‘Fun takes emphasis’: Marvel Rivals ditches perfect balance for player enjoyment

Multiplayer game developers these days often find themselves stuck in the cobweb of either trying to balance a title to perfection to uphold competitive integrity, or letting the mayhem loose to maximize the entertainment factor. It’s very much the latter the Marvel Rivals‘ designers are embracing.

Marvel Rivals has taken a cue from Spider-Man and broken free from the web of balance, choosing to prioritize the sheer “fun” of playing with one of its standout features—environmental destruction. “The primary perspective of the team is we’re trying to make a fun game, not necessarily a balanced game. And that fun really takes emphasis over that perfect balance, so it’s an exploration with the players,” game director Thad Sasser said in a conversation with Dot Esports, reflecting on how the developers are looking for feedback and usage patterns to refine the feature further down the line.

Marvel Rivals boasts maps with dynamic environmental properties. These map elements break when damaged, creating new pathways and angles that offer strategic advantages. On the Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya map, for example, Spiderbots attached to structures reconstruct the destroyed parts of buildings after battles, introducing a new dimension to the gameplay. This dynamic environment adds an element of surprise and strategy in every Rivals lobby, making each match unique and engaging.

The developers revealed every object on the map was destructible in early playtests, and they’ve slowly refined the experience with each subsequent round. “We feel pretty good about all the destructive elements right now, and we’ll continue to refine it.”

Now Marvel Rivals players have to prove their mettle by adapting to the ever-changing maps and seizing every opportunity that comes their way.

Team-up abilities also serve to distinguish the game from other hero shooters, where two or more superheroes share a background and help each other by giving access to exclusive abilities.

The development team at NetEase is a firm believer in the hero shooter genre and its “unlimited potential.” The devs see the genre as a fresh and exciting space, far from showing any signs of fatigue in players. “There’ve been hundreds of shooter games. There’ve been hundreds of RTS games. There’ve been hundreds of turn-based games and the hero shooter genre is relatively new in that sense,” Marvel Games’ executive director Danny Koo explained. “We’ve got some really cool gameplay and some really exciting ways to put this together along with the amazing Marvel IP. I think it’ll be a real standout in the genre.”

The devs also focused on how having more games like this eases the learning curve, making each more accessible to the masses. “I think the more hero shooter games there are, the more players get comfortable with the genre,” Danny added.

“First and foremost, we want to make sure that we have a stable and great game on hand and the community will come together. We want it to be organic to have that kind of esports mentality. And once we see that’s successful, there’s a possibility,” Danny continued, adding his development team wants to prioritize getting the game into everyone’s hand and ensuring it’s the best-in-class PvP hero shooter in the market right away.

While there’s no release date in sight, there will be a closed beta test in July. This next playtest will see Marvel Rivals expand to PlayStation, with crossplay enabled so all those new players from eligible platforms can join the fun.