Marvel's Avengers (video game)

Marvel's Avengers is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and originally published by Square Enix. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, the plot follows Inhuman teenager Kamala Khan, who gains superpowers during A-Day, a celebratory day for the Avengers, which ends in tragedy following a terrorist attack. Blamed for the disaster, the Avengers disband and allow science corporation A.I.M. to take their place. Five years later, when A.I.M. threatens to eliminate all Inhuman individuals, Kamala embarks on a quest to reassemble the Avengers to combat this new enemy.

Marvel's Avengers is played from a third-person perspective and has both single-player and multiplayer modes; it features an online co-op mode, allowing players to assemble a team of heroes of their own. The initial roster consisted of Khan / Ms. Marvel, Tony Stark / Iron Man, Steve Rogers / Captain America, Bruce Banner / Hulk, Thor, and Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, with more characters being added in free post-launch updates, which also added story expansions and new regions to be explored. Each hero possesses a variety of costume customization features, as well as the capacity to upgrade their powers and abilities using a skill tree.

Marvel's Avengers was released for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One on 4 September 2020. It was also released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 18 March 2021 (with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players able to upgrade for free). The game received mixed reviews upon release, with critics praising its story and combat, but criticizing its repetition, lack of substantial content, technical issues, and release model. Despite strong initial sales, Marvel's Avengers was a commercial disappointment, only selling 3 million copies. Support from Crystal Dynamics for the game ended in September 2023, with it being delisted from digital storefronts on the same month.

Gameplay

Marvel's Avengers is a third-person, action-adventure game. It features an original story with single-player and co-operative gameplay. The game features a combat system chaining attacks, dodges, abilities, skills and elements during a combat phase. The game can be played offline through single-player or online with up to four people during certain aspects of the game. The game features customization options including abilities and costumes, which can be upgraded using a skill tree. Costumes have been sourced from "all corners of the Marvel universe" and can be earned in-game or bought separately as downloadable content. Players are able to receive free updates containing new regions and characters.

Synopsis

Characters

Marvel's Avengers features a roster of characters from the Marvel Universe. The initial roster of playable heroes consists of:

• Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Laura Bailey),
• Steve Rogers / Captain America (Jeff Schine)
• Tony Stark / Iron Man (Nolan North)
• Bruce Banner / Hulk (Troy Baker / Darin De Paul)
• Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel (Sandra Saad).
• Thor Odinson (Travis Willingham)

Following the game's initial release, more superheroes were made available via free downloadable content:

• Kate Bishop / Hawkeye II (Ashly Burch), added in December 2020
• Clint Barton / Hawkeye (Giacomo Gianniotti), added in March 2021
• T'Challa / Black Panther (Christopher Judge), added in August 2021
• Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Sean Chiplock), added in November 2021 for the PlayStation 4 & 5 versions,
• Jane Foster / The Mighty Thor (Zehra Fazal), added in June 2022
• Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier (Scott Porter), added in November 2022

Opposing the Avengers is the corporation Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). Within the game's narrative, superheroes have been outlawed while A.I.M. takes the Avengers' place in society as a peacekeeping force, promising to find a cure for what is dubbed the "Inhuman Disease". A.I.M. is headed by Monica Rappaccini (Jolene Andersen) and George Tarleton / MODOK (Usman Ally), who is severely mutated as a result of the events of A-Day. Other villains include Emil Blonsky / Abomination (Jamieson Price), Tony Masters / Taskmaster (Walter Gray IV), and Loki (Travis Willingham). The game's DLC missions introduce more villains, namely the Super-Adaptoid, Lyle Getz (Darin De Paul), Maestro (Darin De Paul), Ulysses Klaue / Klaw (Steve Blum), and Brock Rumlow / Crossbones (Fred Tatasciore).

Non-playable supporting characters in the game include Tony Stark's proprietary A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. (Harry Hadden-Paton), Hank Pym (Danny Jacobs), Phil Sheldon (Walter Gray IV), Nick Fury (Charles Parnell), Maria Hill (Jennifer Hale), Dum Dum Dugan (Greg Baldwin), Jimmy Woo (Aleks Le), Dante Pertuz (Michael Johnston), Cerise (Cherry Thompson), Yusuf Khan (Brian George), Justin Hammer (Nicolas Roye), Lucky the Pizza Dog, Shuri (Erica Luttrell), Okoye (Debra Wilson), Zawavari (Dave Fennoy), Liz Allan (Elizabeth Grullon), and Mark Raxton (James Arnold Taylor).

