Marvel's Avengers New York Comic Con 2019 Hands-On Preview

Marvel's Avengers was finally shown at E3 2019 and during New York Comic Con 2019 Square Enix and Marvel provided a public demo to everyone. Giving access to the opening stage of the game and we were able to play it.

The pre-alpha demo opens with the Avengers celebrating in San Francisco when an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge starts, known as "A-Day". The Avengers head straight into battle with us first being given control of Thor. The God of Thunder is the most versatile and easiest to use of the core Avengers. The enemies presented were your basic light, shielded, and heavy targets. Nothing truly stood out and Thor is more than able to take them out with his heavy and light attacks along with the ability to throw his hammer Mjolnir.

This was a pre-alpha build of the game so I expected some issues such as Thor's hammer not having much weight to it. Compared to Kratos' Levithan ax the kickback when it hit a target and returned to Thor's hand was weak. The section ended with a flashy ultimate attack showing off Thor's electrical powers before control shifted to Iron Man.

Tony Stark's section started off as an on-rails section, shooting down targets before changing to active combat. Unlike Thor, Tony's attacks relied heavily on mid to long-range combat, with the primary focus being his high-powered lasers. Like Thor, Tony has his own ultimate ability called Unibeam. This iconic beam is fired from his armor's chest and can tear through an enemy's health.

Next came Hulk. Bruce Banner falls into the battle, literally, and starts causing a large amount of carnage with his heavy attacks and large size. Able to wall leap and make short work of tanks, Hulk was the most entertaining. Easily smashing through targets with ease. He didn't have the same level of speed and dexterity of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction but considering the small area, he's in, giving Hulk that much power would've broken the meta.

Captain America was next. The experimental Helicarrier powered by a Terrigan crystal was under attack by the same forces who stole Tony's weapons. Captain America plays as you would expect, close quarters and hurling his shield with deadly results. Captain America's section was the least interesting, with the Avenger locked in a small and single section while taking on waves of enemies. Eventually, allowing the player to take control of the final Avenger after Steve Rogers attempts to stabilize the core of the ship before it goes critical.

Black Widow is the last Avenger I took control of during the demo. The primary focus on Black Widow's section is taking on Taskmaster. Unlike the other Avengers, Black Widow has a gun and is much more nimble. However, the fight against Taskmaster is very easy. Unlike Marvel's Spider-Man's version of Taskmaster who quickly adapts to Spider-Man's tactics here, Taskmaster was a pushover. The boss fight had 3 phases where Taskmaster starts to use a different technique such as throwing a shield or grenades but I found shooting him, followed by letting him charge me, evading, and following up with a counter-attack worked every time. The fight ended anticlimactically with Black Widow triggering her ultimate, which is cloaking, and taking Taskmaster out.

The demo ended with Steve Rogers assumed dead after the airship crashed and the city starts to crumble. With the Avengers learning the events that transpired on the bridge were merely a distraction. Afterward, a short trailer played that showcased that the Avengers have been replaced with AIM, a new corporation that uses synthetic robots to keep the peace but things are not what they seem. The Avengers need to reunite and stop a new threat.

I got to see that customizing the characters will play a huge role in Marvel's Avengers. WIth not only various equipment offering unique bonuses but different skill trees. Cosmetics will also give players the chance to dress up in iconic costumes used by the Avengers throughout history. I also got a glimpse of the various currencies that players can use but it was unclear what would be premium and what can be earned in-game. Giving the titles heavy focus on customization it's safe to assume that microtransactions will be part of the game. But I was unable to get a confirmation of this on site.

Overall, Marvel's Avengers is looking to becoming a great action-adventure title. The demo provided a lot of cinematic highlights, with the Avengers taking on difficult odds featuring lots of explosions and crumbling structures. 

Adam Siddiqui,
Senior Editor, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube | Facebook