It may be finals season, but instead of spending endless hours studying and preparing for exams, my friends and I stayed up until midnight playing Marvel Rivals. The game has become our obsession over just one night, and a very pleasant break from our school reality. Each night, we hop onto Discord, fire up the game, and play until no one is left in the party. We endlessly grinded toward Level 10 to unlock ranked competitive matches. Between sessions, we endlessly debate tactics, discuss hero choices, and strategize about how to abuse the enemy team in the next match. Why read your APUSH textbook when you’re having this much fun?

Rivals is Marvel games’ take on an overwatch type game. And while I have never played Overwatch because I live under a rock, I can safely say that this game absolutely deserves all the praise that it gets. The Marvel universe is an amazing fit for a 6v6 hero shooter and this game took a brilliant idea and executed it to near perfection.

As someone who does not have the best computer to run this game, I found the gameplay super satisfying. Yes, it is very annoying to not have my character render and just be invisible for a minute into the match and to have to wait on a loading screen that’s always 99% while my friends are already playing the match. But with that said, when the game works, it really works. There are nearly no abilities on any hero that feel janky or underwhelming. I had one of the most satisfying feelings in my life to fire iron man’s ultimate power blast ability and see half the enemy team get utterly annihilated. 

This game currently divides all of its heroes into 3 separate classes. Vanguards, which are tanks made for dealing damage on the front lines, duelists, which are also focused on taking down other heroes but are way more mobile, and strategists, which are basically healers. Many games out there make playing as the healing class feel like a chore and something you would make your lowest level friend do. The strategists are very fun to play as because they also have super unique abilities that are used to take out other players and not just to support your team. Whether you duplicate clones of yourself as Loki and watch the enemy team figure out which one of them is you, or when you swallow the entire team as Jeff the Land Shark and proceed to throw all of them off the edge of the map will never not be entertaining.

That brings up the point on how much variety there is in the heroes. For people who only enjoy the movies, they’ll be super pleased with how much personality their favorite heroes and villains have in this game. They act like stereotypes of their movie counterparts which is something I really enjoy. It almost feels like this is a game that would exist in the marvel universe that kids would play. Iron man is constantly spitting one liners and wolverine is always screaming at the top of his lungs. Since this has the marvel IP, the developers have pretty much an unlimited amount of characters to choose from. There are already leaks and rumors of them adding heroes such as Deadpool and Captain Marvel. This is one of the games that I can say with a straight face that the possibilities are endless. 

Even though it is only a couple weeks into its lifespan, the developers of Rivals seriously know how to make a good live service game. A lot of games out there are “free” as it says in the store, but it’s quickly realized that you have to pay for nearly everything in the game in order to be good. 

Rivals has taken inspiration from other live service games like Fortnite and implemented a battle pass system that only has cosmetics and skins. You can be the number one player in the world and not have to use a single penny on this game. You can even earn some store cosmetics by simply playing the game and actually feel like you’re working towards something instead of experiencing the epic gameplay of entering your credit card information. 

There are even skins out there that you can get for free if you enter a certain code in the games menu. And no the cosmetics aren’t anything like over the top gun wraps or emotes that make you just want to walk away from the desktop. They put actual effort into making outfits from the movies and other comic source material. These include the Spider-Man: No Way Home skin bundle and the Avengers: Endgame Iron Man bundle. 

Demonstrated passion like this is what made people warm up to this game and for them to grind endless hours so they can join a tournament and have fun creating strategies with friends. This game is an Overwatch clone, but I can safely say it’s probably a better Overwatch clone than Overwatch 2.

NetEase, a company known primarily for their mobile games, just released something that could rival Overwatch (a multiplayer video game). “Marvel Rivals” released on December 6th, and within 72 hours it garnered 10 million players. 

The game’s premise isn’t exactly unique; Marvel Rivals is very similar to Overwatch in a lot of ways. There’s an objective and two teams, you want to be the team to complete the objective first. However I never felt like I was playing some cheap knockoff, it just has many similar mechanics, in the same way Fortnite and Apex Legends used to be compared. 

Marvel Rivals does have an advantage though, and it’s literally in the name: it’s IP. The game is almost a love letter to Marvel fans, and where my knowledge of video games may lack, my knowledge of both Marvel comics and the cinematic universe is a strength. 

There were two big things I noticed when I first looked through the characters I could play as. The first is that every single one was free. No super powerful player locked behind a paywall, it was totally free range, but more on that later. The other thing I saw was how, yes, there’s lots of nods to the Marvel movies that’ve gotten so popular, (for example, I don’t think Hela would have been featured if it weren’t for her appearance in Thor: Ragnorak) but also a healthy amount of content from the actual comics that started it all. 

With 33 characters, only 18 were members of the MCU (or Marvel cinematic universe), allowing lesser known personas more prominent in the comics, like Magik or Jeff the Land Shark, to shine. Some of their actual designs were more comic-inspired too, namely Loki and Scarlet Witch, although the creative liberties taken with ones like Hawkeye and Black Widow are still good designs that fit their characters. The whole art style of the game is really gorgeous too, and I literally feel like I’m playing inside a comic book at times. 

Well, the fact that NetEase clearly did their homework can’t be the only reason I like the game, and it’s not. Continuing with my first impression, I wanted to try the tutorials first, just to get a feel for it. I was delighted to find out that there was not only a tutorial for each game mode, but also a free range version to try every character and their mechanics. 

