Marvel’s Avengers First Impressions Beta – Kamala is the Only Good Thing

The newest super hero game to be released will be Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers. While it’s currently not fully out , the beta for the game has been in full swing for a few days now on the PS4. The only way to get into the beta right now is to preorder the game, or well, be connected in some way. Luckily, I didn’t have to preorder the game to give it a shot. Check out my very early beta impressions below!

This Marvel game has not been on my radar at all after it first full announcement. It was teased a few years back, but when Square finally showed off gameplay and what the game was actually going to be, I was out. I did not care that the characters didn’t look like their movie counter parts, but when it was revealed that it was another one of these games as a service I was over it. I have tried these types of games in the past and while they can be incredibly fun, the end game grinding and repetitive nature wore me down.

I was actually lucky enough to score a free beta code, so I ended up redeeming it for my PS4. The main reason for this was maybe, on the off chance that I actually enjoyed playing the game, I would have a “head start” on the console that would eventually have Spiderman on it. Of course I absolutely hate what Sony and Square are doing with the exclusivity of super heroes to a single console, I do own a PS4, so there really is no reason not to play it on that. Other than the game play is incredibly “meh”.

I first played through the beginning tutorial story stuff. You get a chance to play as each of the characters and figure out their abilities. This whole level was really janky. I understand the constant pausing to explain moves and all that, but when all you really have to do is mash buttons, it just feels slow going, janky, and not fun at all.

I was immediately soured on the game. I really didn’t want to play more of it, but decided to try out at least one more level. The next level jumps you forward several missions it seems. It’s Kamala Khan and Bruce Banner, better known as the Hulk.

Kamala Khan is one of the people that were affected by some sort of gas years back, in that tutorial mission. Now she has super powers like Mr. Fantastic. Stretchy and all that.

This second level kind of turned the game around for me, in terms of gameplay that is. At the start you play as the Hulk. It still feels super button mash heavy, but there is the attempt in there at trying to teach you some moves. The enemies can be pretty overwhelming at times, but that might be because I was stuck on the heroic difficulty.

Getting to play as Kamala was probably the best part of this whole level though. Her abilities are super cool. You can swing across areas, grow bigger, punch things from far away, and just feel really cool. Granted, the swinging around wasn’t solid. The button prompts to grab something would sometimes show up way too late and you would fall. Other than that though, it was fun playing as her.

Unfortunately Kamalas’ gameplay section was incredibly short. They might have sold me on it more if the level was more focused on her. By the end of this mission though, I felt a little better about the game. It all really fell on Kamala though. She’s a cool character.

The game is janky, the combat feels kind of meh to me so far, but the biggest deterrent right now is the loot stuff. Finding arm bands or new emblems, swapping out loot, deconstructing items, it all sucks. The worst part is that is doesn’t feel tacked on at all. They deliberately make this a focal point in the game and their upgrading system. The screen for it sucks; it’s ugly, and the game really would’ve benefited from now having at all. There is a whole separate screen for the skill tree, and if they had just expanded on that more and really gave you the ability to customize how you play that way, the game would be significantly better in my opinion.

I plan on playing some more missions in the beta over the next few days. The only saving grace so far is Kamala Khan. If I didn’t get to play as her at all in the second mission, I would’ve outright deleted the beta from my console.