Since it began development, Square Enix’s Avengers has been fairly quiet after its announcement. Fans of the Marvel Comics superhero team first saw the trailer of the video game back in January 2017, where glimpses of a pair of glasses, Mjolnir illuminating with lighting, the shield of Captain America, and a damaged glove of Iron Man were seen in several abandoned locations. Adding to the ominous trailer was the narration mentioning how superheroes would always be needed despite their differences to mankind, and the mention of reassembling said heroes (complete with the A-logo rebuilding itself).
Since then, the project has remained quiet from both Marvel and Square Enix; while it is normal for games to mention very little about their projects prior to being released, the lack of Avengers game content made fans concerned. Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 each got attention from Marvel fans, especially Spider-Man, and every now and then, someone would go online and say “What happened to that Square Enix Avengers game?”
In 2019, right off the hype for Avengers: Endgame, Square Enix decided to break the silence for once and show a trailer for the game. It consisted of the reveals for the character designs, a disaster that occurred during A-Day, the death of Captain America, and the appearance of Taskmaster. The reception of the game’s trailer was positive to mixed. Many liked the plot of AIM taking over the world and outlawing superheroes, but the detractions include the appearances of the characters looking too similar to the MCU or looking off (Captain America and Black Widow come to mind), the lack of Hawkeye, and no real sign of proper gameplay footage (as the trailer instead looked a bit more cinematic than it should be).
The fans started to compare it to Spider-Man, saying that it’s trying to mimic the success it has without adding more layers to it, while others are hopeful that the game will improve before the May 2020 release. A few months pass by, and Marvel Games reveals new suits for some of the characters, providing a sign of what’s to come with the microtransactions. New York Comic-Con, on the other hand, revealed more than just additional costumes.
Ms. Marvel, a.k.a Kamala Khan, is set to be one of the playable characters of the game. The news surprised fans that were so used to seeing A-Day footage. She is said to be the hero that investigates what led to the hysteria during A-Day while also reassembling the Avengers; while the character hasn’t been too well-received for her character in the comics, perhaps this game could easily help win fans over with the story she’s a part of. On top of that, her gameplay is actually more fun than most of the other characters, as players can move her around and use her move sets more than they could with the scripted gameplay approach of timing button presses to progress.
While Marvel fans can feel a bit more comfortable with the content of the game, for the time being, there are still some rough edges to think twice about. The game will still be fairly pricey despite it not quite reaching its value (which does hurt a lot of recent games), the character designs are a strange mix between looking like the MCU incarnations and looking like they aren’t trying to get in legal trouble with Marvel Entertainment, but the main kicker is how lacking the gameplay is.
It’s a shame that despite how many would see a majority of Marvel fans as individuals that would eat up anything with the logo on regardless of the quality, there are people that hope it’s not just trying to be as good as Insomniac’s Spider-Man; there have been multiple Marvel games in the past that feature the Avengers yet were still fun to play from start to finish. There is a good amount of time left before the release date, so one can hope that it’ll be better than anyone expected.
