Marvel Rivals, Netease's free-to-play Overwatch game featuring Marvelverse superheroes, is set to launch on December 6th. And in the spirit of “hah, take that Overwatch!”, they've also announced that all of its heroes will be unlocked for everyone from the start (oh my). Oh no, wait, he's DC, right? To be honest, I've only watched one Avengers movie, two Captain Americas, and Thor: Ragnarok (without seeing the other Thors). I have no memory of any of that. Anyway, yeah, Marvel Rivals.
The game’s big middle finger to Overwatch is not only that all heroes are immediately free, but that all heroes released later will be free as well. On the one hand, I think that’s a good thing because there’s no barrier to trying out new heroes. But on the other hand, I think there was some merit in locking the new heroes behind at least some progression. Not like spending real money or anything, but just the feeling of having worked to unlock the new character. I don’t know, I just found it kind of exciting every time I unlocked a new character with my hard-earned Overwatch Bucks. And oddly enough, it made me feel like I’d passed some basic tests: by mastering the simple free characters, I’d moved on to the new, more complex character.
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Captain America and the Winter Soldier also join the list, which confuses me a little because I thought they were one and the same. But I'm as in tune with the Marvelverse as some of the coaches on The Voice who performed Beautiful Day 12 years ago.
Otherwise, yes, my thoughts on Marvel Rivals are this: I think this game is way too late. I wouldn't say that hero shooters are dead, but I think that the specific type of shooter Marvel Rivals is no longer in demand – even if it looks pretty good.
Maybe it'll be DC or something, but I hope Square Enix one day gives us another Guardians of the Galaxy adventure. And this game? This game was good.
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