Skydance’sMarvelgame boasts an interesting setup for gameplay and narrative thanks to its four protagonists. This means that combat will need to be highly distinct for each playable character to identify them uniquely, and time spent with each of them will need to be balanced appropriately. The direction for combat is anyone’s estimate at this point, but due tothis Marvel game’s particular WW2 settingit could easily run into the same issue that had plaguedMarvel’s Avengers, despite the latter being able to rectify this issue.
Indeed, there is arguably less to be concerned about when it comes tohow each protagonist will play in Skydance’s Marvel game. Because fans have wanted to play as Captain America and Black Panther in a well-received AAA game, that alone might heighten its gameplay. However, where Skydance’s Marvel game could come up against the most obstacles is in its enemy variety, whichMarvel’s Avengersalso sorely lacked. But whileMarvel’s Avengerscould have done differently, Skydance’s Marvel game is restricted to its setting and may have to stick to infinite Hydra enemies as a result.
RELATED:Skydance’s Marvel Game May End Up Having the Same Problem as Marvel’s Spider-Man
Marvel’s Avengers Made Its Bed by Only Having AIM Enemies
Marvel’s Avengersis a modern interpretation of the superhero team with an original narrative, meaning that its inherent lack of enemies or supervillains seemingly came down to a lack of interest or care. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s priorities seem to have been on frequent cosmetic dumps, and playable characters were too far and few between to have that be the sole excuse.
No matter what the fault was, it was a terminal sentence in a live-service multiplayer game to only have one enemy faction and hardly any new villains to go up against because continual missions would inevitably feel stale and monotonous.Marvel’s Avengers’ shutdown is for the bestin this case. Crystal Dynamics is better off not beating a dead horse by pumping out a couple more characters.
AIM would have been a serviceable enemy faction for the first several months ofMarvel’s Avengers’ post-launch content, but it needed much more than that to sustain it. Further, becauseMarvel’s Avengerswas not stuck to a particular time period, there is no reason why it could not have featured other enemy factions to spice up gameplay.
Skydance’s Marvel Game Risks Only Having Hydra Enemies
Unfortunately,Skydance’s Marvel gamedoes not have the same luxury of enemy factions to pick from. Hydra seems to be the only enemy faction that will contest Captain America and Black Panther in Skydance’s Marvel game, due to it taking place right in the middle of WW2. In what is likely the worst case scenario, Hydra goons will all be faceless soldiers that are indistinguishable from one another and supply a seemingly infinite army. Between four playable protagonists there will surely be a lot of opportunities for combat encounters, though, and perhaps Skydance’s approach is to have the player’s gameplay be dynamic when Hydra enemies are all the same.
Despite that possibility, it’s still upsetting that Skydance’s Marvel game could run intoMarvel’s Avengers’ issue of a lack of enemy variety. The silver lining here is that Skydance’s Marvel game is reportedly a single-player game and not a multiplayer game. This means that it has no requirement to satisfy players for longer than a single narrative-driven playthrough, whereasMarvel’s Avengersneeded to entertain players with diverse gameplay and content for multiple years after its launch. Instead,Skydance’s Marvel game will hopefully have many more antagoniststhanMarvel’s Avengerscould offer.