Plot

Main story

11-year-old Kamala Khan attends a celebration event called "Avengers Day" which unveils the Avengers' second headquarters in San Francisco and their own Helicarrier called the Chimera. The ceremony is interrupted by a terrorist attack led by Taskmaster, which leads to the Chimera's Terrigen Crystal-powered core exploding and Steve Rogers' apparent death. San Francisco is destroyed and blanketed by Terrigen Mist in the aftermath, which causes numerous individuals, including Kamala, to involuntarily manifest superhuman powers as Inhumans. Blamed for the tragedy known as "A-Day", the Avengers disband and a company named A.I.M. rises to power.

Five years later at her home in Jersey City, Kamala discovers damaged video footage which seemingly implicate a scientist named George Tarleton in Rogers' death. She attempts to meet a contact from an anti-A.I.M. resistance movement known as "Tiny Dancer", but is captured by Tarleton and A.I.M.'s scientist Monica Rappaccini. Kamala escapes and travels to Utah to find the resistance's base of operations. Her search leads her to the Chimera's damaged remains in which she finds the Hulk who attacks her before reverting into Bruce Banner. She convinces him to assist her in proving the Avengers' innocence. Traveling to a former S.H.I.E.L.D. compound to retrieve J.A.R.V.I.S., the two are confronted by A.I.M. and one of their operatives, Emil Blonsky. Hulk defeats him before he and Kamala return to the Chimera to reactivate J.A.R.V.I.S. and set out to reunite the Avengers. While they find Tony Stark at his family estate, he bears a grudge against Banner because his testimony of A-Day incriminated the Avengers. Upon learning of Kamala's evidence, Stark agrees to join them and works to restore the Chimera.

During their search for parts to help Stark, Kamala and Banner stumble upon the Ant Hill, an Inhuman sanctuary and the resistance's headquarters run by Hank Pym. While assisting them, Kamala disobeys orders and attempts to raid an A.I.M. facility alone to save Inhuman prisoners, but is captured. While in custody, she learns Rappaccini's efforts to make an Inhuman cure are unsuccessful, leading Tarleton to prioritize the manufacturing of Adaptoid androids. Natasha Romanoff drops her cover within A.I.M. and infiltrates the facility. She captures Rappaccini, frees Kamala, and reveals her identity as "Tiny Dancer". Banner attempts to interrogate Rappaccini about the Adaptoid laboratory's whereabouts, but the latter resists before A.I.M. forces attack the Chimera and retrieve her. Witnessing the attack, Thor Odinson intervenes and re-joins the Avengers. J.A.R.V.I.S. restores the footage which shows Rogers ordering Tarleton to seal him inside so he can destroy the Chimera's reactor, apparently causing the explosion. Believing A-Day really was their fault, the Avengers disband again.

While reviewing the interrogation footage, Kamala realizes A.I.M.'s Adaptoid laboratory is located off-world in a satellite called Ambrosia. She relays this information to the Avengers and rallies them with a heartfelt speech. Stark upgrades his suit to achieve space travel and infiltrates the satellite where he discovers Rogers is alive and placed in suspended animation so Rappaccini could harvest his blood to power the Adaptoids and covertly accelerate Tarleton's mutation. Thor comes to their rescue and they return to the Chimera, where Rogers reveals that he destroyed the reactor because it was unearthing an unidentified object underneath the bay that threatened to destabilize the San Andreas Fault and destroy California. Meanwhile, Tarleton discovers that Rappaccini's serum, while ostensibly keeping him alive, has deliberately induced his mutations and injects her with it in retaliation.

Reassembled, the Avengers deduce that Rappaccini hired Taskmaster to hijack the Chimera and steal the Terrigen Crystal, which unearthed the buried object in the bay. They learn that Tarleton, now calling himself "M.O.D.O.K.", plans to exterminate Inhumans around the world and commit suicide afterwards. The Avengers storm his fortress, but M.O.D.O.K. activates the object—a massive Kree Sentry—and overpowers them. Kamala unexpectedly grows to giant size, destroys the Kree Sentry, and sends M.O.D.O.K falling into the bay. After her recovery, Kamala returns home to her father Yusuf who allows her to discreetly join the Avengers.