It’s obvious that Marvel’s Avengers hasn’t had the most successful shelf life. Besides issues with balancing characters and worrying about all that needed to be considered with Marvel’s Avengers as a live-service game, it also failed to live up to the amount of content that it needed to push out after launch. Marvel’s Avengers also lacked a roster of characters that could be uniquely fulfilling and dynamic, but these downsides should not mean that an Avengers game is impossible to pull off in the future.
Marvel’s Avengers’ premise was sound as a multiplayer game that allowed for fans to play as some of their favorite Marvel characters. Unfortunately, with too much of an emphasis on cosmetic content and not enough on substantial content, it seems as if Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix had lost the plot. However, another attempt at an Avengers game should happen sooner than later if Marvel wishes to ride any excitement Marvel fans still have for the MCU and to rid Marvel’s Avengers’ sour taste from fans’ mouths.
Marvel’s Avengers Created a Stigma for Multiplayer Superhero Games
Marvel’s Avengers is the scapegoat moving forward for any superhero multiplayer game that underperforms or appears lackluster. Gotham Knights experienced unfair treatment with such a comparison also, even though Gotham Knights only recently expanded its two-person multiplayer with four-person co-op in its Heroic Assault mode.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is now the latest game to bear these comparisons, although these concerns are not entirely unfounded. Kill the Justice League has as much potential to disappoint fans as Marvel’s Avengers did. Leaning so heavily into its multiplayer characteristics may be enough to dissuade Rocksteady fans from trying it out, even if they would otherwise find it to be favorable.
The only way for Marvel’s Avengers’ stigma to be beaten is if another superhero multiplayer game launches and is received well, meaning that either Kill the Justice League or another game needs to succeed where Marvel’s Avengers had failed. Kill the Justice League has potential with ambitious post-launch DLC plans, but it might mean more to fans if Marvel is able to author its own redemption with a Marvel’s Avengers reboot sooner than later.
Marvel’s Avengers’ Successor Needs to Succeed Where the Game Failed
Knowing what Marvel’s Avengers lacked or what it had done to disappoint fans, another Avengers game should be able to launch without any of these issues present. Gameplay and content would have to be demonstrated as an absolute priority over all else, meaning that fans should expect to see many more villain bosses and ways to make repeat missions fulfilling long after its main campaign is finished.
A new Avengers game that sought to right all of Marvel’s Avengers’ wrongs could rectify that stigma and show fans that Marvel can get it right, whether it's made by Crystal Dynamics again or someone else. It would make sense to have it developed by someone other than Crystal in order to delineate it further, but if Crystal could truly deliver on an Avengers game that fans adore, it could be one of the latest great redemptions in the gaming industry.
The MCU should not be the end-all be-all for why an Avengers game needs to be made. Still, it would work in its favor to release soon so that it could excel based on the upcoming Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars movies, which could all collaborate with the game.
Marvel's Avengers is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
