Marvel's Avengers test: a very winded gathering

Expected at the turn since its initial announcement in January 2017, Marvel's Avengers just arrived on consoles and PC. With its “game service” dimension, the title promises to evolve and densify its content over the weeks. But what is it really worth at launch? This is the mystery that we will try to elucidate through this test.

Marvel's Avengers test: a very winded gathering View PriceRead ConclusionMarvel's Avengers

Some very cool sequences in the story mode
Kamala Khan, an endearing main character
Clean graphics
A lot of content right out

Repetitive and boring missions
The illegible fights (thank the camera)
The lazy staging
Unpleasant menus to navigate on console

Throughout its marketing campaign, Marvel's Avengers has maintained a very thick fog vis-à-vis its structure. If the prologue of this adventure was presented on almost all video game shows for several months, the connected dimension of the Crystal Dynamics software took much longer to reveal itself. The beta offered us a rather mixed first appetizer and the final version of this big-budget production confirmed our fears.

Get together they said!

Let's start with the story mode which tells how the famous superhero faction was dismantled following the events of A-Day. The Avengers are held responsible for destroying part of San Francisco when their Helicarrier explodes. This accident is at the origin of their dismantling and it is the AIM which takes over to reassure the population. But of course, this big company is steeped in bad intentions since it relentlessly pursues the inhumans, that is to say citizens endowed with superpowers following the A-Day disaster. This is how Kamala Khan (or Miss Marvel), a young admirer of the Avengers who also has powers, will get it into her head to bring together our dear heroes in costume to counter the criminal organization and its robotic army.

If it takes up elements seen in the comics, the scenario of Marvel's Avengers was entirely created for the needs of the game, rather than opting for a simple adaptation. If the player incarnates in turn the different superheroes (Iron-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor and therefore Miss Marvel), it is indeed Kamala who has the main role. This is the first good surprise since the teenager is extremely endearing and even touching at times. The writers take the time to introduce him properly and have cleverly avoided digging into the personalities of the other heroes we already know. Unfortunately, and despite an explosive introduction, the story mode struggles to fully convince during its ten hours. The fault with a basic staging and the lack of surprises.

It must be said that the missions do not really help. Indeed, the objectives are redundant as possible because Marvel's Avengers is in excessive beat'em all. It's very simple, everything is an excuse to break AIM robots. We would have appreciated a little more variety in the overall content of the game. And since we're talking about the opponents, it must also be said that the bestiary is clearly uninspired, with the player spending 95% of his time tapping androids heavily armed. In addition, the real bosses crossed over the progression can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

The epic moments so dear to Marvel films are ultimately too few. If certain passages are played at the Uncharted (the creative director of the game having worked on the Sony license), they never manage to get our retinas as Naughty Dog knows how to do it so well. Once the main adventure is over, the faction quests and other secondary missions are unfortunately of the same ilk.

Acheter Marvel's Avengers

The loot, there is only that true (or not)!

This lack of inspiration affecting the campaign can partly be explained by the general structure of the title. As we mentioned earlier, Marvel's Avengers is a "service game". This translates into the possibility of playing most quests in cooperation (up to four) and especially the fact of looting a maximum of loot each time. It is therefore necessary to open chests scattered in more or less open areas and to raise the power level of each superhero. This obviously encourages you to farm and repeat an objective several times to obtain a better piece of equipment. If fans of Destiny, Warframe and other games of the genre will undoubtedly find their account, others may quickly get bored.

The evolution of our squad is therefore slow enough to force us to chain War Zones, more or less long missions (from 5 minutes to 2 hours!) Which will reward us with a rare or legendary loot. There again, it is of an unnamed classicism. The developers have still brought a little RPG touch via skill trees that allow you to unlock active and passive abilities. But here too, a long-term investment is mandatory to unlock all the powers of our six heroes.

