Even with an incredibly crowded F2P hero shooter genre, Marvel Rivals uses its beloved cast of characters and refreshing gameplay mechanics to set itself apart. Marvel‘s foray into video games has failed to consistently reach the same levels of success as its other multimedia endeavors, but time with the Marvel Rivals closed beta provided a peek at an upcoming multiplayer game that seems poised to change that.

Marvel Rivals is a star-studded 6v6 hero shooter where players can team up with friends and play as their favorite Marvel superheroes and villains. A closed alpha test earned early praise for the third-person online shooter, but its latest beta delivers a level of polish that already makes Marvel Rivals feel like the next stage of hero shooters.

Destructible Environments Bring A Heroic Change For Multiplayer Shooters

Marvel Rivals Is Being Developed By NetEase Games

While the Marvel Rivals closed beta includes excellent character models and engaging scenery, its use of the Unreal 5 engine takes things up a notch by allowing stage destruction. This helps gameplay feel like an evolution of the hero shooter genre, which has become oversaturated with multiplayer experiences filled with cool and adorable characters fighting to take control of a specific location. While Marvel Rivals does that too, it does it in ways that will be tough for other games to match.

Only two stages were available during Screen Rant‘s time with Marvel Rivals, but during those matches, almost every attack proved capable of destroying walls and structures, sometimes dramatically changing the battlefield. Destructible cover points, bridges, and walls open up gameplay from both a strategic and presentation point of view, giving clever teams a chance to gain the upper hand with coordinated attacks. With a colorful cast of characters wielding a wide range of abilities, there will be many entertaining opportunities to take advantage of the game’s malleable stages.

Each of the 23 playable characters in the Marvel Rivals beta is represented with a mix of modern stylishness and iconic costumes that make the characters who’ve been redesigned countless times seem fresh, a difficult task for some of the world’s most popular characters. Each character’s abilities and ultimate attacks are cleverly designed with contrasting colors, making it much easier to tell what is happening, even during the most chaotic battles, which can quickly alter each stage’s environment.

Having Playable Characters That Players Are Already Invested In Changes A Lot

The Release Date For Marvel Rivals Has Yet To Be Announced

Today, dozens of hero shooters in the gaming sphere strive to create memorable characters, but it’s a struggle to even gain a fraction of the passion that people feel for the playable characters in Marvel Rivals. The game’s cast already has engaging backstories and storylines tied to each one, which immediately helps players feel tied to the characters they are playing. Beloved cast members are nothing unique to hero shooters, but how Marvel Rivals characters work together is.

Like many of the best multiplayer shooter games, Marvel Heroes‘ cast is broken up into three distinct gameplay classes: the tanky Vanguard, the close-quarters Duelist, and the revitalizing Strategists. Each character has the potential to deal out effective damage, and a wide range also has healing or ally buffing abilities, which takes away some of the pressure of playing as a supporter-type teammate. However, specific combinations of teammates, like Rocket Racoon and The Punisher or Adam Warlock with Star-Lord and Mantis, provide exclusive buffs and special abilities that use the cast’s bonds and unique powers to enhance gameplay.

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Marvel Rivals’ Spider-Man Has One Ability Insomniac Desperately Needs For Spider-Man 3

Following the launch of Marvel Rivals’ closed alpha, players have been able to analyze Spider-Man’s gameplay and how it compares to Insomniac’s games.

While many multiplayer games require communication and luck to pull off effective team-up attacks, Marvel Rivals provides passive buffs and bonuses to well-organized teams. With so many special abilities that affect teammates in multiple ways, there are many combinations of characters players will want to experiment with. One example features the Hulk providing gamma energy that Marvel Rivals‘s version of Iron Man can absorb and use to power up his attacks. Rewarding team composition before the game is even loaded in is an intriguing feature that, while it could create metas that make it necessary to pair certain heroes with others, could also liven up the game’s diversity and create unexpected combos.

A Superpowered Boost To The Hero Shooter Genre

Marvel Rivals Will Be Free To Play On PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S

The usual fixings of a modern free-to-play team shooter populate Marvel Rivals, giving out loads of player tags, sprays, emotes, and skins to unlock by completing themed challenges or leveling up the battle pass. During the closed beta, in-game currency was earned at a generous rate, giving players enough credits to unlock skins after playing around a half dozen matches, which is hopefully not something that gets more difficult to earn without spending money after Marvel Rivals officially releases.

NetEase Games are onto something special with Marvel Rivals. The super-powered brand recognition is enough to get fans’ attention, but making it beautiful, easy to play, and filled with revolutionary hero shooter gameplay mechanics puts the game high on the list of most anticipated multiplayer games. The current closed beta is ongoing until August 5, but the game is so fun as it is that many players are already hoping to see more betas announced or an official release date soon because, frankly, Marvel Rivals makes other available hero shooters look generic in comparison.

Marvel Rivals

Third-Person Shooter

Action

Multiplayer

Systems

Platform(s)

PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer , Online Co-Op

Engine

Unreal Engine

ESRB

Teen // Violence

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