It isn’t long untilMarvel Rivals' launch, and there is a lot of excitement around this particular hero shooter, especially after its successful closed beta playtest. Thanks to the power of theMarveluniverse and a mighty budget, it looks to be the first hero shooter to actually challengeOverwatch’s monopoly on the genre, with stylish visuals, chaotically fun gameplay, and a wealth of popular characters. Something that will help the game move forward is its free-to-play model and how almost everything, besides cosmetics, is completely free to use, going away from the MOBA style model.
Recently, viaYouTube,Marvel Rivalshas released a content roadmap, revealing what players can expect from the full release on December 6, and there is a lot to enjoy. There are eight maps for both Quick Match and Competitive play, a new Practice Range, a Conquest Map, and thirty-three characters at launch. The closed beta began with an impressive twenty-one characters, with Thor and Jeff the Land Shark being added during the beta to bring the roster to twenty-three characters total, and even this was a big collection of characters for a hero shooter.
Marvel Rivals Has A Ton of Heroes
Not All Of Them Have Been Announced Yet
As of writing,thirty-three characters have been announced, withMoon Knight being one of the latest charactersto join the colorful roster. Thanks to the expressive artstyle, the characters often maintain their classic,Marveldesigns in spirit, while looking unique, especially compared to their live action appearances. So far, the characters are all fun to play, fit into the different roles well and all have great designs. There’s no reason why this roster is going to stay at thirty-three characters either.
Many of the skins inMarvel Rivalsare based off classic comic costumes, and the game includes information about where the costumes came from with its UI.
With theMarveluniverse as a setting, as well asa hint of multiverses with both aSpiderversemap and two Doctor Dooms from different timelines, there is a wealth of characters that are yet to be announced to the roster. It will likely continue to swell as time goes on, and if the game does as well as many think it will, becoming not only a rival toOverwatchbut its usurper, aLeague of Legends-sized roster might not be too far off. There are enoughMarvelcharacters to do this, from the famous to the obscure.
Marvel Rivals Drops Moon Knight Gameplay Trailer And Fans Think They’ve Spotted Another New Character
Marvel Rivals drops a massive trailer breaking down Moon Knight’s abilities but fans are sure they’ve spotted another hero hidden in the killfeed.
Interestingly, there are some major omissions thus far inMarvel Rivals' roster, despite its size. Of course, a few are yet to be announced, but some ofMarvel’s most famous heroes, like Wolverine, Deadpool, any member of The Fantastic Four, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and many more aren’t in the roster yet, but ifRivalsdoes well, it wouldn’t be surprising to see all of these characters join the cast, eventually. As the roster continues to grow, however, balance will be a problem going forward, especially if the characters are released quickly.
Balancing A Huge Roster Is Way Harder
Overwatch Found This Out The Hard Way
For context,Overwatch 1launched with twenty-one characters and was reasonably well-balanced at launch. This balance went out the window as more characters were added,leading to the infamous GOATS comp. GOATS comp omitted DPS, running three supports and tanks, becoming so dominant in competitive play that the DPS role became useless.Overwatchthen added role queue to try to fix this, but by then, the balance of the game had been irreversibly damaged because of its still growing roster.
WithMarvel Rivalslaunchingwith a massive roster of thirty-three that eclipsesOverwatch’s launch roster of twenty-one, balance could be a problem at launch, let alone later on, as the game continues to grow. Although the closed beta can be excused due to not being the final product, it had some balancing issues that need to be addressed before the full launch.Marvel Rivalswill launch with a competitive mode, and although it is an impossible task, any competitive game massively benefits from adequate balance.
As of writing,Overwatch 2boasts a roster of 41 characters.
Another hero shooter that has enjoyed prolonged success isTeam Fortress 2, with the series being famous for starting the genre.TF2has nine classes, has a relatively small roster for a modern hero shooter,and doesn’t get much attention at all from Valve, yet it still has some balancing issues. Having a balanced hero shooter experience will helpMarvel Rivalsshine in a genre known for having poor balance, but that becomes more difficult as the roster gets bigger, andRivalsis starting very big compared to many of its competitors.
How Marvel Rivals Can Avoid Past Hero Shooter Mistakes
Catering To The Many Over The Few Will Certainly Help
As long asMarvel Rivalsreceives continual updates from NetEase games, it will largely avoid the issues ofTeam Fortress 2, since a lot of its balancing issues can be attributed to negligence from Valve. It also hasthe budget and creativity behind it to eclipse many other free-to-play hero shooters by default, such asPaladinsandPixel Gun 3D, along with one of the biggest IPs in the world to maintain interest. If the game is as fun as the playtest suggests,Marvel Rivalswill kick off, but maintaining popularity will be the hard part.
10 Characters Marvel Rivals Must Include In Post-Launch Updates
Coming from a franchise with so many beloved characters, Marvel Rivals has at least 10 more unconfirmed heroes that should be added post-launch.
One of the problems thatOverwatchhad, whichMarvel Rivalscan avoid, is an over-catering towards the ESports side of the sport.Blizzard pushedOverwatch’s ESport hard with the now defunctOverwatch League, and the balance of the game began to cater toward the highest level of play, rather than the recreational level where most of the playerbase is. As long asMarvel Rivalscaters its balance toward the many rather than the few, who play at a completely different level, and properly tests new heroes, it can avoid this issue.
Unfortunately, balance with a game as expressive and chaotic asMarvel Rivals, especially in the hero shooter genre, is a lot easier said than done. Even with its resources, Blizzard couldn’t properly balance its groundbreaking hero shooter and, ultimately, retreated back to a launch version of the game withOverwatch 2 Classic. With the roster that the game will boast at launch, and what it will grow into,Marvel Rivalswill have an extremely difficult task in keeping itself balanced, but if it manages to do this, then it could see itself standing on top of the hero shooter genre.
