Marvel's Avengers: The Definitive Edition (PC)

Developer:

Crystal Dynamics

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Release Date:

2020

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Systems:

Win, XBOne, Series S/X, PS4, PS5, Stadia

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm writing about Marvel's Avengers, because it's about to be delisted on Steam and is super cheap right now. Honestly, this fell off my radar the moment I learned they were going the games as a service route with it, so I was very surprised to find myself handing over actual money for it and now I own it I guess!

My curiosity got the better of me when I learned that they'd given players the entire shop's worth of content and freed it from its microtransactions. Plus I had to buy it now or I'd never get another chance, as they've gone and delisted it from online shops. I hate it when they do that.

I was only intending to put the game on for a few minutes and see how it plays, I wasn't expecting to use my screenshots/video to write about it for the internet. In fact, I wasn't even expecting it to run. So the graphics have been left at their absolute lowest to squeeze the maximum FPS out of it. This is as bad as the game can possibly look, at least without some extra effort messing with INI files or whatever. I know people work horrifying miracles sometimes.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to be playing the first few hours, so you may learn a lot of stuff here you might not want to know about the story.

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Hey, I know all of these guys... kind of. It doesn't seem like they wanted to pay the cash for likeness rights, so it's like they've assembled a team of talented cosplayers. Then again Bruce Wayne doesn't look like Christian Bale in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Peter Parker has little resemblance to Tom Holland in Marvel's Spider-Man, so I'll get over it. Probably.

I'm honestly wondering if this is a video, because those graphics seem surprisingly good for the lowest graphics setting. Though folks with RTX cards or PS5s might disagree.

There's one thing I already know about the game going in, and that's that the 'Play Now' button is a trap. 'Operations' is the correct button to start the main campaign. (Thanks to whoever wrote the forum post I saw complaining about the game tricking them).

You can also play one of the three post-game campaigns, if you're unburdened by linear time or don't care about ruining the story.

MISSION 1: I WANT TO BE AN AVENGER!

The game begins in sunny San Francisco. The big red bridge is a bit of a giveaway.

There's no way this beautiful Helicarrier's making it through the game, and I'm not just saying that because of the campaign description says that the Avengers disband. Helicarriers just tend to have bad things happen to them, in the comics, in the movies... in Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Right now they're running a bit of an Avengers-themed event down there, and a Quinjet full of kids is flying in. Among them, a young Kamala Khan. I mean even younger than usual.

And now I get to play as her! I need to collect five comics to earn VIP seats for the main event, and I can use Kamala's tactical awareness ability to put quest markers on screen for a bit to lead me to them. This isn't a superhero ability unique to her; all teenage girls have this power.

Here's a fun fact about the Marvel universe: Marvel Comics exists there too, the only difference is that they publish stories about real heroes. So there's nothing weird at all about Kamala picking up Avengers comics... except for the fact that the oldest of them was published at least ten years before Tony Stark was born and it has him on the cover.

I can't say I expected the first challenge in the game to be a target range. I need to shoot the red holograms, not the green ones. That's easy enough to do, but I keep getting distracted by the red light on the left car.

This didn't go well for me first time around, but I did much better on the second try and earned my first comic book. Man, now I want to get an Avengers comic in real life. It's like how Shenmue 2 made me really want to get a Zippo lighter. Then I got one, and all was well.

I walked into the Tony Stark exhibit to find my next comic, then suddenly Thor walked in and dragged me into a cutscene.

Kamala is stunned and I know how she feels...  I'm transfixed by the anisotropic shine on his metal discs. Even on minimum graphics detail, they look great.

Oh, what, I have to do a button-mashing QTE to get my comic? I have a feeling these games are tutorials for things I'll have to do later in combat, and I don't want to do button-mashing.

Alright, it wasn't actually so bad, I'll let the game off... this time.

I also got to meet Captain America and Black Widow, who seem to be thrilled to be here, judging fan fiction written by kids. Actually, Cap recognises Kamala's name and knows she wrote "Avengers versus the Evil Sewer Lizards", because of course he does, and it turns out that Nat read it too.

There's something about that Captain America costume that bothers me. It's like the artists were given two instructions: 1. It had to look like the movie costume. 2. It had to not look like the movie costume.

