Marvel Rivals doesn’t stray far from Overwatch but is still a lot of fun

Marvel Rivals isn’t about to reinvent the wheel. When it was first revealed earlier this year, the knee-jerk reaction from fans and skeptics alike was that it felt a lot like an Overwatch facsimile, with licensed Marvel heroes and villains filling the roles left behind by Genji, Winston, and Roadhog. After spending a few hours in the closed beta, I can confirm all of those suspicions. This is a hero shooter that’s taken a close look at the established formula, but so far it’s resulted in an experience that’s flashy, polished, and ready to get under your skin.

Like most multiplayer games, Marvel Rivals is silent on why this superhero alliance has decided to fight to the death for a variety of team objectives. (It has something to do with a partnership between two different versions of Doctor Doom. Beyond that, who knows?) But everything else here should be very familiar to anyone who’s spent any time in a major arena shooter. You’ll be split into two teams of six players, with rosters categorized into core tank, support, and DPS roles, each of which comes with a variety of unique abilities and an Ultimate that charges up over the course of the game. Victory is achieved by successfully moving a payload to the end of its route, or by managing to camp on a control point, and all of the action takes place on thriving battlefields drawn from the great Marvel canon. Sound familiar?

Yes, Rivals takes a lot more inspiration from Overwatch than it does from Valorant or Team Fortress 2. The tactics here aren’t built around twitchy gunplay. In fact, a good chunk of its cast doesn’t wield guns at all, and by and large, they tend to soak up a ton of bullets before going down. Naturally, this makes Rivals more accessible to those who are turned off by traditional shooters. Want to cast protective magical barriers and weave portals to teleport around the map? Dr. Strange could be your main character. Prefer to bring a large arsenal of ammo into battle and try to win with your well-honed Call of Duty skills? Then The Punisher might be more your thing.

The asymmetry between these heroes is truly astounding. Developer NetEase has clearly dedicated a lot of time and resources to ensuring that the vividness of the Marvel fantasy can be brought to life within the tight confines of a hero shooter. Take Iron Man, for example, who functions as a mobile artillery unit, sending out massive splashes of damage to anyone below him. Star-Lord, meanwhile, has two holstered blasters that automatically recharge every time he charges forward. Strap them on correctly, and you can absolutely melt the life bar of anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves out of position.

Rivals also does a good job of emphasizing one of the great comic book traditions: team-up abilities, where two heroes combine forces and start destroying the store. These abilities are specific to each character, and they often play into the relationship between the heroes within the Marvel Universe as a whole. For example, Rocket Raccoon can jump on the shoulders of his old friend Groot, allowing him to reduce damage and increase his mobility. It’s a cool feature, and one that seems difficult to balance. Ideally, at high levels, Marvel Rivals won’t be just about matches featuring a prescribed set of established synergies, but will also allow players to express their own creativity with their compositions.

Because even now, in its unfinished state, Marvel Rivals is beautifully rendered. The characters are all beautifully exaggerated and rippling with muscle, more reminiscent of a 1997 comic book store than anything from the MCU. The maps themselves are equally resplendent and surprisingly modular. (Aim at a wall and you might be able to blow it to smithereens.) And perhaps most importantly, Rivals seems equally attuned to the whims of a few esports fanatics and those who simply want to spend a weeknight crushing the opposition with the Hulk. The package NetEase has put together here is rock solid. Let’s hope it continues to be exciting when it hits the live servers.