Who would have thought that superheroes would prove to be quite important in Marvel Rivals, the upcoming 6v6 hero shooter from NetEase Games and Marvel Games.
So, even though a different roster of 25 heroes has been announced, the first question most people have about Marvel Rivals is which character is coming next. However, while some consideration was made in presenting a range of different types of characters, it’s clear that anyone from the Marvel pantheon could end up appearing.
Marvel executive producer Danny Koo said: “No character is off limits, we have to choose characters that look interesting, are different, are fun to play, and for whatever reason, they are Gotta bring something good to the whole lineup.
“The narrative designers on the team are huge Marvel fans, and they’ll come up with suggestions out of the blue. Our discussions are about how this character is similar to other characters, and we discuss each character and together we pick the strongest one. .
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“Marvel Rivals” is also clearly not afraid of the more obscure players in the Marvel Universe – X-Men’s Magus, land shark Jeff and Spider-Man mecha pilot Penny Parker – as well as Loki and Vanquish. The addition of Magneto and others has already proven this.
“When we make the list, it’s like 70-75 percent hits and well-known characters,” Koo explains. “But for the rest, we tried to throw in some curveballs and deep cuts — if you don’t read the comics, you don’t know these characters exist.
“At the heart of a character is always the question: ‘What makes this character uniquely different from other actors?’ and ‘How does this character work with other actors?’
“We have over 9,000 characters to choose from, which is a good thing, but there are a lot of factors we need to consider in deciding who should be part of the roster and who fits their identity and how they fit into the world and the Marvel counterpart. legend.
But none of that matters if the characters’ realizations don’t accurately reflect their powers and roles in the comics. You can have any number of deep characters, but if they’re just cookie-cutter models of the hero-shooter trope, they’re not going to do much for a Marvel competitor’s credibility with long-time Marvel fans.
To avoid this, Marvel Rivals says it’s trying to incorporate the personalities of its heroes into their combat mechanics.
“We have our own design philosophy for the characters. Each character has a central concept and expands on it,” said Feng Zhiyong, combat designer at Marvel Rivals.
“For example, our newly released heroes are Captain America and the Winter Soldier. For Captain America, we gave him high mobility, allowing him to rush into battle and return to resupply. By doing this, we showed you” I can do this all day” concept [his catchphrase from the MCU].
“The design of the shield is also very iconic. The shield can reflect projectiles and Iron Man’s beams, allowing for cooperation between heroes. We can also see his leadership from his ultimate move, where he leads the entire team to charge .
“For the second character, the Winter Soldier, we all knew he was a gun-based character – but we wanted to differentiate between the Winter Soldier and the Punisher. So the Punisher has multiple different types of guns, But for the Winter Soldier, he has mechanical arms and tentacles that capture enemies. This is a unique performance of the Winter Soldier.
Marvel Rivals will launch on December 6, 2024, and will be free to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. So far, some players have had mixed impressions, with some praising its 6v6 combat as a throwback to the best days of Strike Force, while others feel it lacks originality.
