[Marvel Rivals] "It looks like The Blur with a new paint job!"

KoopahTroopah

I find it fitting that since I made the first OW thread, I would make the first clone thread for Marvel Rivals.

https://youtu.be/DA4iVv4MARE?si=Tx6LM-JHnf3EOZH_

Rivals is a third person hero based shooter, very similar to Blizzard's Overwatch. There's a big variety of heroes from different Marvel franchises, but all you need to know is you can jump and shoot directly through Dr. Strange portals without interacting with them. Literal Aperature Labs tech. Easiest heroes I've found so far are Punisher and Rocket. Gonna try to learn a tank next so I can fill roles.

Closed Alpha just started, is anyone else in? I think people get friend keys at level 6 on the progression scale and automatically qualified into beta at level 10.

PMAvers

Didn’t get in but watched someone play for a few hours. It’s looking really solid? Spider-Man getting to go Full-On Spider-Man and zip around the level webslinging was amazing. The level of destructibility really adds to the superhero feel, watching Storm’s tornado absolutely wreck a room and tear the floor up to open new paths was a “holy shit” moment.

Jubal77

It looks fun but also looks to be be very hectic. Will be interesting to see what it looks like when people "figure" it out. It is fun to see the streams I watch look like those early Rocket League days where people were just having fun.

vamen

EDIT - Images are still HUGE I see =p.

Came here hoping for a thread and leave it to my man KOOPS to have one!

I've been having a good time with this. It's PAINFULLY Overwatch, but I know that was the goal. It may be a little TOO OW, I'm not sure yet. Starlord is basically Tracer and Reaper combined, Hulk is sort of like D'Va (takes too much damage and goes back to Banner, but then can hulk out again after a bit of time...which is actually super cool).
But since I'm sick of OW after the OW2 fiasco, it will be nice for something to take its place, even if arena shooters aren't my preference.

I am not a person good at analyzing or being critical of games...the same way I'm bad about it with books and movies. So take all of this as you will.

What I am digging so far:
- Art style.

- The character kits all feel good so far.
- The large roster already.
- The UI is what you'd expect but I like that is has a detailed 'how to play this char' section in each char's page, plus lore and all that stuff.

- The available skins, limited as they are, so far are awesome. A few exceptions are just some palette swaps, which I hate when these games use too heavily, but they may also simply not have more ready yet.
- They have hero synergies (called Team-Up) which are pretty cool. Like Magik (who I am PUMPED is in the game) uses her portals as a normal part of her kit, but she can synergize with Black Panther who can ALSO use her portals. He's the only one.
*Rocket can ride on Groot's shoulder for a damage reduction buff to both.
*Rocket's buff move, which normally gives a damage bonus (I believe) gives Punisher unlimited ammo (i.e. no reload while it lasts) and rapid firing while in range.
*Hulk can charge both Iron Man and Doctor Strange with gamma radiation, which gives certain of their abilities a bonus.
*If Hela kills anyone while Loki is dead, he will revive instantly. If he's alive, he gets a shield buff.
- There are story elements to why you're doing what you are and why some chars aren't there. It's not super important but I like little stuff like that and I assume there will be story themes as the game goes on. Right now Loki has taken over as King of Asgard, Thor has been banished, and he's teamed up with Hela. They give story based chatter in some of the mission intros.

What I am not loving.
- Maps. Nothing wrong with them but also not really memorable. But that may simply be my lack of playtime. I DO enjoy the environmental destruction.
- NO INVERT Y OPTIONS FOR MOUSE currently. But controller has it, so I've been using controller to play which is not ideal. I like playing games with controller, just not THIS type of game. Inevitably invert Y is coming but it always BLOWS my mind when a game like this hits EVEN alpha without that being an option.
- Some of the impacts of combat don't feel as 'meaty' as I'd like.
- Movement is SLOW. I know they can't really have a sprint for everyone because a few chars have movement buffs as part of their kit. But as it is, regular movement feels too slow, and even movement buffed movement can feel that way. Storm has a constant AE (picture Lucio in OW) that is either a movement or a damage buff which you can toggle. You can ALMOST not tell the diff when the movement buff is on.
- Some of the controls are odd. Chars who can fly go up with LT and down with LB, which makes sense so you can control that without removing your finger from attack buttons. But one of the chars goes up that way but not down the same way...and why doesn't "jump" also ascend? Storm is ALWAYS flying, for example, but you cannot use the jump key to ascend. Perhaps a toggle in options, I haven't explored it heavily

Anyhoo, I am more pleased than I expected. I anticipated a straight money grab, but the effort is there. I just hope they don't bungle whatever they plan to do for the live service/battlepass/etc aspects. And I'd have preferred something like Apex Legends but Marvel rather than than OW but Marvel, but here we are.

KoopahTroopah

Spiderman is cool but he's hard to control and a Melee character, so you gotta kinda thwip in there on the back lines and get em. I need more practice with him.

Starlord is kinda Tracer like, has Reaper's ult toned down for a regular ability and he can fly around.

Groot seems really strong tank wise. His walls take a lot to break down and he seems to either have a lot of life or be able to heal really well. Every match against him seems like he is the biggest issue.

vamen

Koops - yea, I have problems with melee chars in general. It may be because I'm using controller and you have to turn a lot to be successful with melee.

