Marvel's Avengers

Despite the countless negative reviews, the bad word of mouth from the online community, and the now inevitable shutdown/delisting of Square Enix's/Crystal Dynamics' Marvels Avengers, I found this game to be lots of fun... in bursts.

My friend's main complaint about this game was that he hated playing as Ms Marvel (which you play as in the main campaign) and thought the story was boring. Of course he doesn't care about Marvel or any of its characters/stories, so the whole AIM corporation basically taking over the world after the Avengers fell was, I guess, not that exciting of a plot (and if I didn't already know about this plot, I probably wouldn't of cared too much either) but I did know a little bit about AIM, MODOK, and Monica, so watching the story play out was cool.

Playing as all the Avenger characters in the base game campaign was loads of fun, most notably Ms Marvel. I just loved her combos and heroic/intrinsic powers. The base game (Reassemble Campaign) was actually decently sized, with a story that I found myself invested in for the majority of the time. I think the way they present this is somewhat confusing though, because many side missions that relate to the campaign can only be found in the Avengers Initiative multiplayer/campaign section. Once you figure this out, the Avwngers initiative can be a good in-between timewaster to get contract missions done, better loot to get a higher power level, or to just simply beat some baddies up. The second campaign, Taking AIM, was a good follow up to Reassemble, and had Kate Bishop as a playable character which I found to be lots of fun, but the short length and abrupt ending definitely leaves something to be desired, though you do get to kill the super adaptoid as a boss, which was challenging but fun. The third campaign Future Imperfect, was a better step in the right direction, having a much more intriguing story which pits you against AIM in a apocalyptic future. Playing as Clint Barton was probably too much like Kate Bishop as they both are Hawkeye, but his character/story was so worth it. Loved that they had old man Hawkeye and loved it even more that they had Maestro (evil hulk) as the villain. This campaign felt longer than the last, and it had a way more intriguing story, but to kill Maestro in the end, I had to grind out Kate in side missions to even come close to killing him. Clutch central this last level was, but so rewarding finally killing him, and a cool ending that shows the extent of what Monica and Nick Fury were trying to accomplish/stop. Damn Kree.... The last campaign, War for Wakanda was.... Well not a great step for the game. Instead of trying to progress the story or at the very least, conclude it, it just gives you basically a side story of a character named Klaue (Klaw) who's mission is to steal, and then eventually "corrupt", all the vibranium in Wakanda. Apparently there's history with Klaue and Tchalla's father, which I'm not familiar with, but that felt like the true driving nature to why Klaue was willing to go as far as he did to screw Wakanda over. While I'm glad they did include that he was working with AIM (and is eventually fired by Monica), but this story felt half assed. The cinematics were laughable, the new characters were fun to kill, although Black Panther is kind of broken he was a really fun character to play as, and you do get to kill Klaw in his sonic transformation which was cool, but oh my god was this ending just so dumb and mind-numbingly hard. It's just hard to say this campaign was worth it, but I think for diehard fans, it might be worth checking out. Checking out Black Panther alone was worth in IMO. Now, after this campaign, the story isn't completely finished, as there is plenty of mission chains to do that will keep you busy, with some having no story at all, to some even giving you cutscenes when you finish them. This is where I spent most of my time, as not only did I want to complete these mission chains, but I also wanted to complete the grindy, somewhat annoying achievements. So, at this point, I basically just grinded Ms Marvel to finally champion status(ended up getting her to lvl 50 champion lvl 21) so I could do endgame missions and seasonal events much easier. With that being said, doing the Discordant Sound raid which has the return of Klaw was so goddamn annoying... and hard. Only reason I saw it to the end is because it did seem a little story based, and I didn't want to miss out. Was it worth it in the end? Idk probably not, but it had some really great looking levels in that mission, so for absolute diehard Marvel fans that want good loot for their character, check it out. Anyone else... stay far away from the raid.... I also used a lot of Avengers Initiative to play as other characters, with the first one being Black Panther. Despite him being broken he was lots of fun to play as, with me completing a lot of mission