I had to go a tiny bit off track to get the final comic, which I thought was pretty reasonable considering that it's a scavenger hunt, but then I got escorted out by a mean security guard. I was like 3 steps off the path! Though I did stick around the forbidden zone just long enough to overhear Bruce Banner talking to scientists Tarleton and Monica about how he's getting strange readings off the project they're about to put on public display. I'm sure it'll be fine.

I got all the comics and earned my place in the VIP booth. We've got a great view from up here, though we're about as far from the stage as you can get and still be at the event.

It turns out that their secret project is a plan to generate clean energy by using Terrigen in the Helicarrier's reactor. Cap invites Tarleton to come on stage to explain, but he's interrupted by Iron Man's theme tune. Tony Stark flies down to make his flashy landing, like a total dick, but then he's immediately interrupted by the Golden Gate Bridge exploding!

The five Avengers, Bruce Banner, Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, do a bit of a pose together, then split up to save the day.

They race into action to sort out the explosion on the bridge, while Kamala... doesn't. This could've been a scene from the perspective of a young girl caught up in the chaos just trying to get to safety, but instead it's switching character to...

MISSION 2 - THE LIGHT THAT FAILED

...the mighty Thor Odinson! He has light attacks and heavy attacks, and honestly both of them should be doing a lot more damage to these goons than they are. Health bars are irrelevant to a worthy warrior wielding Mjölnir. Here's some trivia for you: back at the dawn of the MCU, director Kenneth Branagh wanted to change the name of Thor's hammer because it's hard to pronounce. But Marvel stuck to its guns and now everyone can pronounce it.

Though it can take a while to take in new information, so I wish the game would slow down with all the moves it's trying to teach me. I can press two buttons at once to unleash my super lighting attack? That's awesome, but I'm sure there's a game mechanic to prevent me from spamming it and I'd rather just use the hammer right now.

Incidentally, the hammer can also be thrown as a projectile weapon, so all that time I spent practicing at the target range is paying off. And all that time I spent just tapping the same button at the Hulk-themed Test Your Strength machine is paying off during regular combat.

Okay, suddenly I'm playing as Iron Man, who's showing off with his jet boots. When I was playing as Thor it was a real struggle to just make it down the street, as every few steps there was another blockage to be cleared and another wave of enemies to be smited, but Iron Man can just fly right over them.

The trouble I'm having is that it's using the right stick to fly and my camera controls are inverted, so I keep lurching into the asphalt when I mean to soar into the sky. This is a pretty short and simple arcade sequence though, so it's not an issue.

Now's it gone back to having me fight a bunch of enemies in a sealed-off section of the street (don't stray from the mission area or else). The difference is that I can still hover... and also I'm being shot at by turrets. It's not a problem, I'm Iron Man and I can shoot beams out of my hands, plus everywhere else for that matter.

I gotta say, you may be able to criticise some aspects of the game's art design, but they nailed the paint job on Tony's armour.

Man, this game loves telling me to hold X. Not just in combat, everywhere. If anything needs to be interacted with, holding X and waiting a couple of seconds is the way to do it. I'd look for a way to turn it off in the options, but it'd probably make me hold X to do it.

Next up it's the Hulk, who has his signature attack. I was rolling my eyes at that statement at first, but then I used it and he swung someone around like he did at the end of The Avengers, so I have to admit that it actually is his signature attack.

But the game also introduces another signature move...

...jumping against bits of wall with white scrapes across them in other to get across pits.

I have go to bouncing from scratched wall to scratched wall and if I mess it up the Hulk falls to his death. Or maybe he just lands in the water and throws a big green tantrum about it, all I know is that it brings me to a loading screen and I have to do it again. Properly this time. Fortunately, retries are fairly quick and checkpoints are frequent.

Now I'm playing as Captain America inside the Helicarrier, who's fighting goons the more traditional way: with his fists. Also with a giant glowing frisbee that he can bounce around between them when he fires off a special move. That's pretty rare though, because I'm still getting the hang of hitting people with fists.

Hang on, I know what this game plays like... it's the same combat as Batman: Arkham Asylum!

Wait, no, I was wrong. Forget I said that. There is a hint of Arkham's fluid fighting system in how I have different enemy types to deal with and icons warning me of incoming attacks, but it's doing its own thing. For one thing, I have to remember to push towards enemies with shields and hit the button to flip over them.

