Following leaks and rumors, Marvel has formally lifted the veil on its new collaboration with NetEase Games: A team-based shooter titled Marvel Rivals.
The reveal isn’t surprising considering its concept made the rounds online on March 26, alongside screenshots that gave away its roster of characters. So, if those leaks caught your interest, you’ll likely be more than pleased with the actual announcement trailer.
Despite being described as a shooter, Marvel Rivals doesn’t see all your favorite heroes picking up guns; they very much stick to their established powers and weapons. It would be weird to see the likes of Spider-Man packing heat, but this also makes for a more diverse and interesting roster of characters. I can only theorize based on the gameplay shared, but it seems some characters will have a greater emphasis on close quarters combat, like the Hulk, while others, like Iron Man, excel at long-range. What will undoubtedly make each character unique is their superpowers, with Doctor Strange opening portals to send his teammates around the map (think Wraith from Apex Legends) and Loki able to disguise himself as other characters.
The vibrant art-style and animation definitely feels like NetEase took a few cues from Overwatch, but aside from featuring 6v6 gameplay (something developer Blizzard ditched for Overwatch 2, much to some fans’ dismay), Marvel Rivals‘ unique hooks are its fully destructible environments and Team-Up Skills, such as Rocket Raccoon jumping on Groot’s shoulder so they can take out opponents together.
As for the plot justifying bringing all these heroes and villains together, it’s typical multiverse shenanigans, with a conflict between two versions of Doctor Doom causing different universes to collide, prompting all the characters to form disparate groups trying to stop either Doom from conquering reality. The trailer also seems to hint at Galactus’ involvement too, with the world eater sporting a new feminine design that I can already see being popular with some fans.
There’s still a lot of info that’s yet to be explained, but what we do know is that it’s free-to-play, in development for PC (no mention of a console release), and there’ll be a closed alpha test in May 2024 that you can sign up for. It promises over a dozen playable characters, including Spider-Man, Black Panther, Magneto, and Magik.
