It’s been nearly two months since the launch of Marvel Rivals, and it’s hard to imagine things going any better for the game. Right out of the gate, Rivals hit enormous player counts, registering over 20 million players. Ever since the game has maintained staggering numbers of concurrent players and suffered from almost no issues in terms of server problems or crashes. That’s not even to mention the flood of new content and extra heroes. Rivals has made a big splash, but it feels like the game is primed to have the legs to really take over the hero shooter scene. It might even be able to deliver on a long-lost promise dropped by Overwatch 2 — a real and robust player versus enemy mode.
Overwatch wasn’t the first hero shooter to ever exist, but when the game launched in August 2023 it completely redefined the genre through the smart use of highly unique characters, specific roles, and even a dose of fascinating story and lore. Yes, the bones of Overwatch’s gameplay was incredible, but part of what drove its success was also the dozens of character intros, animated trailers, and snippets of dialogue between characters. Unlike most other multiplayer games, Overwatch had a rich universe filled with lore. Characters were complex and had pasts and relationships with other characters. I know it sounds simple, but that really was one of the revolutionary elements of Overwatch — it made people actually care about the characters they were playing. They weren’t just faceless avatars.
