Marvel Rivals is going hard with its first season – well, technically it’s the second but NetEase loves to be different – with a quartet of new heroes arriving later this week when the Fantastic Four make their debut. Reed Richards, Sue & Johnny Storm, and The Thing will soon arrive on the roster and be playable heroes alongside an already stacked slate. They look fun to play, but part of me is concerned about how NetEase is going to address game balance.
I’ve already touched on the stacked nature of Marvel Rivals’ roster, and how featuring such numerous heroes at launch makes it tremendously difficult to learn all of them or figure out the sort of role you might be best suited for. It’s overwhelming by choice, when games in the genre like Overwatch have shown time and time again that there is a better way to do such a thing. Yes, I’m comparing it to Blizzard’s hero shooter again, because it’s such a clear reskin that there isn’t much choice. In fact, I wish they also introduced heroes in the same way.
The Fantastic Four Are Going To Cause Trouble For Marvel Rivals
I was a regular Overwatch player for half a decade, and still find myself dipping into it briefly when each new season drops to see exactly what has changed and been added. No matter its current popularity, it’s impossible to deny the influence it had not only on the hero shooter genre, but live service experiences as a whole.
Before battle passes and seasons were a big thing, it tended to introduce a handful of new heroes a year, and made each of them into their own major event, so we had time to learn who they are, where they came from, and how they feel to play. Things were subject to change too, and the abilities a hero possessed upon their reveal could change before release, and even after that, as things are potentially reworked.
Marvel Rivals isn’t giving itself that opportunity, arguably believing that already belonging to a universe filled with established characters means it can populate its roster accordingly. It will build up unreasonable expectations and risk not giving the development team the time needed to make each hero truly fun and satisfying to play.
The last thing I want is a roster defined by filler where everyone is trying to jump on the same handful of heroes forever.
I Hope There Is Enough Time To Learn And Balance Each New Hero
NetEase is still in the process of unveiling the classes and abilities of The Fantastic Four, with Reed Richards being revealed as a Duelist with 350 health and a standard attack capable of being combined into a satisfying three-hit combo. I can see The Thing being Vanguard, Sue being a Strategist, and Johnny Storm joining Reed as a capable DPS. I hope I’ll have a chance to play them in the first few days without matches being flooded with an awkward mismatch of roles that makes winning matches a nightmare. Sadly, that is almost inevitably going to happen, because it happens in Overwatch.
On the flipside, it would be pretty awkward not to introduce The Fantastic Four as a unit. It would be amazing if NetEase introduced each hero on a weekly basis as part of the season.
When Ana, Sombra, Doomfist, Brigitte, Venture, and myriad others were introduced, Overwatch players were quick to point out moves that were over or underpowered, inconsistent ways that they communicated with other heroes, and counters or lack thereof that needed to be introduced. The Fantastic Four is multiplying this by four amongst a roster that much of the community is already trying to wrap their heads around.
Unless I dedicate an obscene amount of my time to Marvel Rivals, it’s going to be impossible to learn each hero, follow their changes, or stay on top of how the game evolves moving forward if every season proves this overstuffed.
I might be worried about nothing, and this initial season is merely an opening salvo of four heroes that were destined to arrive as a package deal, and everything that follows will be a slower and more mediated stream of content that doesn’t overwhelm the playerbase. Or, this will be a statement of intent and Rivals will never match up to the more curated gameplay of those that came before. Either way, the Fantastic Four has a lot to prove.
