Marvel Rivals

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC

Overwatch is really popular. Marvel is really popular. So What If…? developer NetEase Games combined the two?

Don't pester Uatu the Watcher for an answer – Marvel Rivals really is essentially just the colourful heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe battling it out in a hero shooter cast almost exactly in the mould of Blizzard's multiplayer titan, for better and worse. Expect 6-on-6 team battles and a trio of match types on repeat, personal glory and progress through seasonal events the only rewards.

There's something of a background story going on at least, and like the most gloriously convoluted arcs from the original comics, it involves both time travel and the multiverse. Doctor Doom crosses paths with Doom 2099){href='https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Victor_von_Doom_(Earth-928)' }, the timestream gets messily entangled, and so a host of characters are forced to battle it out in survival battles, all peppily overseen by Galacta, Daughter of Galactus. OK, it's not much of a story, but it does allow for dozens of characters and locations from the Marvel cosmos to be thrown together without too many eyebrows raised.

At its weakest points, Marvel Rivals feels like a digital toybox full of cool action figures, but owned by a kid with no imagination...

That voluminous roster right from launch is one of Marvel Rivals' strongest features though. There are more than 30 characters to choose between, from the expected headliners such as Spider-Man, Storm, Thor and Black Panther, to the likes of Squirrel Girl, Jeff the Land Shark, or the Lin Lie incarnation of Iron Fist, drawn from the darkest depths of comic book lore. With some characters having alternate skins allowing players to embody even more obscure figures – the Flash Thompson "Space Knight" incarnation of Venom, Moon Knight's suave "Mr Knight" persona, or Chasm, one of Spider-Man's many (many…) clones among them – there's a real love for the source material on display here.

Unfortunately, some map a little too closely to Overwatch's roster – Star-Lord feels like Soldier 76, Hawkeye like Hanzo, Scarlet Witch like Moira, just to scratch the surface. Other characters don't really fit the genre, and feel crowbarred in as a result. Hulk, for instance, starts out as mild-mannered Bruce Banner, running around firing his gamma gun before transforming into the Jade Giant. It's an awkward fit to add the shooting into a hero shooter. Similarly, sea king Namor feels an odd inclusion, flinging a trident around before occasionally summoning a Lovecraftian tentacled horror from the ocean floor. At its weakest points, Marvel Rivals feels like a digital toy box full of cool action figures, but owned by a kid with no imagination beyond pretending they're all shooting each other.

At its best though, you'll be able to generate synergies between team-mates, which can have literally game-changing impact. For instance, Iron Fist can help ice-mistress Luna Snow generate a frosty shield that slows opponents and heals allies, God of Thunder Thor can super-charge Storm and give Captain America an electrified shield, while Guardians of the Galaxy Star-Lord, Adam Warlock, and Mantis can enjoy a resurrection boost. Working out how, and for whom, these team-ups work is one of Marvel Rivals most enjoyable aspects, making battles a bit more cerebral than just trying to balance the three character archetypes of aggressive Duelists, supportive Strategists, and defensive Vanguards.

However, only having three match modes at present makes Rivals feel stuck on loop, especially when two of them already feel duplicative. Domination is your standard base-defending match, a best-of-three-rounds battle to seize and maintain control of a key location. Convoy and Convergence however both involve guarding or opposing vehicles, depending which team you're on. Convoy has a bit more ebb-and-flow to it – if the attacking team is in the lead, the vehicle advances; if the defending team does better it retreats – while Convergence has an attacking team have to rescue a vehicle first, but both feel too similar to each other.

As a live service game, Marvel Rivals will surely evolve over time though. It has huge potential thanks to its roster, and that roster relying more on the comics than the MCU should allow for weirder and wilder additions to be added in future. NetEase desperately needs to branch off from the Overwatch influence though – a few more characters with truly unique play styles and some original play modes could help Rivals rival the best of the hero shooter genre.