Marvel’s Avengers: Everything we know about 2020’s superhero blockbuster

Earth’s Mightiest will reassemble next year with the release of Marvel’s Avengers, Crystal Dynamics’ action-adventure blockbuster.

Of the many anticipated games coming our way next year, one of the intriguing ones is Marvel’s Avengers. And as a game inspired by the Marvel brand, it’s also likely to be the most scrutinized.

Developed by Crystal Dynamics, Marvel’s Avengers exists separately from the Marvel comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s entirely its own thing. So while the characters and their powers will be familiar, their look and personality will be based on Crystal Dynamics’ own interpretation.

That said, don’t expect wildly drastic deviations from the source material. While our heroes’ looks and personalities may differ slightly from what we’re accustomed to seeing on the big screen or in comics, they’ll still very much retain the spirit of their original design at their core. In other words, you should have no problem identifying Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, etc.

The story

The story of Marvel’s Avengers kicks off during A-Day, an event celebrating the opening of a new Avengers headquarters. During the event, something goes wrong and a catastrophic incident unfolds, resulting in the destruction of the city and death of many. Blame for the disaster, the Avengers disband and superheroes are outlawed, leading to the rise of the organization known as Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M.

Picking up after five years later, AIM has replaced superhumans with advanced synth A.I. It all reeks of a giant conspiracy and as we learned through a previous trailer, Kamala Khan is the one who discovers it, leading her to reassemble the Avengers.

Gameplay

Marvel’s Avengers is an action-RPG designed with both single-player and co-op gameplay in mind.

The main story is told through Hero campaign missions, which are playable only in single player. These missions showcase specific heroes and their unique abilities.

Warzone missions are playable solo or online with up to four players. Difficulty scales based on the team size and player level. While you can jump right into Warzone, there are some campaign spoilers. Character progress carries over between the two modes.

Combat, customization & microtransactions

As an action-RPG, Marvel’s Avengers emphasizes combat. Each of the playable heroes feels unique and different from one another. Their combat style and abilities vary.

But beyond each character’s set abilities, you can further customize them through the gear you equip and skills you enable. Dynamic combo systems, Heroic movies, abilities and signature move sets are unlocked and customized as you level up and progress. Skills and gear allow you to further customize your build type and fine-tune that hero to your playstyle.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to customize the look of your heroes with cosmetic outfits unlocked via in-game or through the marketplace. Outfits are purely cosmetic and have no impact on the actual gameplay.

Marvel’s Avengers is also being developed as a games-as-a-service, meaning we can expect post-launch content in the form of additional characters, missions and cosmetics. Square Enix has already said that all of this additional content will be free.

Confirmed characters

The list of confirmed playable characters thus far is Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan). Square Enix has teased Hawkeye but no announcement has been made.

Release date & platforms

Marvel’s Avengers will release on May 15, 2020. It will be available on Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia. There has been no mention of it also coming to Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5.