Incidentally, I'm sorry I didn't put subtitles on for you, but judging by the text that is on the screen right now I'm not sure they would've helped much. Games from this decade aren't typically designed to be legible at 640 pixels wide.

There's still one last Avenger left to play as, and that's Black Widow, the least powerful of them all. Well, I suppose that depends if you count having a gun as a super power.

She has to deal with a boss fight, facing off against supervillain Taskmaster... well, he's more supervillain adjacent. He's the guy that supervillains hire to train their goons. It made me smile for a moment when I thought the game was setting him up as a serious threat to the Avengers, but no the game knows who he is. He's not a major antagonist, just someone that Black Widow's going to struggle with on her own. Especially with that endless health bar he has.

Taskmaster's trick is that he can memorise and mimic any move he observes, so I'm being encouraged to mix up my moves. I'm also being encouraged to use my grappling hook to zip over to him when he drops grenades, as otherwise I get blown up. Makes sense... except for when I'm already next to him and get blown up anyway.

Anyway, the Avengers did not win this day, which is revealed by a bit of a credits sequence featuring illustrations of the consequences. The Helicarrier's super reactor exploded, exposing people nearby to the Terrigen in the core.

I've watched enough Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to know that a: it's a damn good series, and b: Terrigen activates the dormant superpowers of people descended from Inhumans. That doesn't seem to be common knowledge here though, as people consider the effects to be a disease that needs to be cured.

The Avengers got blamed for the whole incident and disbanded, with the AIM organisation taking over from them.

They even took over the Avengers' skyscraper in New York and are about to set up their own tourist attraction! Somehow I doubt anyone's writing AIM fan fiction though.

There's a real time jump here, five years, which means that when we check in with Kamala next she's noticeably older.

MISSION 3 - THE NEW NORMAL

Kamala's no less of an Avengers fan though. In fact, judging by the posters and her toys it'd be fair to say that superheroes are her only interest. It's like she's designed to be the most relatable possible protagonist, as what she cares about most is the thing that everyone who bought the game cares about!

She's also into Reddit, or a forum formatted a lot like it anyway, as she goes looking for clues to what AIM's really up to with this Terrigen power cure they're promising.

Kamala finds a post saying "*** THE CURE IS A LIE *** Guess the password and help us expose the truth!" which is giving everyone a chance to try to hack into AIM's server and snoop around their secret files. They couldn't get into it themselves as you only get three attempts to enter the password and it requires an obsessive fan's knowledge of Marvel lore.

She tries it herself with the username "tstark" and is given the password hint "What is the name of your first love?"

Her first guess is "pepperpotts" (all lowercase, no space), and when that doesn't work she tries "high-density-muon-beam" (all lowercase, dashes). Another failure. She looks to her posters for inspiration and then types in her final guess "I AM IRON MAN" (all caps, spaces). This does it, she's in!

Personally, I would've wasted my guesses by typing 'Pepper Potts' in different ways. Or maybe not, as that's a pretty obvious password. I have to give Stark credit, no one would ever guess that his first love is 'I AM IRON MAN'... well, except Kamala, right now.

Unfortunately, this gets her computer hacked by purple magic, which is a bit strange even for Marvel. It probably means she should get herself elsewhere, as if they know where she is they'll be coming for her.

Fortunately, she got the entire contents zipped up, downloaded, and copied onto a thumb drive in time. 1 file, 512 MB big.

Alright, now I'm playing as Kamala again, up on the New Jersey rooftops. I have to imagine that most people playing this know that she's got powers in the comics and they may even know that she got them after being exposed to Terrigen, but the game's being very quiet about it. Is she one of the people who got superpowers after the Helicarrier disaster?

I'm sure a bit of midnight Mirror's Edge rooftop parkour will reveal her true capabilities.

Well I've discovered that she's capable of falling off a roof.

I don't think this was my fault though really. I mean I'm not going to argue with the game's maths, but it definitely looked like I was close enough to the cable to grab onto it when I leapt off. Close enough for her to snap onto it I reckon.

The game's not really giving me a chance to complain about it though as like I said it's got quick reloads and it saves more obsessively than I do.

