I liked Overwatch once upon a time. Enjoyed the characters, got a nendoroid of Mei and a plushy of her robot. Even giving it a good review. BUT as time went on, problems began to emerge. The lootboxes were already a well known problem from the start, but Blizzard fell from a beloved company to universally hated, and the scandal that was Overwatch 2 is something other people have gone well into. But with the leader weakened, new opportunities have emerged, and Marvel Rivals fills the void beautifully

Marvel Rivals is a team shooter where you play as a character from the Marvel comics as part of a team of 6 facing another team of 6. Each character has a bunch of abilities and an ultimate that charges up while playing and they come in 3 categories, Vanguard for your tanks, Duelist for higher damage dealers and Strategist for things like healing. So far so normal. BUT there are also team up abilities which when set characters are used in the same team, one gets a stat buff like more health or healing, while the other gains additional abilities. This means team match ups can be a fair bit more strategic and more than just this character is good at handling this other one.

The roster of characters is well handled and quite impressive. At the start there were 34 but since we’re into the second season that has risen to currently 38 with a 39th set to come in the second half of the season. These characters range from the highly known like Spiderman, the entire of the MCU Avengers opening line up and a few of the Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men. Ones that haven’t had a major media debut but well known like Squirrel Girl and some that are fairly recent in the comics like Jeff the Land Shark. So you are getting mainstays like Ironman next to someone you may not know like Cloak and Dagger or Peni Parker. Each character’s base costume is made specifically for this game but with them having many different outfits drawn from either comics, other media like movie designs or even a few original ones celebrating holidays.

It should be pointed out that these costumes and other elements like emotes are most often purchased with in-game currency. You can get some of that in-game through events and the battle pass, but to get one of the costume packs your either going to have to save up for some time, or cash out. That said the game is no stingray if you choose not to pay, the game is free after all so you’re not having to pay upfront to just enjoy the game only to be asked for more money. Plus some costumes and emotes can be acquired through timed events, there was a fun one starring Jeff that would get you a winter outfit for the adorable little guy.

The Battle Pass is seasonal and comes in free or premium(paid) version. While the Premium version unlocks the whole range of new costumes in that season to be unlocked (you still have to play the game and get seasonal currency from quests to unlock things) the free version still contains 2 costumes you can get without paying as well as lots of others, so it’s not like you have to pay to get stuff, still plenty of things to grind towards if you don’t feel like paying for the Season Pass. I never paid for season 0 and 1s premium pass and still got lots of nice rewards including new skins for Peni, Wanda and Hela.

The matches are set on maps which determine what kind of game it is. Quick Play has the full selection while Competitive restricts you to the most recent ones. These range from a standard Push the Objective while the other team stops you, to Capture the Point. I do wonder if more types will come later. Doom Match is a battle royale free for all where you’re trying to take out as many people as possible, while Conquest is a one team just tries to kill the other team style match, so you’re going to mainly play Quick Match most of the time, though quests can be done in VS AI if you just want a more relaxed game to maybe learn a Hero.

I waited for now to review this as, given what happened with Overwatch, I was giving it time to see if they (profanity) up. So far, outside of charging another currency for getting recolours of the paid for Skins that were popular (and that is annoying they should just give you that for getting the Skin already or let you get the currency in-game)  But outside of that, we’re two seasons in and nothing massively wrong like Overwatch had with its loot boxes. I have my issues with the main game though that you could be thrown at someone vastly more experienced than you and feel even Quick Mode should have some protection against a top level person facing someone bottom of ranked.

There is a story to this game, and it’s ongoing through the seasonal stories while you read it in-game (though I’m not sure if you can read the ones for Seasons you missed. That and the characters chatting to each other at the start of matches can have people work out some details on what’s to come.

So yeah, the game is good, it’s fun and the monetization has not yet gotten to red flags levels. Will it get there one day? my jaded self says probably. But till then I’m enjoying this. I get to experience the wackiness of the Marvel Universe with a bunch of the characters that the MCU would never be able to give justice to. Think about it, are you expecting to see a demonic magic-using Mutant and a Land Shark team up with a girl in a spider mech fight the goddess of death who has teamed up with a girl that talks to squirrels?

Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