“Armed and Dangerous!”
Hero shooters have come and gone. Overwatch 2 was released with several promised key features missing, such as Dynamic Weather, Weapon Inspects, and PVE. Concord had 700 players (via Steam) on its launch day, indicating that the genre had begun to lose popularity. With gamers feeling the rut of uninspired content, most were skeptical when the developer NetEase Games announced their hero shooter game based in the Marvel universe.
Marvel Rivals emerged as a refreshed experience that stood out among the pack. With Season 1 halfway over, it is clear that the game is a commercial success. According to the Chinese outlet GameLook, based on current performance, the game has been estimated to make 136 million dollars in revenue.
This is a free-to-play game.
With roughly 250,000 concurrent players, Marvel Rivalsmaintains high praise as it releases new content. It’s been a pleasure to play, but why is that the case when so many others in the genre struggle to keep people engaged?
Team-Ups
Two or more heroes selected within the same team can merge their powers to receive buffs and even extra abilities! This is a unique feature that allows a team to adapt together wordlessly.
“Team-ups are a huge innovation for me,” said former Overwatchcoach Cale “Froggo” Childs. “It seems like such an obvious mechanic to put into a hero-shooter, so it’s surprising something like this hasn’t been done before. To my knowledge, I think it adds an interesting layer of depth and strategy to the game.”
Within the first season, NetEase has released four new playable characters. The Fantastic Four are the first full family in the game, and the entire group has a “team up”. In addition, Human Torch can team up with Storm and combine ultimates. This creates a strong attack and a unique interaction. This shows that as the game continues its life, the company is ready to experiment and try new things not done before in the genre.
Image courtesy of IGDB.
Character Design
Image courtesy of CDN.
When a game is free to play with purchasable cosmetic items, it’s important to have a strong character design so players are willing to purchase something that has no impact on the game. Overwatchgrew in popularity initially because the characters’ interesting designs developed the world and allowed fans to get a feel for them. This is where Concordgot it wrong, as players complained about the dull designs and the lack of personality in the heroes.
With any game based on the heroes being played, having established characters that are widely loved makes it easier for them to be interesting. Even if a Marvel character is not popular with the mainstream audience, they will have lore with characters everyone knows, creating likeness by association. This will even help fans get into the comics!
When creating purchasable cosmetics, NetEase has a range of references. From comics to live-action movies, they have many looks they can use to grab the player’s interest. The game also has a fun art design with interesting textures. The world has unique lore that allows the player to see their favorite characters in a new situation in an outfit of their choice.
Perception
I have played the game myself and enjoyed the competitive edge it provides. Although I am typically not one to pay money for cosmetics, I have purchased a skin for Invisible Woman. Since the game’s release, I have only played Overwatch 2 once, and while I am having a much better time, it’s hard to truly understand why.
“These factors should be looked at carefully with recency bias in mind,” said Childs. “That being said, I think it is mainly because NetEase is making a game that is fun first. Overwatch became too esports-centric, and then not enough, and then too much again. It feels like Blizzard lost whatever vision they had somewhere along the way. It’s easy to [compare something] to something frustrating you. So while players feel distaste for Overwatch, they find Rivals and believe the game does things better than Overwatch.”
Image courtesy of IGDB.
With hero shooters lately becoming the type of game that has not met players’ standards, perhaps people are getting so much gratification from Marvel Rivals because it has released all of the features promised. Rivalshave executed what it told us it would and continuously push the boundaries of what can be done within the genre.
