Square Enix showed finally released a meaty 18 minute gameplay trailer for Marvel’s Avengers yesterday, showing us the game’s prologue, which contains gameplay for each of the five main playable characters. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about the game. For instance, we know a core part of Avengers’ gameplay is going to revolve around gear and loot, but how are those things going to work? We know there’s going to be deep progression mechanics in the game (as per the devs), but what does that mean in terms of character builds?
IGN has put up an article that contains a lot of new info about the game, including those things. For starters, loot in the game will be tiered, which is something that we’ve known about for a while. It will be separated in the regular common / uncommon / rare / epic / legendary / beyond-legendary categories, which rearer gear dropping in higher difficulty missions. Each character will also have gear specific to them.
Each gear piece will also come with perks, while the perks will get better depending on how rare the gear is. Meanwhile, there will also be special branded gear for players to use, and these gear sets will come with advantages of their own, like synergies and stat buffs.
Each character, meanwhile, also has a separate skill tree, and each of the heroes’ skills can be levelled up. Iron Man, for instance, has the following categories in his skill tree- Melee, Rupulsor, Laser, and Rockets. Players can choose which of these skills they want to invest in and tailor the character’s progression according to their needs ad wants- so if you want a more melee-focused Iron Man, for instance, you can totally do that. Skills can also be switched between in-game via the d-pad.
Finally, there are also going to be several cosmetic costumes in the game. With over 80 years of Marvel comics and material to work with, Crystal Dynamics are including a lot of options for players. Some of these will be earnable in-game, while these will also be made available as in-game purchases with real money- but Square Enix apparently gives assurances that the game has cosmetic microtransactions only.
Marvel’s Avengers is out on May 15, 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. If you’re at Gamescom and would rather play the demo than watch it, the game is playable during the week.