There is still hope because, as a "game service", Marvel's Avengers will see its content evolve in the weeks and months (or even years) to come. We already know that new playable characters will be free to download. This will be the case for Kate Bishop, Hawkeye and Spider-Man (only on PlayStation consoles). We can also bet on adding new skins and other side missions. Let's hope for real novelties on the narrative level because the title does not really shine in this area for the moment.

A Hulk-style brothel

As for the content, we are fixed. But how does this Marvel's Avengers play out? On paper, it's not very complicated while in practice, it's a whole different story. Indeed, if the third person point of view is not surprising, the many fights do not fail to surprise us... But not in the good sense of the word, alas. If our superheroes are rather pleasant to control, it is clear that it is not easy to easily use their different powers because of the messy aspect of the clashes. It's very simple, it becomes very difficult to place a counter, to dodge or to hit the right place when several robots surround us. The camera that you have to constantly replace manually does not make the task any easier either. And despite the locking system, it is not uncommon to completely miss the target enemy.

JVFR

There is a lot (too much) going on around this dear Black Widow

It's a shame because each Avenger has complementary techniques compared to the other protagonists. Hulk is used to tank, Iron Man is very effective from a distance as in the air or Black Widow shows incredible agility. There is something for every taste. To stay on the positive side, during solo games, the AI of the allies is always extremely effective. The teammates come to revive us immediately and use their powers at the right time. Because yes, in addition to the basic blows (light and heavy), our avatar has three special abilities including an ultimate. Generally, these abilities are very effective and impressive!

But the enemies on the screen are not the only ones to taint the ergonomics of the game. Thus, the menus, in which we spend several hours equipping the loots collected, improving them via resources gleaned during missions or even viewing the cosmetic elements, are absolutely abysmal to browse. The fault is slowdowns when switching from one window to another and a cursor that is not really optimized for controllers. It is also not uncommon to see this famous cursor disappear when opening the menu. A bug that hopefully will be fixed soon.

JVFR

A little practice against virtual enemies (but still hurt)

A quick trip around the world

Let's move on to the visual part of this Marvel's Avengers which makes us travel through several environments during its many missions. Whether it's the Russian tundra, major US cities, or even the Helicarrier (which serves as the hub here), every location is perfectly modeled. The observation is similar on the appearance of the superheroes that we have the opportunity to embody. If the game does not stand out in terms of its artistic direction, it must be recognized that the graphic part does not suffer from any major defect.

JVFR

More open areas hide chests and side activities to complete

It is impossible to say the same for the technique. Indeed, even if we carried out this test on PS4 Pro in "performance mode", the game is the victim of large framerate drops when there are many enemies on the screen. We also complained about the somewhat long loading times between a game over and the return to the mission. Optimization is therefore not at the party even if, once again, a hypothetical patch could correct all this.

Finally, let's quickly go over the soundscape of the title with an epic soundtrack that does the job well and convincing Spanish dubbing. But since it's Marvel's Avengers, there's always a flip side. This time, at the time of our test, it was the lip synchronization that was acting up during the cutscenes. Nothing very dramatic but it was enough to break the immersion.

JVFR

Hopefully a lot of improvements are on the horizon

Marvel's Avengers : l'avis de Clubic

In short, Marvel's Avengers clearly lacks finish as a whole. If the generous content, the successful graphics and the sympathetic scenario of the campaign seduce at first sight, the game multiplies the clumsiness afterwards. The repetitiveness of the missions, the messy fights and the capricious framerate can even quickly discourage you. Add to this the “Game service” aspect which seems to favor this wobbly structure devoid of any originality. Finally, the Crystal Dynamics software struggles to convince for its launch.

Marvel's Avengers

Without being a shipwreck, Marvel's Avengers unfortunately never manages to rise to the height of what we have the right to expect from a big budget video game in 2020. If it borrows some good ideas from Uncharted for its story mode or even to Destiny for the “game service” part, the title published by Square Enix sins in too many areas. The quests are all alike, the enemies too and regrettable technical problems are to be deplored. Obviously, we are not going to immediately bury Marvel's Avengers, which could see its formula improve over time. But at the time of its release, the disappointment is palpable.