Synopsis
Marvel Rivals is a hero shooter video game developed and published by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games. Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 third-person hero shooter title. The story follows a hostile meeting between Doctor Doom and his heroic 2099 counterpart, which causes a "timestream entanglement" that leads to new worlds being created and heroes and villains from across the multiverse fighting one another to defeat both Doom variants before one claims victory over the new worlds. - Wikipedia
Review
Ok so I've never been this obssesed over a game since I started playing Genshin. So, where do I start - this is my very first hero shooter game. I don't play very many shooter games really, the only other one I played consistently was Splatoon tbh. Anyways, I learnt of this game through my recommended feed. I got videos about the gameplay, trailers, and showcases. It looked interesting, and a very good art style too, so I gave it a try on my brother's Xbox. Never would I be the same. So yeah, I kind of got obssesed. I started playing near release so the game was still very fresh. It was just really fun and addicting. My first two mains were Squirrel Girl and Jeff, a bit later I also picked up Winter Soldier (that also started another addiction but we don't need to talk about it here). Once again, the game was just really fun and addicting, I would log in everday and play for 5 straight hours. So, I kept playing and I'm still playing it to this day.
Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty standard hero shooter stuff. It's an online multiplayer 6v6. There's different modes like convoy, domination, convergence, and doom match. There's also quick match and competitive, I'm not musty so I don't play comp too often and my highest is Diamond lol. Real gamers play practice vs ai, of course. The real stand-out in the gameplay is the different characters you can play as. As of writing, there are 39 playable characters. I only play like the same 7-8 characters from that number but at least I'm not totaly a one-trick. Each character feels different and there's playstyle for everyone.
Art: The game is already great gameplay-wise, but the art elevates it to a different level. It's the reason I started looking into the game. The game has a very stylized, comic book approach. The colors are vibrant and the character designs are peak. I literally start playing characters only because of their design, cough Bucky cough. The way the designs for the characters bring a new and fresh take on the character while still staying true to their roots is impressive. Some of the designs do feel like misses for me. An example is Emma, her Rivals design doesn't really hit as much as some of her comic book designs. Outside of characters, the visual effects and maps are also top tier. This game is overstimulating as shit but at least things look pretty as I'm running around confused. Oh and the cosmetics for this game are also so cool, too bad I can't buy much of them.
Music: The OST for this game feels kind of overlooked but I'm telling you the composers cooked. Each map has a different track that plays when you're loading in and choosing your character. For convergence and convoy maps, there are even different themes depending if you're on the attack or defense side. Some of my favorite themes come from the Midtown and Central Park maps. Especially the Central Park defend theme, that shi HITTSSSS. And the Rivals 'Til the End Jeff version too of course, actual peak. I'm adding this to this section, the voice acting for this game is also amazing. It's so cool how they've got some of the original VAs of these characters for this. It also makes me so happy when I see tiktoks of the VAs because they're so passionate about the characters they voice.
Story: I'm gonna be real, I don't really pay attention to the game's story all that much. I know the basic idea of what's going on in every season, but I don't really read the character profiles or any of that. This game isn't really focused on story and doesn't need to rely on it much really, so that's fine for me. Instead, I want to talk about Marvel's impact for this game as a whole. I feel part of this game's success can be due to the name it's tied to. The characters in this game are super popular and they're portrayed in this new and cool way. It brings in new and old fans. I wouldn't consider myself a Marvel superfan, I'm more of a casual leaning towards knowledgeable fan (I also only watch the movies, I don't read the comics). The familiarity I have with these characters peaked my curiosity, and I'm sure that it's the same for many.
Overall, I have an immense amount of love for this game despite the short amount of time it's been out. I've been glazing this game non-stop but I will mention a few issues. A major issue is the matchmaking. A lot of people have talked about this before but basically the game puts you into teams as to engage you into playing more. Basically manufacturing the wins and losses you get. This sometimes makes losing games very frustrating since you don't know what to do to win. And since this is a team-based game, it sometimes even feels like your team is not playing with you. Speaking of which, the community for this game. I like giggling at the silly little tiktoks with Jeff or in practice doom match but the community as a whole really has a toxicity problem. With the ragebait and people always looking for someone to blame, it's something that can push a lot of people away from the game. Despite the flaws the actual game has, the community also has a big impact in the experience. It is online multiplayer of course. This was very evident with the whole support strike thing, because people don't know how to peel or position themselves correctly but it's always about blaming someone other than yourself. And don't get me started on voice coms. I don't use my mic for this game but the toxicity, heavy on the misogony, that voice coms have is just foul. It's not a 'that's just how gamers are' thing, it's gross behavior that shouldn't be condoned. Anyways, that's my rant. Also practice doom match is so fun. I love just messing around with people and the players there are usually so nice. There is always that one person that gets targeted because they keep killing others, but the chaos is part of the fun.
I feel half of what I said doesn't make much sense but um, yeah I love this game. Definitely check it out if you can, it's free :)
Final Score
| Status | On-going |
| Gameplay | 9.9/10 |
| Art | 10/10 |
| Music | 10/10 |
| Story | 9.5/10 |
| Overall Score | 9.7/10 - Absolute Peak |