I accidentally spoiled the game's tutorial here. What I was supposed to do is walk down this ramp and get surprised when it topples over on the other side. Then I'd work out that I was supposed to push that cylinder on the left underneath it as a support, thus learning I can do box-pushing puzzles. But the moment a marker appeared on the thing I jumped right off to investigate and solved the problem before it existed.

Also, the answer is... yes she does have her stretchy powers! She uses them to pull herself up onto ledges that are out of reach of mortal men. Handy when her secret lair is inside of a water tower. Just like the Animaniacs.

Her lair is basically an extension of her bedroom, covered in comic books and other Marvel loot. My secret lair is pretty much the same, except it's covered in Star Trek and Farscape DVDs. Also one Torchwood DVD that my brother got me, possibly as a joke.

She finds a message on her computer that gives her a place to meet someone in the resistance. Have things actually gotten bad enough in the last five years for them to need a resistance? The map on that wall shows that she's figured out that the resistance is located somewhere in Utah, so this crisis isn't just a local thing.

Oh, there are robots searching people's houses for people with the disease, so things do seem pretty bad. Kamala definitely doesn't need to be caught by one of them.

I'm still leaping across the rooftops, but I'm fairly sure at this point that this isn't an open-world sandbox kind of game. There's no need for me to bring up a quest marker as there's only one way to go.

Damn, the AIM robots are searching the park as well. This means I get to experience a classic gameplay twist I haven't come across in a long time: the surprise mandatory instant-fail stealth sequence! You bought a game about being a powerful superhero and now you've got to go creeping around a park at night trying not to be seen by anything.

On the plus side, Kamala's tactical awareness makes the robots visible in the dark and through walls, so it's a lot easier for me to spot them than it is for them to spot me. Plus I have a third-person camera. I just need to wait for them to look away and then dart for the next bit of cover.

SOME SNEAKING LATER

Damn, they caught me! Again.

The first time around I actually walked right into them expecting to get into a fight, but nope. If you're spotted you get surrounded and when that happens you're back to the last checkpoint. Which means that I have to repeat the last 10 seconds of gameplay!

Well I'm done with the sneaky bit; now I'm back to jumping around rooftops. Except now I'm able to use my stretchy powers to grab onto poles... theoretically. I'm still getting the hang of the timing. Either that or the game's trolling me.

By the way, the level's a lot more visible in motion. I've got no complaints about not being able to see what I'm doing.

I thought I was doing well here, but then Kamala got knocked out in a cutscene... by Black Widow! Aha, I knew she was the resistance member who gave Kamala the clues on the forum!

Okay, this is not Black Widow.

I guess it was actually Monica from the prologue who knocked Kamala out. She's sharing a limo with the other scientist, Tarleton, who really likes his yellow shirts. He must have been the one who hacked Kamala's computer, as he's got a giant head like the Hulk villain The Leader and he's using purple magic on his little spider robot.

Hang on though, how come getting captured here is fine, but getting captured 30 seconds earlier is game over?

The two AIM scientists try to persuade Kamala, someone who is obsessed with comic book heroics, to join their incredibly shady operation. Shocking plot twist: she declines, smashing the door of their limo off with her stretchy hands and escaping into the street.

This means Kamala's switched from sneaking around to fighting, and when robots burst into this garage to apprehend her they get a big hand for their effort. Kamala can also use her hands in ranged attacks, firing them off in aim mode, which isn't something you can often do in a game. It's bloody useful though, when drones keep buzzing around.

I've been trying to stay mobile here, using her arms to swing up and around the top of the room as I evade their attacks. I've got a health bar and need to beat pickups out of the enemies to get it back, so I'm trying not to lose any if I can help it.

Kamala can't go back home now, not until AIM is defeated. Fortunately, she's got a convincing cover story, as she can tell her dad she went to the mosque retreat with the girls. Meanwhile she's actually getting on a bus to Utah to find the resistance.

This time it cuts to the villains for a bit to see what they're up to. Turns out they're not curing the Terrigen 'disease', they're forming an army of Inhumans.

MISSION 4 - THE ROAD BACK

This is starting to remind me of Tomb Raider a bit, the newer ones that Crystal Dynamics did. I'm even finding boxes of resources to collect now.

