Image: Marvel Games
NetEase has announced a new free-to-play hero shooter starring Marvel heroes and villains.
Marvel Games and NetEase Games have announced a new free-to-play PvP hero shooter: Marvel Rivals. The game will be a team-based shooter in the vein of games like Overwatch and Paladins, with 18 heroes and villains populating its playable roster and maps designed to be destroyed.
Watch the announcement trailer below:
Marvel Rivals announced with packed roster of playable characters
At first glance, Marvel Rivals shares quite a few similarities with Overwatch. The game has a colourful roster of characters armed with flashy combat abilities, but played from a third-person perspective rather than Overwatch’s first-person. A key difference between the two is that Marvel Rivals’ maps are designed for destruction, allowing players to destroy buildings to take down enemy cover and potentially open up new sightlines.
Eighteen playable characters from Marvel Comics have been confirmed for the game:
- Black Panther
- Doctor Strange
- Groot
- Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Iron Man
- Loki
- Luna Snow
- Magik
- Magneto
- Mantis
- Namor
- Peni Parker
- Rocket Raccoon
- Scarlet Witch
- Spider-Man
- Storm
- Star-Lord
- The Punisher
Interestingly, Yuri Lowenthal will play Spider-Man in this game, which marks the third time he’s played Peter Parker across three disconnected game series: Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Midnight Suns and now Marvel Rivals. A few of the characters in this roster are bound to be crowd-pleasers, such as Black Panther, Iron Man and Storm, but there are a few notable omissions. Where are The Fantastic Four or Wolverine? The game is expected to be a live-service game, however, so this roster is bound to grow over time.
Marvel Rivals also has a unique gameplay mechanic called Team-Up moves, which allow players on the same team to combine different abilities for ultimate ability-like powers. Rocket Raccoon can ride on Groot’s shoulder during a Team-Up for example, and Luna Snow can give Namor ice powers. Doctor Strange’s portals and Spider-Man’s webs also open up opportunities for teamwork without the need for a Team-Up.
The basic premise of the game seems to center on Galactus’ daughter Galacta, who has roped everyone into the ongoing 6v6 battles as multiple timelines converge and Doctor Doom variants go to war. Marvel Rivals currently has no release date, but an alpha test will begin in May with a portion of the playable roster available on PC.