Marvel Rivals hands-on: Putting the hero in hero shooter

6.24.2024
By Shaan Joshi, Contributor

Over the past five years or so, the Marvel Games brand has been propelled into the spotlight—and for good reason. Insomniac’s Spider-Man series reached untold levels of popularity on both PC and consoles, and we’ve even seen a few titles (such as Marvel's Midnight Suns and Marvel Snap) branch out from the action-adventure space in favor of a slower and more tactical experience.

With Marvel broadening its video game aspirations, it was only a matter of time before it forayed into the world of online shooters—and that’s where Marvel Rivals enters the picture.

I had the chance to go hands-on with Marvel Rivals at Summer Game Fest, putting several heroes and villains through their paces across half a dozen matches and various modes. And, yes, while the comparisons to Overwatch and Paladins are all but inevitable, it’s clear that developer NetEase is acutely aware of this.

That drive to stand out from the rest of the pack has helped shape some of Marvel Rivals' core design principles. Thaddeus Sasser, Game Director on Marvel Rivals, wants players to feel like they’re getting an authentic experience when they jump into the shoes of their favorite hero (or villain).

“We really want to put the ‘hero’ in hero shooter. We're really all about delivering that awesome experience of you playing as Iron Man in a multiplayer game, which you've never seen before. That’s the core experience that we're trying to offer here,” said Sasser.

Even as a casual fan whose exposure to the franchise largely boils down to binge-watching most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a glance at the roster confirms that the heavy hitters you’d expect to see are present and accounted for. Still, for every Iron Man or Doctor Strange, there are a few lesser-known characters like Magik and Luna Snow—and based on my chat with a few NetEase developers, there’s plenty more coming down the pipeline.

“About 70% of the roster, that's what we call the ‘Greatest Hits,’ the heroes and villains that you know and love, and then we'll try to throw in some curveballs you don't expect to show up and also some deep cuts,” explained Danny Koo, co-Executive Producer for Marvel Games.
Marvel Rivals Gameplay
If there’s one aspect of Marvel Rivals that will feel familiar to those who’ve played other hero shooters, it would be its game modes. Convoy, as its name suggests, tasks one team with accompanying a payload as it moves along a set path across the map, with the opposing team trying to halt their progress. Domination focuses on capturing and defending, with both teams vying for control of a point on the map.

If you’ve played Overwatch, then Marvel Rivals feels fairly similar in its structure—but the similarities quickly fade once you get into a match.

For starters, the third-person camera feels foreign, though it doesn’t take long to get comfortable with it. It’s easy to see why NetEase opted to pull the camera back a bit. Not only does this let you get a proper look at your character (and whatever skins you’ve outfitted them with), but the shift to third-person allows for a bit more variety in movement and traversal. This additional freedom offers opportunities for new characters to the ever-growing roster, but it does come with its fair share of design considerations.

“The team is focused very hard on making this game accessible to players of all skill levels,” said Sasser. “Whether you're a brand new player who's never played this kind of game before or a player who's really skilled at being a sniper or playing a specific type of role—there's going to be an experience in Marvel Rivals that caters to your playstyle. You're going to be able to find your niche in this game. And that's very important to us for all the different types of skill levels.”

Take Iron Man, for example. There are virtually no limitations to how he can move about the map, as his flight isn’t limited by any timers or cooldown meters. This means you can hover and fly through the air indefinitely, letting less-seasoned players engage in combat without necessarily having to get up close and personal.

Spider-Man, on the other hand, can swing across maps with blistering speed, stick to and climb up walls, and engage in fisticuffs, both on the ground and in the air. This frantic playstyle certainly comes with a steep learning curve, but also highlights the wide range of playstyles and skill levels Marvel Rivals caters to, letting both genre newcomers and grizzled veterans jump into the fray without being overwhelmed or under-challenged.
Marvel Rivals 1
“Each character has a skill rating on it, with a corresponding number of stars to indicate how difficult it is to use them,” Sasser explained after my play session wraps up. “You've got characters like Rocket Raccoon and the Punisher who are relatively easy to pick up and learn. The Punisher shoots a gun and so does Rocket. These are mechanics you played with in other games—or are, at the very least, easy to understand conceptually, right?"

