While there’s no shortage of multiplayer hero shooters in the market, NetEase is throwing their cape into the ring, but they have a pretty big ace in the hole in doing so, and that’s the entire roster of the Marvel universe is at their disposal. If you ever wanted to play as Iron Man and blast away Rocket Raccoon’s face, you’ll be able to do just that and so much more with Marvel Rivals; the upcoming free-to-play hero shooter from Marvel Games and NetEase.

Thanks to NetEase, we managed to get some quality hands-on time with the closed beta, and have this early impressions (or closed beta review, if you want to call it that) piece to tell people how it plays.

Marvel Watch

Let’s get this out of the way first: Marvel Rivals really is like Overwatch but with familiar Marvel characters. There’s no ifs and buts about it, since most of the abilities and supers are derived from Overwatch in some form. The major difference outside of the Marvel characters is that Rivals is in third-person. But other than that, expect familiar Overwatch abilities to be available for certain heroes, though there’s no 1:1 copy (thankfully).

Aside from the abilities, even the stage and game modes have that distinct Overwatch flavor. However, that doesn’t mean Marvel Rivals doesn’t offer anything new and original, as NetEase manages to sneak in some ingenious ideas here and there. Possibly the two biggest changes the developers have made are hero team-ups. In Marvel Rivals, players can choose heroes that complement one another (or be affiliated with one another in terms of story lore) for added bonuses. Say you picked Rocket Raccoon, and another team member choose Groot, you’ll not only be able to ride Groot like in the comics/movies, but you’ll even get an added defensive boost. It’s the small things like this that add a layer of charm and strategy to the game.

Another major change are destructible environments. Now, we’re not talking Battlefield-like levels here, but almost every stage available in the closed beta features destructible environments. In some stages, you can even wreck the entire floor to alter the playing field. These destructible structures do come back after a short time (with a split-second warning before they do), and players can also check which parts of the map they’re in can be destroyed by a press of a button. This adds another layer of strategy to matches, as you can create new attack points or even block areas off with this tactic.

Superhero Life

What Marvel Rivals does best is quite possibly giving gamers that superhero feeling. Who hasn’t dreamt of swinging around and then thumping enemies left and right like Spider-Man? For the most part, the hero abilities tie up to how the character is know. While it doesn’t make sense for some heroes (Hulk comes to mind), most fit perfectly and gives players that ultimate Marvel power fantasy. Want to fly into the air, barrage enemies with missiles and then use your omni-beam to melt them as Iron Man? Yeah, you can do that. How about playing as Dr. Strange and creating portals for your teammates and using the Eye of Agamotto to stop time? You can do that too. This is probably Marvel Rivals’ biggest pull to gamers: letting them create and live out their Marvel hero power fantasy and when it works, it’s so damn satisfying and so much fun. It’s not perfect, and some balancing tweaks are obviously needed, but we’ll let that pass since this is a beta and all.

The abilities work well given the game’s character design is on-point as well. Remember Marvel’s Avengers and the jokes about discount heroes? Yeah, there’s none of that here. The characters are designed after their comic book counterparts, though their personalities seem to be more influenced by the MCU movies, and this combination works. Each character is voiced appropriately as well with some superheroes voiced by familiar actors who have portrayed the characters before (full cast list here).

We (obviously) haven’t seen all the skins, but what’s been released by NetEase seem to fit perfectly with the game’s design and most are skins for comic variations of the character. Safe to say, the game’s character design, voiceover work and how each character is treated are done with care and respect to the source material that there’s little to complain about.

Not Everything Is Marvel-ous

Of course, this doesn’t mean the closed beta experience is perfect. Nope, far from it, as there’s quite a number of jarring tech issues, missing features that affect the game outside of balancing changes.

I’ve been playing the closed beta on PS5, and it seems when there’s a little too much chaos is happening, the frame rate suffers slowdown. It’s not prevalent but it does happen. Are these beta pangs? I honestly don’t know, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

There are also small stuff that are worth mentioning: no way to chat in-game on PS5 unless you bind the communicate button to the dpad, no way to add or check the profile of people in the match, no way to mute each individual player and more. It feels like the game was built for PC, and the devs weren’t able to account to the lesser buttons on a controller. Hopefully, these little issues will be sorted when the game is released officially.

On the gameplay side of things, there is no role queue.I am not sure whether this is an active decision that will persist in the retail release or they are eschewing role queue in Quick Play and implementing it for Competitive only. This presents problems, as most players want to play the damage heroes like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch and more. I’ve lost count how many times I had to switch to a healer since our team didn’t even have one. Mind, this is a minor issue that can easily be resolved by a title update, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Another issue I noticed (not sure if it’s just me) but it seems like melee hits don’t feel impactful. I’ve played the Vanguard (tank) class a lot, and each hit I make doesn’t feel like it’s registering even if it does. It created a jarring and disconnected feeling that I hope gets sorted in a future update.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility…

For all intents and purposes, Marvel Rivals is ready to be released right now. Sure, they are calling this a closed beta, but the game is feature-complete and can be played without encountering any bugs that will hinder the game experience. Chances are, we’ll be getting a release date reveal and possibly an open beta very soon.

Perhaps the main concern I have now is how NetEase will treat this game post-launch. Skins and other items are going to be part of the revenue stream for the game (as well as a Battle Pass), but to what extent will it be implemented is anyone’s guess. Will NetEase have new characters available for unlock ASAP just by paying for it? Or will it be more fair? We don’t know the answer to that yet. How will support be handled given NetEase isn’t really known outside of mobile releases, and Marvel Rivals seems to be their first foray into the AAA multiplayer shooter space. If the game does really well (which I’m betting it will), will NetEase change its monetization approach to capitalize on the audience and their wallets? Mobile gamers might be familiar with the company’s past titles, and given their history, that’s not a good thing.

For now, we’re in a wait-and-see mode to see how NetEase handles post-launch content and how it will handle microtransactions officially. But in terms of gameplay and the overall impact of the game, Marvel Rivals’ closed beta proves the developers are on the right track.

More Marvel Rivals Reading:

• Marvel Rivals Closed Beta Cheaters Banned and Named; 190 Accounts Listed
• Marvel Rivals Drops to 540p and Loses Graphics Quality on Xbox Series S
• Marvel Rivals Heroes Guide: All Characters and Abilities From Alpha Listed