REVIEW: ‘Marvel Rivals’ Nails Its Origin Story

Since its unveiling, Marvel Rivals has had a mountain to climb. From the art style to the way it played, it looked a lot like Overwatch. After the beta earlier this year, however, Marvel Rivals quickly proved it was so much more than that. Fantastic and diverse characters with completely different combat kits, environmental destructibility, and unique gameplay mechanics make it stand all on its own.

Now, with NetEase Games‘ full launch, Marvel Rivals continues this streak with monetization that is actually decently implemented. While not everything works–some balancing is definitely needed, and progression is a sore spot—Marvel Rivals has the potential to be the new top hero shooter.

Any good hero shooter needs an iconic and memorable cast of characters. With the Marvel IP as a springboard, Rivals packs a massive 33 characters from the outset. It’s not just the heavy hitters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Scarlet Witch. NetEase has included some fantastic smaller-known heroes like Squirrel Girl, Cloak & Dagger, and standout star Jeff the Land Shark. Each one feels and plays completely differently.

While Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch may both be DPS-focused characters, Spider-Man’s agility and web-swinging make him perfect for sneak attacks behind enemy lines. Scarlet Witch, however, is a glass cannon that can absolutely shred enemies when used properly. There’s a character for everyone here, with at least a couple of Marvel comics favorites for fans and some recognizable faces for folks less familiar.

Each combat character’s kit has some variation of attacks, passives, super moves, and movement, allowing for a ton of variation. However, the depth that each character brings can be a double-edged sword. While someone could easily hop in and play okay, getting into training and practice modes becomes essential for a large chunk of the cast.

The number of team-ups, combinations of moves, cooldowns, and types of characters leaves room for a lot of learning. But ultimately, this is a good thing, giving players a wealth of options to choose from. It just means spending time to find the right fit.

Team-ups are Marvel Rivals’ secret sauce.

The team-ups are one of Marvel Rivals’ coolest and most unique features. Each character has one, where having specific combinations of characters on the field can unlock new abilities or passives. When Scarlet Witch is on the field, Magneto gains a psychic chaos sword to deal more melee damage. Venom grants Spider-Man and Peni a new symbiote attack that can deal a ton of damage when used properly. Paying attention to who the rest of the team is picking becomes incredibly important, as these team-ups can make or break a fight.

One of the most surprising parts of Marvel Rivals is that every character feels viable. Some balancing needs to happen, with characters like Iron Fist and Jeff needing some tweaking. Iron Fist, for example, has a fast and high damage output, combined with self-healing and incredible mobility, making running into him feel like a wall. A few characters aside, overall, Marvel Rivals feels really even in its early days. It nails the chaotic team battles that made early Overwatch so special.

The level design is also largely fantastic, with each combat space having its own visual identity and terrain to learn. The winding, bright, open roads of Yggsgard feel entirely different from the more claustrophobic, dense city of Tokyo 2099. The environmental destructibility is solid, with bridges and parts of buildings coming down as the teams duke it out. While it is generally well done, NetEase could easily go farther in this direction. Leveling entire buildings or spaces would really add to the superhero power fantasy present.

Monetization in a free-to-play game can be make or break, and with Marvel Rivals, it seems to be doing more right than wrong so far. The battle pass costs real-life money but is permanent, meaning there’s no overwhelming rush to finish if life gets busy. Free players still get a bunch of cosmetics and a free skin, which is a lot better than nothing.

A little more information could help players navigate.

The paid-for skins aren’t egregious so far, with skins ranging around the $15-20 mark, and bundles can add more cosmetics to the skin. Players can also buy tokens in smaller amounts when necessary. All the microtransactions are also purely cosmetic, with no pay-to-win systems present.

That being said, navigating all of this can be confusing. Multiple types of currencies are spent in different places without much clarity on how they interact or where to get more. The standard daily missions and longer challenges do provide decent rewards, but they could be better.

There are many achievements that can be tough to find that offer more. Each character has proficiency goals to work towards as well, offering more rewards behind each character sheet. There is a lot to dig into, and Marvel Rivals could do a better job of briefing the player.

The biggest issue so far is the progression. Similar to the beta, actually playing matches doesn’t give you anything. While there are milestone achievements and rewards for hitting certain levels, once you finish the daily missions and the battle pass challenges, that’s it.

You can play for the sake of playing, sure, but there are no material reasons to. Leveling up feels like an afterthought. If NetEase rewarded players with a small amount of currency or cosmetics for certain levels reached, it would help each match feel important, rather than just the ones where challenges were completed.

Overall, Marvel Rivals is fantastic. Everything runs smoothly with a fantastic core gameplay loop. The characters are varied and a blast to use, with a play style available for everyone and a hero they love or can fall in love with. It takes a foundation people know and makes it its own. If NetEase Games can deliver a constant stream of heroes, levels, and modes, Marvel Rivals has everything it needs to succeed.

Marvel Rivals is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.