Marvel’s Avengers didn’t leave the impact anyone wanted, failing to be a live-service game and feeling incomplete as a single-player experience. Even with all of its failures, seeing this title get delisted was pretty demoralizing, as it means gamers could no longer experience this flawed beat-em-up.
Gamers would argue that the game should still be around for preservation, as more of these products are becoming lost to time. I would argue that the combat was so fun that this game could have been used as a blueprint for the next major release with these characters.
The identity crisis Marvel’s Avengers faced is pretty evident through its main menu. As players go through the various modes of this game, it might be shocking to see how the entire campaign can be skipped. Impatient players who didn’t care for character development and immediately wanted to start beating up robots could do so.
While we wouldn’t skip the main campaign, as it has some great moments with Ms. Marvel, the mindless beat-em-up gameplay in Avengers is pretty addicting. Each Avenger controls pretty well and they all have unique mechanics. Thor can throw his hammer and keep enemies still, Iron Man can summon his Hulkbuster for extra damage, Captain America can double jump, and this isn’t even scratching the extra characters released.
It’s probably not too surprising to know that I still boot up this failed live service game from time to time. As someone who really enjoyed the 2011 Captain America game, it was good to see him control similarly in this game. Ms. Marvel is also a ton of fun to use, thanks to her stretchy limbs and giant transformation. Both Hawkeyes were also pretty great, with Clint’s various arrows being really fun to use.
Much like the WWE games, Marvel’s Avengers is pretty great for killing time. Having a YouTube podcast on and beating up various thugs as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is a good time. Granted, being a good killing time game isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but not every game has to change the way we perceive this medium.
The delisting of Avengers’ digital versions is a huge shame because players now have access to all of the costume DLC. From Captain America’s classic costume to Iron Man’s various MCU armor and even a swimsuit for Thor, there’s a lot of variety here.
As someone who tried to keep this game alive by buying costumes, the announcement of everything being free was a mixed bag. Then again, it did lead to me trying out more characters, so this is arguably a good thing in the long run.
Physical copies of Marvel’s Avengers shouldn’t be hard to find, so fans of these heroes should consider picking up this beat-em-up. The current-gen versions are much better, practically removing loading times and giving players 60 FPS of pure destruction. If we had to choose, the PS5 version does have Spider-Man as an exclusive, so pick that one up.