As we’ve seen more than a few times over the years (including with some pretty recent and rather prominent examples), there’s never any guarantees that a hero shooter – or really, any live service experience – is going to be able to find any kind of success. If, however, you promise the bones of a legitimately well-made multiplayer experience, and add a major license on top of that, you certainly give yourself a much better shot. Marvel Rivals has certainly checked both of those boxes in the lead-up to its release, and has continued to look like a genuinely promising hero shooter that allows players to live out their Marvel power fantasies in a bombastic multiplayer experience. Ahead of its imminent release, here, we’re going to go over the key details that you should know about it.
PREMISE
Marvel Rivals is, of course, a multiplayer game, which means it isn’t going to be an experience with a narrative bent, but it will still have a central throughline pulling the entire experience together. The ultimate big bad in NetEase Games’ Marvel hero shooter is Doctor Doom. After an explosive encounter between Doom and his 2099 variant, the different universes in the Marvel Multiversue clash and are merged together. Now, heroes and villains from different universes must battle one another with the ultimate goal of making it to and ultimately defeating Doctor Doom before one of his variants can claim victory and, in turn, dominion over the universe as we know it.
ROSTER
The roster is always the make or break component in any hero shooter, and in a hero shooter based on the Marvel license, you can be pretty darn sure that that’s going to be doubly true. In fact, upon its launch for PC and current-gen consoles under a month from now, Marvel Rivals’ roster is going to allow players to play as over two dozen different characters pulled from different corners of the Marvel universe, from the most popular and beloved – whether that’s members of the Avengers, the X-Men, or the Guardians of the Galaxy – to much deeper cuts pulled from the more obscure parts of the Marvel universe.
MORE ROSTER DETAILS
Exactly what are the characters that you can expect to play as in Marvel Rivals though? Well, as we mentioned, there’s going to be plenty of options on offer. You have the mainstream fan-favourite heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, the Hulk, and Black Panther. You have the antiheroes, such as Venom, the Punisher, Adam Warlock, Winter Soldier, Magneto, and Loki, and some of the more obscure and relatively lesser known characters, like Peni Parker, Luna Snow, Jeff the Land Shark, and Namor.
MAPS
Marvel Rivals is pulling from many different corners of the Marvel universe, and nowhere is that more apparent than in its roster, though we can, of course, expect different playspaces in our maps as well. Thus far, we know of four maps that will be available in the game at launch, with two each in two different locations. One is Yggsgrad, which is a version of Asgard that has merged with the World Tree, aka Yggdrasil, where Yggdrasil Path and the Royal Palace will both serve as locations where players will fight with and against each other. The second location, meanwhile, is Tokyo 2099, where the Spider Islands and Shin Shibuya will serve as the two maps for players to choose between.
MODES
When Marvel Rivals launches, it will have at least three modes that we know of thus far, and all will be familiar to you if you frequently play similar multiplayer shooters. There’s Convergence, a Kind of the Hill style mode that will task competing teams with taking and retaining control of a control point that randomly spawns throughout the map. Then there’s Convoy, an objective based mode that will see one team advancing through the map while the other tries to stop it. Finally, there’s Domination, which will see multiple different control points scattered throughout the map that teams will fight for control of in order to earn points.
TEAM-UP ABILITIES
A key gameplay mechanic in Marvel Rivals is going to be Team-Up Abilities, which will do exactly what the name suggests and allow two characters to work together to unleash special offensive and defensive moves. We don’t know how many different combinations and Team-Up Abilities will be available in the game, but a number of them have been revealed so far nonetheless. For instance, Scarlet Witch and Magneto can use the former’s chaos magic and the former’s metal weapons together to deal deadly damage to foes, Rocket Raccoon can ride around on Groot’s shoulders while firing at enemies, while the Hulk and Iron Man can work together by allowing the latter to infuse his Unibeam with gamma energy.
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS
We’ve often seen multiplayer games trying to make destructible environments an important part of the gameplay experience, and while it doesn’t always work out as well as it should, the promise of the concept is, at the very least, always interesting. Marvel Rivals is making that promise as well. Speaking to GamingBolt about the game’s environmental destruction and how important it will be to the core gameplay experience, NetEase Games said, “This feature is not just about blowing up the world, which is still very fun, but rather using terrain changes to affect the flow of combat. Players can tear down walls to create an alley to attack the enemy’s flank, break glass floors to airstrike unprepared enemies, and more.
“This helps alter the overall gameplay structure and can create opportunities for dramatic reversals that can turn defeat into victory. For example, if your team is retreating on the frontline, you could break down a wall, sneak attack from an unexpected angle, activate your ultimate, and team wipe your rivals.”
POST-LAUNCH
Given the fact that it’s a free-to-play multuplayer game, it sort of goes without saying that Marvel Rivals is going to be a continuously evolving live service experience. NetEase Games has confirmed that it intends to follow a seasonal post-launch model for the game, with new content set to be added on a consistent basis. And what sort of content additions can we expect? That brings us to our next point.
MORE POST-LAUNCH PLANS
Marvel Rivals will have a healthy amount of content to enjoy when the game launches in early December, but NetEase says it will be adding plenty more in the months ahead. Every new season of the game will bring new maps and new story content, the latter of which will go hand in hand with new heroes to play as. New heroes will, of course, bring with them new Team-Up abilities, while players can also expect additional modes down the line.
PC REQUIREMENTS
Marvel Rivals isn’t going to be an unreasonably demanding game for those looking to pay it on PC- for the most part, that is. On minimum settings, the game will require either an i5-6600K or a Ryzen 5 1600X, along with either a GeForce GTX 1060, an RX 580, or an Arc A380. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either an i5-10400 or a Ryzen 5 5600X, along with either a GeForce RTX 2060 (Super), an RX 5700-XT, or an Arc A750. On either setting, an SSD is also recommended, while you’ll also need roughly 70 GB of free storage, ad 16 GB of RAM.