Marvel Rivals Review – The Overwatch Alternative We Needed

The highly-anticipated Marvel Rivals is finally out, and I’m having an absolute blast with it right now. It’s giving me the same feeling that I had when Overwatch first came out, and it’s been a nice breath of fresh air. What exactly does it do well though?

Also, bear with me if I start using Overwatch comparisons. I played that game at a pretty high level back then from launch until around the pandemic, and then some more when the sequel dropped.

A Smooth Experience

Right off the bat, the game already feels like such a polished product, and the only hiccup I’ve had so far is a single crash that came out of nowhere. Aside from that, it’s just smooth all around. Performance has been solid, and I’ve had no issues with connectivity despite players flooding into the servers at launch.

The UI is easy to navigate, though I guess it helps that I’ve been playing hero shooters for a long time now and they all use similar menus. There’s also opportunities to practice against AI if you’re not confident enough to hop right into a PVP match yet.

Honestly, my only complaint at the moment are the ability previews. Those videos need to be trimmed down, because they idle around for two to three seconds in each before the actual ability preview starts.

As for the artstyle and overall aesthetic, I really don’t have anything negative to say. It’s just so good, and abilities are all incredibly flashy without being too obstructive to the point where you don’t understand what’s going on. Of course, it can still be a mess in team fights, but that’s just the nature of games like this.

Solid Gameplay, Fun Kits

All of the heroes in the game are just so fun to play, with each having very thematically appropriate/comic accurate and easy to understand abilities. You’ve got Magik stepping in and out of Limbo, Captain America deflecting attacks, Black Widow sniping but also being proficient in melee combat, and Wolverine diving in (or getting fastball special’d) and brawling with his healing factor sustaining him.

It’s an absolute blast, and you’re never going to get the same “learning period” experience like the one we have right now once the game matures a bit more and the meta kicks in. Even then, I’m sure that unrated matches aren’t going to be that sweaty later down the line, so it’s just good fun overall.

Loosely Defined Roles

It helps that most of the healers in the game can be decent damage dealers in their own right, and that they’re labeled as “strategists” rather than just “support/healer”. Seriously, Rocket Raccoon of all heroes is a damn healer, and he has a fast-firing gun that hits like a truck if your aim is good.

Cloak & Dagger was my initial favorite, and it doesn’t even feel like I’m playing a healer despite hitting 9-10k total heals in quick matches, or around 25-30k in longer ones. I think it’s great, because the kits these characters have will incentivize people to actually try out the role rather than going “ah, but I want to DPS, so I gotta pick duelists”.

Hopefully this squashes the idea that we’ll need “role queue” in the future. It’s part of what killed Overwatch for me, even if I continued playing it for a few more years after that became enforced. It just felt so boring to be confined to a single role per match, and queue times sucked if you were in the mood to DPS.

Melee? In My Shooter???

In case you weren’t already aware, a decent chunk of the current vanguards and duelists are melee characters, or at the very least just more effective in close range combat. They did a pretty good job of making characters like these completely viable despite all the CC, high mobility, and long range shenanigans.

Seriously, I’m trying to learn how to play Star-Lord over here, who seems to be an absolutely cracked version of Tracer, but I’m getting my ass handed to me by very aggressive Iron Fists and Spider-Men.

Such characters compensate for the lack of ranged options by having insane mobility. A good Spider-Man can swing across the map and pull you away from your vantage point, before proceeding to beat the living daylights out of you. Iron Fist? That man can triple jump, dash, and wall run to close the gap and hit you with a barrage of punches.

It’s a stark difference from something like Overwatch or even Paladins, where melee often means you’re confined to some sort of tank type of character or somebody who just cosplays as “melee” (hey, Doomfist pre-OW2). Nah, man, we’ve got straight up heavy-hitting brawlers in your face here.

Non-Predatory Store (For Now)

Being a free game, and one by NetEase of all companies, microtransactions were to be expected. Luckily, all heroes are free, as they should be. Imagine locking new heroes to a season pass… what a crazy idea that would be, huh?

Speaking of the season passes, Marvel Rivals does one thing that more games should be doing. In an effort to prevent FOMO to some degree, paid battle passes don’t actually expire. If a season ends, you can continue claiming rewards on previous ones as long as you’ve paid for it. That’s a huge win for somebody like me who can’t always dedicate the time to grind it out within the season.

Aside from that, they’ve also mentioned that events will give out an undisclosed amount of units. This means that players can potentially earn paid cosmetics through missions. Regardless of how much they’re willing to give away for free, it’s not too big of a deal for me since the heroes not being locked behind a paywall is the only thing that really matters in my opinion.

Honestly, knowing NetEase’s reputation in the mobile market, it’s both hilarious and relieving that they’re sticking with cosmetic-only premium stuff for now. You can even earn a bit of premium currency from the pass itself, though it totals to just a little under how much it costs. I’ll take it, though. It’s better than not giving any at all.

A Marvelous First Impression

Overall, Marvel Rivals is a solid hero shooter that’s further carried by having such a massive IP tied to it. I’m a huge fan of Marvel in general, but even without it, I’d probably like this game just as much as I do right now. I can’t speak for balance right now since we’re still in the nascent stages of the game, but fun is pretty much guaranteed if you’re into the genre.

If you want some advice, just hop in right now if you’re still on the fence. It’s completely free and we’re in that special period where players haven’t optimized the fun chaos out of it just yet. Even then, you probably won’t need to sweat it at all unless you’re in the high ranks of the competitive ladder, which is a whole separate game mode from quick matches anyway.