PvP hero shooters are seemingly ubiquitous now and as live-service titles they’re bound to have issues every now and then, whether they are improperly balanced or fail to meet unwieldy expectations in post-launch content. PvE multiplayer titles have seen an agreeable renaissance lately in Helldivers 2, but PvP experiences are still a hot-button topic since they’re at once beloved and disliked for a multitude of reasons. That’s why the recent rumor of a third-person multiplayer Marvel game is both tantalizing and unnerving.

This rumor comes from highly reputable leaker Kurakasis, who leaked Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra’s official title not long before it was officially announced and therefore has a degree of credibility. According to Kurakasis, the multiplayer game is called Marvel Rivals and would be a “6v6 Overwatch-style hero shooter,” which already narrows down what such a game could look like since it’s also described with a “polygonal approach to the art style, similar to Valorant.” If all this is true, Marvel will need to tread carefully to not underextend or overextend in a divisive and tumultuous genre.

An Overwatch-Style Marvel Game Doesn’t Leave a Lot of Room for Imagination

If it’s truly evocative of a third-person ‘shooter,’ Marvel Rivals doesn’t have many characters to choose from. In a literal sense, there are only so many Marvel characters who would be viable as ‘shooters’ with actual gunplay—Punisher, Deadpool, Agent Venom, Cable, Star-Lord, US Agent, Winter Soldier, and Rocket Raccoon, to name a handful. There wouldn’t necessarily be an inherently cohesive throughline pitting them all against each other and with such specific characters it could be difficult to sell this premise outside of needing it to have characters wielding guns or some sort of firearm equivalent.

Because it’s apparently a 6v6 hero shooter there’s no reason to assume that players will be taking the role of SHIELD agents or something akin to that, meaning ‘shooter’ gameplay could feel limiting when characters have so many other powers available. Rather, because of the nature of such a game, there may not even be much story-related content so long as new content and game modes arrive alongside seasonal updates and in-game events.

The other concern is whom Marvel Rivals would launch with in its base roster. This could pave the way for more characters to be added in the future, of course, which would be a goldmine for Marvel Rivals.

A Marvel Hero Shooter Could Work, But Only Under the Right Circumstances

Of course, Marvel Rivals could also consider spellcasters and characters who fire assorted projectiles, such as Doctor Strange and Iron Man respectively, and Spider-Man could supposedly fling webbing with ammunition associated with his web-shooters. But assuming that gameplay would need to be structured strictly around a bunch of characters with a broad range of customization or several class-type ‘hero’ characters as seen in Apex Legends or Overwatch, Marvel Rivals would need to be mindful about which pool it chooses.

If icons like Captain America are playable with a vibranium shield that can ricochet and perform trick shots against PvP opponents, for instance, the game would also need to accommodate for his unique traversal style. This would make adapting many heroes difficult unless it had the same scope as a game like Overwatch or Fortnite since some characters would need to be able to fly or maneuver the map in ways that are far more authentic.

Essentially, such a game couldn’t be half-baked. Marvel Rivals would need to consider what a particular character would bring to it and how that could be designed to meet a certain play style. It’ll be interesting to see if this rumor turns out to be anything more than a rumor, but the number of details emerging about it could point to a tremendously exciting multiplayer game in Marvel’s future, especially hot off the heels of Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Great Web’s cancelation.

Marvel Rivals is rumored to be in development.