While Marvel is casually shattering box office records with megahits like “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” they have been dormant when it comes to video games. For years, Marvel has released few-to-no AAA games based on their beloved characters. Instead, they have released many mobile games, undoubtedly because they are cheaper to create and still rake in tons of money. However, with Insomniac’s Spider-Man PS4 game and Square Enix’s The Avengers Project on the horizon, fans can have the big-budget Marvel games they’ve been wanting for years. Details on this hotly anticipated game are scarce, but we’ve put together a list of things we think would help this Avengers game live up to the hype. Watch the teaser trailer below:
Include characters from ALL corners of the Marvel Universe
Ever since the explosive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has promoted characters featured in their movies as opposed to characters they don’t have the film rights to. Most notably, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men have taken a backseat to the Avengers and their related characters (Disney seemingly views promoting these characters as promoting the films of rival studio Fox). However, with news of Disney’s buyout of 20th Century Fox, all Marvel characters will be under the same roof for the first time in years. Including these characters in some way in their Avengers game would be a nice high profile reintroduction. According to an analysis of leaked concept art for the game (which can be viewed below), the game also includes more obscure Marvel characters, such as Ex Nihilo and Black Bolt. With Insomniac’s Spider-Man having a grounded story set in New York, it would be nice to see The Avengers Project explore stranger and more obscure areas and characters in the Marvel Universe. The presence of Ex Nihilo alone shows that Square Enix is willing to dive beyond just the MCU when it comes to Marvel characters, and that makes us very excited.
Have deep customization and RPG options
Raven Software’s X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance series both fantastically combined action and RPG elements. Each character from both series’ massive rosters had their own unique powerset, costumes, and gear. These powers and costumes could be upgraded or changed through experience points and loot, and teams of characters that synergize together (such as the Fantastic Four or the Avengers) are given stat bonuses. Hopefully, Square Enix will allow players to customize their characters through stat management and alternative costumes, allowing players to assemble the superhero dream teams they’ve always wanted to see.
Have a deep, team-centric combat system
The whole concept of the Avengers is having a diverse and sometimes volatile group of people work together to be greater than the sum of their parts. It would be awesome if Square Enix allowed for heroes to creatively combine their powers as seen in the gif above. The heroes of the Marvel Universe have such creative and diverse powersets, so Square Enix needs to make sure that every character feels and plays completely different from each other. Hopefully, they balance each character so that they feel equally useful, despite the power levels being so dramatically different between characters.
Avengers 4: If this plot theory is correct, it’s totally insane!
