Marvel’s Avengers Developer Teases New Combat Details, “Dysfunctional Family” Dynamic

Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t made the best impression on wider audiences since its reveal at E3 this year, but the developers are continuing to tease out interesting tidbits about the game. Another such tidbit about the game’s combat was recently shared by gameplay designer Vince Napoli.

While speaking with EDGE in their October 2019 issue (Issue 336), Napoli spoke about how Crystal Dynamics are approaching the game’s combat, and how they’re designing all of it around the unique attributes and abilities of each of the playable characters, rather than creating a combat system and then inserting different characters into it. One way this materializes is in the tiny little things, such as when players mess up- in such a situation, how would, for instance, Captain America react? According to Napoli, the developers have ensured that he reacts the way you would expect Captain America to.

“Even missing jumps, it needs to look like they gave it their all,” said Napoli. “So we go through and do a pass, and say, ‘Captain America is going to use his shield to grind on the ground to recover because that’s what he would do. He’s going to make use of his environment. He’s going to keep looking forward because he has his eyes on the battlefield at all times.’

“That’s the best thing about combat driven character games is that you look at the character and start designing your combat around them.”

Napoli also spoke about how, true to their portrayal in the comics and in the films, the Avengers in the game will be shown as sort of a “dysfunctional family”. Interestingly enough, as per Napoli, that will also have some sort of an impact on the combat itself- though he did not go into details about that particular aspect.

Marvel’s Avengers is due out May 15, 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. The game will be playable at Gamescom next week, while Square Enix will also be showing a gameplay demonstration to the attending public. Footage from that demo will be made available to everyone in a week’s time.