I have a note here saying 'You don't have to smash boxes everywhere unlike Marvel Ultimate Alliance', but I guess I have to cross that out now. On the plus side, it's a reason to stray from the linear path. Or at least walk nearer to the walls along the sides of the linear path and look behind rocks.

Hang on, I've just thought of something. I've been playing for over an hour now, so when do I get to play dress up? I expected the game to steer me right towards the costume shop, but I'm still stuck wearing the outfit she literally went swimming in sewage in.

Aha, I just had to press the 'Select' button (or the 'View' button, whatever it's called now).

This looks a lot more like what I expected from the game. There's even a nameplate I can presumably customise. I haven't found any gear yet and I'm still a bit short of a level up, but I have collected a few comics.

Damn, there's a comic here with Kamala Khan on it! Somehow I don't think this particular one was published in-universe. The character was invented in 2014 by the way, so she's really new for a comic book hero.

Wait, I can't read the comic books I'm collecting? What the hell, why not? This would've been a great way to get players into comics! Give players five or so issues of each series to read, then they have to go hunt down the rest in the real world.

There are other collectables like audio clips, plus there's a codex with Marvel facts, I can check out all that, but no comics.

Holy shit that's a lot of costumes! I had no idea they were selling so many. There are lots still locked as well, but I assume you buy them with in-game currency earned by doing gameplay things, seeing as the live service stuff has shut down. Unfortunately, Kamala Khan hasn't been around long, so there isn't anything nearly as iconic here as the alternate Batman costumes in the Arkham games.

You know what, I've changed my mind. I'm going to leave her in her story costume and see if it changes during the campaign.

Whoa, I've found the Helicarrier! Can't say I expected to find this lying here in Utah and neither did Kamala. She's pretty amazed at the sight, and I know this because she never shuts up. Out of curiosity, I tried turning the camera around to look at her as she was talking and they've got the lip sync set up, so she is actually talking out loud to herself.

Your mileage on the character might vary, but I actually like her constant monologue. I wasn't so keen in the prologue when she was a kid, but she's grow on me.

This part of the level is all about sprinting up to gaps and then leaping across with her extendible legs. It doesn't matter if I don't quite make the whole distance as she can latch onto the ledge with her stretchy arms and pull herself up. The thing is, I have to be lined up right as I'm running...

...or she falls past the ledge on the other side and plummets to her death. Stretchy arms only work if you're in front of the ledge, not to the side.

I have to be honest, this is happening more often than I'd like and it's kind of spoiling the cinematic feel. Movie heroes never miss the jump and then have to wait for it to load the previous checkpoint. Maybe the designers could've made the jumps less dangerous when she's still learning about her powers, so she's allowed to fail a little bit and learn from it.

I don't think this bit was my fault though.

This is the bridge leading to the Helicarrier and there's a gap on the left side path, so I just jumped over to the ramp to walk up onto the right side path. And she slid right down to her death. That bit of wall in front is hiding a big hole in the walkway, so if you leap over there you're dead. The real path is on the left side... where you have to jump over an even bigger hole.

At least I've learned something from this: the game won't let you jump anywhere it doesn't want you to be.

SOON, INSIDE THE HELICARRIER

Kamala came here looking for the resistance, but what she has found is the Hulk and he is pissed off.

This is a heavily scripted escape sequence where I have to run down the path while the Hulk bursts through the walls or climbs up pipes next to me and... it's actually good. I complain about scripted sequences sometimes, like in the Call of Duty or Battlefield games. The ones where they throw you into the action and if you choose to go left instead of right you lose. But this is designed so well that it's playing out just like the theme park ride it's meant to be.

It seems heavily inspired by the scene on the Helicarrier in the first Avengers movie and it really makes Hulk seems like a scary son of a bitch. Kamala is powerful enough to stay ahead of him and survive the mayhem but this guy's a nightmare that all you can do is run from.

Hey I got a level up! Well, it's actually my second level up, but the first one didn't count as I couldn't do anything with it. Now I'm able to open up my skill tree and acquire a new skill. Fortunately the choice is obvious... as there's only one skill that isn't locked.

I like the little video showing off the skill in action, by the way. It's not the first game to do it, I remember it way back in the original Fable, but it's nice to see what you're getting for your skill point. (It's mostly just new moves).

Though if there are so many upgrades for Kamala, then it doesn't seem likely I'll be switching back to any of the Avengers during this campaign.