I def noticed Groot was the toughest one to take down when I first started playing. He's oddly fun to play. I've enjoyed pretty much every char except maybe Black Panther.

Also, it's SUPER cool that Dr Strange's portals are like portals from Prey/Portal, except they can go ANYWHERE. The downside is, it currently kills my framerate...it runs like butter at all times except when one of his portals is out =p.

Also Koops, speaking of the level 6 beta keys, did you get yours yet? I hit 6 last night but didn't get any email or anything about a key. I'm sure someone could put it to good use!

Olivaw

Watching footage of this is hectic as hell, but it’s giving me Overwatch vibes and frankly that’s something I miss

Most characters seem wildly overtuned, and some of them seem really specific (Scarlet Witch seems built to do exactly one thing and that’s build ult and pop it to accomplish anything) and a lot of the abilities are poorly explained but hey it’s not even out yet

Honestly the weirdest thing about the game is the roster. Iron Man is here but no Cap? Hela and Loki but no Thor? And why so much noise about Magik now? Baffling choices!

Shadowfire

Magik rules, I'm not seeing the problem.

KoopahTroopah

I made a Faction:

Feel free to apply and just say you're from PA

Favorites so far Punisher, Rocket, Groot, and Hela for me so far. Iron Man seemed clunky, Spidey is hard to use, Starlord is a glass cannon so I gotta learn maps more and synergies before feeling that.

I just hit 6 but no key just yet. I'll see what I get.

KoopahTroopah

Oh I found it. So you have to hit level 6, and then click on Overture. There it has two events for the alpha. One is to play against devs between 6-8PM PDT, and the other is to claim extra invite codes. It looks like you can only claim one per day, and there is a total limit for the day. It resets at 5PM PDT. I don't know when I'll be around and those might get grabbed up quick each day, so keep an eye out if you have an invite already and want to get extra alpha keys:

vamen

Olivaw - the "abilities" section under each char's profile in the main menu I felt helped me make sense of a few of the abilities that were unclear in the info screen during matches.

Shadowfire - Agreed! Midnight Suns made me a fan!

Koops - App submitted!

Shadowfire

If someone gets a hold of one of those invite codes and wants to slide it my way I won't complain too much. This does look like OG Overwatch in a way that I both appreciate and miss.

vamen

I'll grab you one if I can. Mine said "claimed for today" when I first went to check it and it's supposed to have reset a few hours ago but it's still showing that for me so I'm not sure what the deal is.

vamen

Oh, the codes are first come first serve when they refresh everyday. I didn't check for about an hour after the refresh so I'm sure I missed it.

KoopahTroopah

Competitive feels kind of wonky. It's still following the OW formula where you take turns doing objectives, but rank balance has been out of wack for me. Only one silver on my team against three silvers? Ehhh.

KoopahTroopah

So Scarlet Witch seems pretty simple. Kind of like Moira DPS focused with a DVA ult. Hela seems okay? Maybe I just need to get good with headshots, but her attack rate is slow and her shift isn't great as far as I've used it.

Groot still seems like THE tank. Just easily get Ace when you're on cart missions pushing cart with walls. Strange is fun, but putting up the portals is kinda difficult. He's still a decent off tank though.

Zetx

Game looks good for a 'closed alpha' from what I can tell. Looking forward to giving it a spin. (Would love an invite code from anyone >_>)

Sterica

Really wish the game’s UI didn’t lean so heavy into Overwatch’s clean, white/yellow future aesthetic. The character design and graphics look great, and a more comic book influence on the UI would bring it all together

bloodyroarxx

Id also love a code if possible.

Im pretty impressed, alot of people immediately were turned off when it was revealed as a Netease game seems like at least on the top end its pretty great.

Zetx

My biggest concern is definitely that it's a Netease game. The game itself looks really good so we'll just have to wait and see how monetization goes, etc. They have so much in the realm of cosmetics to work off of that I hope they'll leave the characters themselves as free and unlocked for everyone at the same time.

Olivaw

The microtransactions are definitely my biggest concern right now, if they go the Overwatch 2 route and lock out characters unless you pay absurd amounts of free currency or twenty bucks of real money? I don't think this is gonna do it for me

On the other hand, if the characters are free but cosmetics are pricy, that'll be more than enough to bring them in cash because it's friggin' comic books! Everybody's got a million costumes and everyone has a favorite among them. People will pay out the nose for the Planet Hulk or Mr. Fixit look, and there's eighty bajillion Spider-Men to throw in there

But they'll probably charge for characters because why make a ton of money when you can make all the money

Zetx

FWIW, OW2 is finally changing it (or has recently? I don't keep as close an eye any more...) so that the newly released characters are out for everyone at once instead of behind the BP. But there are plenty of other games that aren't doing that so still hella iffy for your last line precisely.

vamen

That's my main concern as well...I've heard a lot of negative things about the company. But I was surprised by the quality of the game; they made the effort and aren't just phoning it in. So my true remaining concern is the monetization. Locking chars won't work for me, that seems like it creates an actual gameplay issue. But cosmetics and stuff, meh.

I've tried to grab a code for some of you all but I've been too slow so far. =(

KoopahTroopah

Yeah no codes here unfortunately. Sorry all!

Mantis seems super easy! Like Zen on steroids. Love her.

KoopahTroopah

December 6th launch.

Prohass

I love that magik is in this. Hope we get spidergwen