The actual tutorial was great, and did everything a tutorial should do, in my opinion. It explained all the basic mechanics needed to actually play the game, but didn’t bombard you with a wall of text or try and explain everything on screen. In the basic tutorial, you can only play as Punisher, but in the free range version every character is at your disposal, and a menu can be pulled up that explains their move set. There’s also many different areas to see, like a place to attack dummies or a place just to knock down buildings, allowing you to explore all the possibilities of your chosen character. 

Free range is also where I encountered my first problem though, and it’s proven to be a bother in other parts of the game, too. Now I play on a ps5, so I should be well equipped to run the game, but I’ve encountered quite a lot of lag in every game mode outside of the basic tutorials. Thinking that this was a problem on my end I looked online for answers, only to find other disgruntled players. One Redditor even said they had to cap their pc at 30 frames per second to enter a match! 

I had trouble especially during free range play, where any jump in the air caused my avatar to skyrocket above the map and freeze. They were motionless except for their legs stuck in an endless walking gesture, desperate to escape whatever astral plane they were just sent to. 

I had less problems when I actually joined a game, but some characters like Dr Strange would freeze the whole screen whenever they were on. While there are certainly some issues there, it was far from making the game unplayable.

The other aspect of this game that really holds it back from being the next Overwatch, as some have suggested it is, is the clunkiness of it. In the few Overwatch games I’ve played the most remarkable thing about it was the fluidity. It’s a very smooth game, and I feel like I’m always aware of what’s going on. Marvel Rivals can get very chaotic, and I think that’s in part because of it being 3rd player. Having to maneuver your character around rather than just.. being them is a lot harder, especially when there’s 11 other people running about. 

I do think that’s something they can fix while keeping it in the 3rd person perspective. Perhaps decreasing the scope of player vision or increasing the readability of the maps would help, but either way the fast paced gameplay is a strength and I wouldn’t want them to lose that, just make it a little smoother.

It’s insanely quick to get into a game, which I love. Each game is only a few minutes too, so breaking the “flow” so often could’ve been a problem, but the fact that it’s barely 30 seconds until you’re in another game is great. Once the action starts it’s pretty constant, so the 10-15 seconds between respawns is almost a relief. 

 Oh yeah, the best part? Almost everything is free. The game itself, all the characters, and all the game modes. From what I can tell the only monetization so far are the skins you can buy for certain characters. I was truly shocked that I’d be able to play everybody without spending a penny, and NetEase has said themself: “all heroes unlocked and free to play at launch and beyond.”  Meaning that the new characters they plan to release will also be free.

 Games like Dead by Daylight and Mortal Kombat will force you to buy certain characters, meaning a whole set of abilities and moves are hidden behind a paywall, so I’m thankful that Rivals doesn’t plan to be one of them. There’s three different types of characters to play: Vanguard, meant to lead the team into battle, duelist, who can go toe-to-toe with anyone, and strategist, which is basically like it sounds. I’ll go over a character from each group here:

Dr Strange-Vanguard: 

Like I said before, this role is subject to more lag than others, but that’s just because his move set is kinda insane. Possibly the best one, and perfect for vanguard, is his ability to generate a massive force field in front of him. Eventually it breaks from damage, but there’s no cooldown, so it can be used at will. He can also create portals, which is a really cool feature in the game though extremely glitchy. His passive ability makes it so that if you use too much magic in a short time the doctor is put in a vulnerable state, so he isn’t super damage heavy, but does have a lot of health. Overall Dr Strange is great for getting your teammates in the perfect position but can’t hold his own too long alone. 

Wolverine-Duelist: 

Most character’s main attack function requires them to reload after a few hits, but Wolverine can slash as much as he wants, making him great for an up close attack. His passive function is also really cool, and serves the opposite function as Strange’s. After hitting enough people he enters a rage and actually does more damage than before. He can also enter a state that allows him to take less damage for a while, which helps if you’re up against a really tanky character. Wolverine’s ability to charge forward is nice too but tends to glitch. I think he would’ve been much better to play if NetEase made him a full blown tank, because unfortunately right now he doesn’t do enough damage or have enough health to play well unless you can tow the line of offense and defense. I also wish he had a regenerative factor since it’s key to his character, but Wolverine serves his purpose. He’s good to play if you like up-close melee and great at taking down bulky adversaries if you know what you’re doing. 

Loki-Strategist:

This character has been one of my favorites to play and really lives up to what a strategist should be. He doesn’t do a lot of damage nor has a ton of health, but his ability to move around the map is great. You can place one double and turn invisible, which is a perfect way to deter your opponent from your actual teammates, since they go after the doubles instead. You can stay invisible until either taking or doing damage, too, allowing you to pop up behind an enemy with a magic blast. Another function lets you place up to two doubles that will actually attack, and Loki’s ability to summon healing circles ties in wonderfully with the doubles mechanic, because healing circles appear around them as well. Between the various ways to place your doubles, disappearing and reappearing suddenly, and the flexibility of his healing circles, Loki is a great character for strategists or those less keen on being in the middle of everything.

All in all, Marvel Rivals is a great, fast-paced game that allows for lots of play styles without being too complicated. I think there’s a lot of room for growth too, and I’m excited to see where it goes.