They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that’s a saying that feels tailor-made for Marvel Rivals. It’s undeniable that Marvel Rivals has quite literally copied Overwatch’s homework, but to be honest, I don’t care. Despite the obvious inspirations, Marvel Rivals has a lot going for it, so much so that it’s the first game in years to remind me why I love hero shooters. There’s clearly work that needs to be done, especially when it comes to balancing, but Marvel Rivals might just have the chops to take on the best hero shooters around.
As I’ve gotten older and further into my 30s, I’ve severely gravitated away from multiplayer games. I just don’t have the time, or patience, to stick with shooters that I need to constantly practice and make sure I play regularly. More than anything, I want my gaming sessions to be relaxing, which I why I tend to stick with single-player affairs. No one is more surprised than me when I tell you I’ve played more than 50 hours of Marvel Rivals in just over a week. It’s an obsession with a multiplayer game that I haven’t seen since the launch of Rocket League, and there are two key factors as to why — ease of pick up and play, and sheer fun factor.
Marvel Rivals is entirely focused on speed. It wants you to get into matches quickly, play them quickly, and move on to the next one. The open beta has been shockingly free of connectivity issues or long wait times, letting you get into a match in a matter of seconds. That ease of getting into matches, and said matches working almost 90 to 95 percent of the time, is crucial. It means you can jump in and play when you have a spare 20 minutes, or do that “one more match” loop for hours on end into the wee hours of the morning. If this kind of seamless experience can be maintained for the game’s full launch, that’s massive.
Past those basic features, Marvel Rivals truly feels like you ripped it straight out of the early glory days of Overwatch, before the game got bogged down with homogenized heroes, healer changes, and more frustrations.
To get things out of the way, yes, many of the heroes in Marvel Rivals feel like direct parallels to Overwatch ones. Hulk is essentially D.Va, with a spindly pistol-wielding Bruce Banner transforming into the green creature, just like D.Va’s mech. Star-Lord wields dual pistols and focuses on quick dodges and speed, just like Tracer. Luna Snow skates along the ground with ice and has an ultimate where she creates a musical aura, like Lucio. These are just a few examples of how Marvel Rivals draws its inspiration, but what’s really important is how different each and every hero feels.
A common complaint in recent years, even on the Blizzard forums, is that the heroes in Overwatch 2 are trending more toward similar playstyles. This is often a problem that hero shooters in general face, grouping characters together in different “classes” that all play almost exactly the same, with minuscule differences.
Marvel Rivals makes sure that every single character has their own unique playstyle and synergizes when paired with other characters. It’s simultaneously the game’s biggest strength and weakness.
The variance between heroes means you can constantly swap between characters and consistently have fun or double down on someone specific and really learn how they work. These differences, however, also means that you aren’t simply playing a combat role, but a character. For example, just look at the healers; Loki focuses on deception and controlling the environment, Rocket Racoon is all about buffing and supporting the party, and Adam Warlock strategically lets you resurrect allies. Your experience as a healer is wildly different depending on which character you play and who the rest of your team chooses.
Even past that, Rivals liberally leans into these beloved characters’ personalities to inform their abilities and attacks. The hulking Venom feels like an unstoppable truck with his health boosts, letting him dive into the enemy team with abandon. Meanwhile, Jeff the Landshark is a goofy little dude who’s at his best when he’s fighting alongside others, just like a loyal pet would do. Rivals even doubles down on this idea with Team-Up attacks, easily the game’s most unique elements.
Having two or more specific heroes on your team can unlock powerful Team-Up abilities that otherwise wouldn’t be available. Having Magneto and Scarlet Witch gives Magneto a devastating blade attack, or having Groot and Rocket allows them to function as a pair, with the Rocket player riding on Groot’s back. These abilities add an extra layer of strategy and makes it even more important to coordinate with your team.
While the uniqueness of each hero is admirable, it has inevitably led to some genuinely awful balancing across the board. Certain heroes, like the aforementioned Venom, feel entirely too powerful, and if you don’t have the right team, you might not get a single KO on a Venom for the entire match. There are plenty of other examples that clearly need tuning, like Punisher being able to absolutely wipe the floor with flying heroes like Storm or Iron Man. There are dozens of little issues I can point out with the game’s balancing, but at the same time, it seems like that part is inevitable.
Because Marvel Rivals is taking the approach of making each character genuinely unique, there’s a ton of work that’s going to need to go into altering the game after launch and adjusting. That’s ultimately going to be the make-it-or-break-it factor for the game, if it can adjust and grow.
I can’t overstate how much work is still going to need to go into Marvel Rivals; after playing dozens of hours, there’s been a sizable amount of frustration. But despite that, I just can’t put the game down. There’s something truly special at the heart of Marvel Rivals, a shooter that simply gets what it needs to be fun, and is bolstered by a fantastic art style and the familiarity of the Marvel universe. Yes, it’s derivative and not exactly revolutionary, but much like the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s a messily fun train ride that I gladly hopped on.
