Marvel recently released a new game called “Marvel Rivals” and it’s been blowing up in the gaming scene. This superhero team-based Player vs Player (PVP) shooter has 35 of the most recognizable characters from the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (MCU) including Spiderman, Hulk, Thor, Storm, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange. 

I’ve been playing “Marvel Rivals” since December 27th and have had a pretty positive experience overall. One of my favorite aspects of the game is its fun mix of characters and their various abilities. Every single hero has unique powers that will spice up your play. Of course, most characters’ abilities are heavily inspired by their comic book selves but some have been altered. One of the most unique parts of the game is the mechanism of “team-ups” where some characters get special abilities or perks depending on which characters are on your team. For example, if I’m playing Loki and my teammate is playing Hela it would activate a team-up ability where if Loki dies he would be revived if Hela killed an enemy! This makes the game more exciting because when there are so many heroes there are more opportunities for interesting team-ups. 

Another plus to the game is its gorgeous interactive maps. Unlike most games, where the environment is stiff, “Marvel Rivals” allows players to destroy some of the map’s environment. This can make players land extra hits on enemy players or make quick shortcuts for them and their teammates. Also of note is that for some maps, the environment changes itself forcing players to adapt to new environments. 

Another great feature of the game is that the wait times to enter a game are extremely short and can even be instantaneous as expected from a game that just peaked at 644,269 players four days ago according to Steam. Another reason for this extremely low wait time is that the game has no role lock, where players are forced to play a specific role such as healer, tank, or damage. This allows players to play the heroes they want anytime during a game. 

One of my biggest worries about the game is the threat of ability repetition. This season of the game will introduce five new characters and as they add more characters to the game one wonders how many abilities they can come up with before characters become repetitive. 

Overall, “Marvel Rivals” is a very fun and unique game and is definitely the future of PVP shooter games. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a Marvel fan or just a video game fan in general. You can play “Marvel Rivals” on Xbox, PC, and PS5.