The gear seems less interesting. I like that it's separate from the costume, so you don't have to run around in mismatched armour (it's not very superhero), but getting new equipment in an RPG is supposed to feel rewarding and this just feels superfluous to me.

Okay, I got through a bit of a Tomb Raider tomb puzzle which involved firing Kamala's fists at switches to move platforms and climb out (except without a puzzle), and now I'm almost out of the Helicarrier.

I'm glad the game's still reminding me about basic things, like evading when a red indicator appears, because I really need the reminders. Like I have no idea what single tapping the B button does. Seriously.

Some things are starting to sink in though. Like a charged heavy attack is ideal for breaking through the shields of enemies like this guy. The catch is that it leaves me standing there defenceless, ready for them to interrupt me with one of their attacks. But if I pull it off then I get to follow it up with my new heavy kick and boot them right off the side of the ship. Which is always a laugh.

Oh, plus I know how the special attacks work now! I get a bunch of special moves for my arsenal, indicated by those circles on the bottom right, and they're basically on a regular RPG cooldown timer. The difference is that they seem to take minutes to recharge instead of seconds.

Okay, the bad news is that a million enemies have shown up. The good news is that Hulk turned up as an ally and now we're having a huge fight, with Huge Kamala! Trust her to make sure to buy stretchy clothes just in case.

Hulk turns back to Bruce Banner and Kamala shows him the data she pulled off the server: surveillance footage proving that Tarleton is a big liar and had more to do with the Helicarrier incident than he's letting on. Kamala also thinks he's lying about the Terrigen 'disease' causing madness and death.

Unfortunately, Bruce has been overcome with guilt for five years and he's not ready to come out of his isolation. He gives Kamala an address and leaves her to do the next bit of her quest on her own.

Bruce changed his mind and he's giving her a lift!

I like how there's no talking in this scene, everything's conveyed by the motion capture as Bruce tries to retain his chill while Kamala does annoying things like tapping his little Hulk on the head, turning the radio on, or slurping her drink. We've reached the point where we can have realistic straw-sucking in real-time.

This is with the graphics set to 'rubbish' as well.

Wait, I'm Bruce Banner now? I do get to play as the Avengers again during the campaign! It's so weird though to see Kamala go walking off in front of me, because that's my character.

It's also weird being in the forest, as it's like I've just wandered into Tomb Raider 2013. I'm probably only comparing the games so much because they're by the same developer to be honest. If this was Tomb Raider I'd be running around the area hunting deer or something, while this is about walking down the path, listening to another conversation. It's still got the bit where they have to slowly squeeze through a narrow space though.

I figured I'd check out what the Hulk has to wear, and they've got some movie costumes here! Plus costumes like Joe Fixit from the comics. That's the one in the suit... the dark blue suit I mean.  They've gotten a bit of mileage out of reusing the same meshs, so there are lots of costumes with a hat, lots wearing gladiator gear etc.

The thing I've learned from playing as the Hulk, is that I really hate these purple teleporting snipers. I hate having to stop and carefully line up my shots so that the throwing arc connects with their face while they're shooting their sci-fi rays at me. Still, I can't complain about the way that Hulk rips a chunk out of the ground when it's time to do a long-range attack.

I'm really collecting a lot of loot at this point and I'm just ignoring it now. It's adding nothing positive to gameplay that I can see. They're starting to get different effects beyond making numbers go up, but I still don't get the joy from them that I would from getting new armour in a real RPG. Especially as it's the Hulk, c'mon. I know it has him equipping nanites, not Kevlar, but it's still not fun.

Fortunately, I don't have to engage with the gear system at all, as I just go into the menu and press the auto-equip button to have the game automatically pick the best equipment.

EVENTUALLY

This brawler combat is getting kind of repetitive and draining now. I wish I could take a break from tearing through this AIM base and go jump over some gaps again for a bit, or something.

Though I will give the developers credit for making the Hulk feel powerful. Kamala can do some damage in a fight, she's not weak, but when Hulk cuts loose the ceiling starts coming down. I really tried to get a good shot of the carnage but it's just chaos. In fact, I have to keep remembering to look at my health bar, as he feels practically invulnerable. It's still a bit weird that cannon fodder enemies have their own health bars, as one punch from this guy feels like it should end them, but I'm never focusing on just one guy, so it's not a big deal.