chains using the character. I also used him to complete some of the corrupted vibranium event missions. After getting him championed(lvl 50), next was Hulks turn, and my god was he just awful to play as. I got to lvl 25 until I just stopped playing as him because truthfully, this character was probably nerfed after release or something, because every move and attack just did absolutely nothing to the enemy. It was honestly a joke playing as hulk, completely ruining any kind of continuity with his actual strength, making him, I think, one of the worst characters to play as in this game. Also, the collectibles in this game actually had substance, with a lot of them (if not all) added to the lore to the game. Only problem with this was that some collectibles are RNG based, meaning the collectibles aren't in any finite area, you just have a chance to get one if you open enough chests, while also some were in specific areas in the campaign. Also, comics. They don't add to any lore, but they work as buffs, so collecting those were fun. The next seasonal event that I ended up completing was the Red Room event, where you have to complete missions in the holographic room. Apparently lore wise, Yelena hacked the holographic room so you have to beat it to figure out how she hacked into it and fix it. It's... infuriating in certain parts, but being able to use my main Ms Marvel, I was able to complete it, getting the full comic set (plus some duplicates) and completing the mission chain. Next was to complete the Winter Soldiers mission chain, which contained some lore and interesting audio logs (got him to lvl 50 champion lvl 5). Oh and it was also infuriating.... Not only does the mission chain never end, but then it wanted me to beat both the family reunion raid (which I ended up doing) and the discordant sound raid (which I already completed before as Ms Marvel)as winter soldier, which in all honesty, was ridiculous and utterly pointless, as it seemed like there was no story left in this mission chain. I did attempt it just to get the chain done, but after lobby after lobby of people quitting out of the match halfway through the raid, I just ditched it, and just focused on finishing the last 2 achievements (loot 50 cache strongboxes, and defeat 50 hives) while also finishing up the last of the story which was the lady Thor heroic mission chain, No Rest for the Wicked Mission, and the Beating the Odds mission. I actually didn't mind doing Mighty Thor's mission chain, as she was extremely fun and OP character who had lots of fun move sets, which made me want to level her up to discover what else she had up her sleeve. After completing her mission chain (lvl 38) really the only thing left to do was to finish the last 2 achievements which I ended up completing with Black Widow (very fun character that I got to lvl36) Kate Bishop (a bit infuriating at times, I did have fun but as the missions got stronger, she became more useless, but I did get her to lvl 26),Captain America (another fun character to play as, as his shield is just way too OP for its own good; lvl 34), Iron Man (a character I didn't really want to play as but the more I unlocked in his power-ups, the more he impressed me; lvl 31), Thor(he wasn't horrible but he's basically a diet version of Mighty Thor, so I only got him to lvl 20), and of course, Hawkeye(he was decent, but I couldn't see much of a difference between him and Kate Bishop;lvl 21). Oh, speaking of the last 2 missions; No Rest for the Wicked was okay.... Until the end where the cutscenes glitch out and have character models disappear and no dialogue is spoken.... And the mission chain that came with this one where you have to beat it 5 separate times... pretty annoying. I was hoping one of those 6-7 times of me playing this level, I would at least see the cutscenes as they were intended, but it was glitched everytime. The other mission Beating the odds was much more interesting and well done, with at least a somewhat continuation of the story that kind of wraps it up a little. The difficulty was rough; had to find some online players to help me, but yeah, a somewhat good ending to the story.

In all, as much as I seem happy, and downright would recommend this, I have ALOT of problems with this game. The mission chains/achievements are designed for you to grind the same levels for hours and hours... to the point where it becomes a chore. Also, the online matchmaking was goddawful, like I never used it unless I had to. I had way more fun soloing then playing with other people. Also, the move sets for some of these characters were lazy, and just carbon copies of other characters. But honestly, that's all the bad I can say about the game. If you play the game just for the campaign, with the occasional grind mission here and there, then this game would be amazing. But me being me, I decided to shoot for the stars... and after 257 hours... I slight regret it.