"But then you've got characters like Spider-Man where it's very hard to learn how to play the character—but once you start to master it, the skill ceiling is incredibly high and he becomes very, very powerful," Sasser continued. "And this is intentional, we want this range of skills and abilities, and allowing these characters to play in their own way gives the players ways to express their skills and show off their mastery, which is one of the things players love about this kind of game.”

As has become standard in just about every team-based PvP game, each of Marvel Rivals’ playable characters slot into one of a few roles. Vanguards, such as Peni Parker or Bruce Banner/Hulk, take on the role of your traditional tank, with large health pools and abilities centered around blocking and absorbing incoming damage. Duelists are geared more toward damage output, including long-range specialists like Iron Man or fisticuff-focused fighters like Black Panther.

Rounding out the roster are Strategists—which are admittedly tough to distill down to a single definition. Rocket Raccoon, for example, can heal allies and damage opponents with his comically oversized hybrid minigun/cannon. Rocket's abilities allow him to buff his teammates with armor packs, additional damage, and the occasional revive.

Another Strategist, the trickster god Loki, lives up to his moniker by deploying shadows of himself, decoys that he can then swap places with at will. Loki's ultimate move is also fitting, letting him transform into another character from the enemy team, complete with their moveset.
 Marvel Rivals Team Up
With each character having such a wide range of weapons and skills, it’s perhaps only natural that formal pairings and combos eventually made their way into Marvel Rivals. Referred to as Team-Ups, these special abilities are limited to specific duos and trios, providing active or passive buffs for those involved. For example, Rocket Raccoon can hop on Groot’s shoulders, reducing incoming damage for everyone’s favorite talking rodent.

When asked about future Team-Ups and how they might change over time, Sasser erred on the side of silence. He did explain though that Team-Ups are designed to bridge the gaps in skill levels on a given team, rather than making players feel like they need to pick a hero or villain with a steep learning curve.

“We want to make it clear to players, ‘Here's a good character to start with.’ And then we thought about how the pairings for these low-level characters might work," said Sasser. "You'll find that Rocket Raccoon and Punisher have a Team-Up where Rocket Raccoon can supercharge the Punisher’s turret, for instance. There's a lot of thought put into how the different skill levels can play together and be successful, even if somebody starts at a higher skill level—let's say, with Spider-Man.”

This concept of mashing together and combining wholly different parts of the Marvel franchise is the central pillar on which Marvel Rivals is built. From the Team-Ups to the intermingling of heroes and villains and all the way to the story—there’s a loose plot revolving around two Doctor Dooms from different dimensions that hasn’t fully been revealed—this theme of contrasting and clashing is embedded in Marvel Rivals' DNA, and even extends to its artistic direction.

If you've peeked at screenshots or trailers for Marvel Rivals, chances are the visual style and character designs immediately grabbed your attention, blending the familiar comic book aesthetic with an almost painterly look that stands out from the competition. This design decision was very intentional, reflecting Marvel Rivals’ development team, which is split across both North America and Asia.
Marvel Rivals Art Style
“We call this, internally, the Rivals style,” explained Danny Koo. “It looks very comic-like, almost as if it were an anime. It’s energetic, fluid in motion, very dynamic, and we wanted to make all the colors very saturated, very eye-popping. Our goal was to attract all kinds of players, especially Marvel fans that have been with Marvel for a long time. They can appreciate that Marvel Rivals has its own unique interpretation of what Marvel characters can look like.”

While the online PvP space is only getting more crowded by the minute, Marvel Rivals has a lot of appeal for both fans of the genre and superhero games as a whole. As a one-time Overwatch fan myself, the scope, size, and variety of the Marvel Rivals character roster shows a lot of promise, and the unique synergy and Team-Up mechanics help upend the notion that this is your run-of-the-mill shooter with a fresh coat of Marvel slapped on top.

Of course, as is the case with most online shooters, there’s the outstanding question of what the in-game monetization will look like. For the time being, NetEase has remained mum on specifics, other than confirming that the launch version of the game will be free-to-play. During our hands-on time, we did notice a leveling system and character-specific skins, but for the time being, we can only speculate on what path Marvel Rivals will take once it releases.

You can wishlist Marvel Rivals now on the Epic Games Store.

Be sure to check out our full recap of Summer Game Fest, as well as our previews of a few other upcoming shooters, such as STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl and Delta Force: Hawk Ops.