It's not all brainless violence though, as Tarleton's on the PA system, comparing the Terrigen disease to Hulk's own condition, trying to convince him he needs help. The dude sounds genuine as well.

Oh cool, I'm back to playing as Kamala. This is the break that I needed.

I mean I'm still beating up robots, but Kamala's style is different. She's more mobile, as she can use her giant fists to grab onto parts of the environment and pull herself across. I'm rushing around this place like it's Doom 2016. I'm also slipping down holes again, but there are no falling death scenes and loading screens during combat. She just reappears back on the ground, so missing a jump barely interrupts the flow.

Oh no, the button mashing is back!

This is a proper boss fight, with a giant health bar and multiple stages, so I think I'm right at the end of this chapter now. I don't have the patience left for a boss fight though; I think I should've taken a break back when the combat was starting to feel like a grind.

I got really close to beating him, which is impressive I reckon seeing as I don't know what this sci-fi hardware around the arena is for. Am I supposed to break it so that he's caught in the explosion? Am I supposed to avoid it?

But I didn't beat him, so now I'm trapped here in this time loop until I get it right. I've seen the loading screen after getting my hero killed so many times, but it's really weird to see it because I lost a fight. That has not happened often. I guess that's a side effect of playing on Normal difficulty.

Alright, I'm done. Hold for the conclusion.


CONCLUSION

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One thing I've learned after taking screenshots from over 1000 games, is that sometimes it's better to just not. Sometimes the best way to capture the ideal moment from some frantic superhero action is to record a video of the whole thing and pick the right frame later. Of course, the downside of this approach is that if you record hours of footage as one file and then see this...

...you're likely to wrap your hands around your monitor stand and choke the life out of it. Don't get me wrong, I prefer small filesizes, but 0's a bit too small. Hours of gameplay that was. HOURS.

I wasn't going to give up on this post, and I still had my deadline, but man I needed to just walk away, do something else for a while. Then eventually I started to wonder about what would happen if I pressed the 'stop recording' button? Turns out all my gameplay had been recorded after all! Along with a few hours of all the other stuff I'd been doing.

Anyway, after giving it 3.7 hours of play I've come to the conclusion that Marvel's Avengers is alright. It's not really what I expected at all, because I didn't expect it to just be a regular normal superhero game.

It's an extremely linear series of levels that alternate between running down paths and jumping around marked ledges, and brawling with cannon fodder in an arena. Every inch of it has been crafted by a designer; it's full of scripted moments and spectacle. It's also very story-heavy, as even when you're just jogging through the level chances are someone's going to be talking. Kamala Khan is an over-eager fan who gets to meet all her heroes and be the one who saves the day with her new superpowers... but in a good way. This isn't Forspoken. It's not Marvel's Midnight Suns either, which was a bit of a relief to be honest, as the quips in that got exhausting and I only played it for an hour!

The game handles its tone fairly well I reckon. It's set in the bad future where the Avengers fall apart but, that's just something that happens in the comics from time to time. It's not Zack Snyder's Marvel by a long shot. It's also been made with a lot of love for the source material. Reverence in fact. I'm maybe a quarter of the way through and I've visited an exhibition, an archive and two shrines to the Marvel heroes (counting Kamala's lair).

I don't know what it was like on launch before it got patched, but right now there isn't a hint of 'games as a service' features or microtransactions intruding on your single player experience in the main campaign. If you want to change costumes, you just change costumes. The loot system isn't great, but you just go to the menu and press the auto-equip button every now and then, so it's harmless. I can't comment on the co-op as I haven't tried it, but it generally makes games better so I'll have to check it out at some point. I can't comment on the post game either (ie. the bit that you're supposed to play forever), but I personally don't really care if it even still exists, never mind if it's worth my time.

The game got mixed reviews on release and it probably deserved them, but it's a lot better than I expected it to be and I'm glad I put the money down and bought it before it DISAPPEARED FOREVER.

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Next on Super Adventures, game over screens! Even more of them than usual! It's been years since I did my last game over article so I figured it was time.

If you've got anything you'd like to say about Marvel's Avengers, you should go for it. Follow your heart, chase your dreams.