I’ll be honest - I’ve never been much of a Marvel fan. I’ve only watched a handful of the movies and while I thought they were okay, they never felt worth my time or effort to keep up with. I did enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy, and Deadpool, so it’s not like I’m incapable of appreciating Marvel properties. They just never really clicked with me.
Despite that, Marvel Rivals immediately grabbed my attention with its great art style, vibrant colors, and more modernized hero designs. The levels are well-designed with plenty of cover for dodging snipers and multiple flank routes so you don't get stuck trying to funnel your team through one entrance (Overwatch, looking at you). Certain hallways and areas have low ceilings that will force flying players down towards the ground, emphasizing the need for positional awareness. Each of them is a decent size; not too big and not too small.
Destructible environments are a neat addition, and is something that even Overwatch doesn't have - but it feels underutilized. Some walls and objects can be broken, but it rarely impacts gameplay in a meaningful way. I like that the feature exists, but I wish it added more to team strategy. Maybe as the meta develops, it’ll become more relevant, but in my 30 hours of playtime, it’s been more of a background detail than a game-changer.
The hero roster follows the classic trifecta of tank, healer, and DPS — vanguard, duelist, and strategist here — with the game conveniently recommending a category when you’re at the mission select screen. Each character has a star rating to indicate how difficult it is, which I found to be a good enough indicator of what to play as a new player.
As a Junkrat main, I naturally gravitated towards Squirrel Girl - Her slingshot lobs explosive acorns off surfaces in a way that feels similar to Junkrat’s grenade launcher, and her ability to leap into the air is reminiscent of getting launched by Junkrats mines. Her redesign here looks significantly better her previous designs, which could get pretty weird looking.
Jeff the landshark is disliked by a sizable portion of the community and it’s not because he’s bad - He's just so damn good, and his ultimate seemed designed to specifically boil the blood of the players he spits into the abyss.
There are some characters that I don't see often in matches such as Magik or Black Widow - who fills the same sniper role as Hawkeye but she's worse at it. Storm is another character that struggles, as she’s squishy, constantly airborne, and an easy target for ranged heroes.
As for microtransactions, the game follows a fairly typical freemium model. It has a battle pass and a rotating store with cosmetics. The battle pass is filled with fillers like nameplates, sprays and emotes that you’re required to unlock to get the stuff you really want – the character skins. If spending large sums of money on character skins is your thing, then Marvel Rivals has quite a few good-looking skins.
One of the biggest issues, though, is how the game’s core mechanics are tied to frame rate. Players with weaker setups will find themselves dashing shorter distances, jumping lower, or attacking more slowly. That’s a huge problem for a competitive game, and hopefully it gets addressed soon.
I’ve really enjoyed my time with Marvel Rivals. It has a huge roster of characters with vastly different playstyles, so you're likely to find something that you click with. I'm not quite sure it'll replace Overwatch for me, but I suspect it's something that I'll come back around to now and then.
7/10
Matthew Sutton
I write about video games for consoles and PC. I tend to gravitate to RPG's, looter shooters, hero shooters, and the occasional 4x or card game. I'm a big fan of the Witcher Series (but not the netflix series) and the Destiny franchise, but I play nearly every big release that comes out with indie games sprinkled into the mix.