On paper, a single-player Avengers ensemble game with Captain America, Thor, and Hulk would be all that die-hard fans desire since it’d mean they get to play as their favorite characters and indulge in fantastic powers. There’d be obvious balancing requirements to ensure that each character that players swap to is unique and fun to play as, but the unmistakable draw would certainly be how iconic each character is—a route Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is boldly declining.
It’s still unclear precisely how gameplay will take shape in Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, though it reportedly being a single-player ensemble game with four playable characters is beyond exciting to fathom design-wise. Marvel 1943 has enough to ponder about without any further marketing if Skydance chose to lay low for a while, but seeing gameplay will be wholly illuminating regarding what players can actually expect. Regardless, if Marvel 1943’s choice of playable characters works well in its favor, it could open the door to many previously preposterous ensemble combinations in future Marvel games.
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Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra Hopefully Hasn’t Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew
Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra looks promising from what it’s shown thus far and yet it’s what hasn’t been shown yet that is most concerning.
Marvel Ensembles’ Hardest Choice Will Be Picking Which Characters They Feature
Marvel’s Spider-Man bumping Mary Jane Watson up to a deuteragonist rather than a character with a couple of playable sequences might’ve received an adverse reaction, but it also might’ve allowed MJ to blossom as her own character further if players spent as much time with her as they did a wall-crawler. Marvel 1943 will presumably dodge this pitfall by having Gabriel and Nanali be essential in gameplay and in doing so it will be impossible to refute their importance in the story.
Speaking of Ubisoft’s history-leaping stealth-adventure series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has players swapping back and forth between Naoe and Yasuke—even if the ability to do so isn’t unlocked until ~10 hours into the game—and a comparable approach in Marvel 1943 might allow players to adopt the specific playstyle they prefer between Steve Rogers’ Captain America, Azzuri’s Black Panther, Gabriel Jones, and Nanali. However, unless Skydance has something truly emergent planned, it would be difficult to imagine anyone choosing Gabriel or Nanali over either Captain America or Black Panther when given the chance.
That’s why, against all odds, Marvel 1943 needs to commit to its divisive choice and sell players on gameplay between four characters who couldn’t be more different when it comes to their loadouts and abilities. Nanali is perhaps the biggest wild card at the moment since she’s only seen with a lone retractable baton, but as a Wakandan spy she’ll naturally have stealth capabilities that could pair her well with Black Panther while Gabriel arming himself with a firearm may make him a natural fit with Captain America in action-packed set-piece sequences.
As long as they’re all distinct enough from one another, Rise of Hydra could be tremendously meaningful for how it thrusts characters who are niche or less mechanically appealing into the same echelon as Marvel’s most revered and ubiquitous heroes. Future ensemble Marvel games have the potential to be phenomenal with all of their playable characters being incredibly high-profile and well-known, but Marvel 1943 has a rare opportunity to tell an authentic story and elevate Gabriel and Nanali to the level of Captain America and Black Panther.
- Franchise
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Marvel
- Developer(s)
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Skydance New Media
- Publisher(s)
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Skydance New Media
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
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