will play a HUGE role in this game&comma; they are what give Kamala Kahn her Mr&period; Fantastic type powers&period; In the Beta you find yourself 5 years after Captain America died in San Francisco and Bruce Banner is trying to get the band back together&period; A&period;I&period;M&period; has taken over all of Stark properties after &&num;8220&semi;A Day&&num;8221&semi; and Banner smells something fishy so Ms Marvel and he decide to start figuring out what has the pungent odor&period; <&sol;p> &NewLine;<p><strong>Reactions<&sol;strong><&sol;p> &NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;162161" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-162161" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-162161" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;16010758&sol;marvels-avengers-screenshot-06-ps4-06feb20-en-us&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-162161" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Avengers<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Square Enix&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure> &NewLine;<p>I honestly was going to give this game a huge pass&comma; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t like the look&comma; I was worried about where the story was going&comma; but it crams a bunch of story arcs together&comma; which I like and at one point it is mentioned that Banner was in space&period; We all know that means Planet Hulk&excl; So I wonder if we get to see what has gone down during those missing five years&comma; I really hope I get to do some battling on SKAAR&period;  Controls fit well&comma; other than Iron Man&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; and hopefully Crystal Dynamics is working with all the advice they&&num;8217&semi;re learning from the Beta&period; They fix Iron Man then I cannot wait to zip around in his levels&comma; if they don&&num;8217&semi;t they&&num;8217&semi;ll be a slog and a chore&period;<&sol;p> &NewLine;<p>If you have a PlayStation 4 and are on the fence about this game or are looking for something to play while you&&num;8217&semi;re still locked down&comma; grab this Beta&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s really put together well and in a month or so hopefully they can give it the polish it needs to be a game of the year contender&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s see if this can pull <em>Ghost of Tsushima<&sol;em> out of my top spot&excl; I hope it can&comma; I love me my superheroes&excl; <&sol;p> &NewLine;

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