Everything Overwatch 2 should have been only with Marvel Superheroes

While Marvel Rivals doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to Overwatch style games it does add some great changes to the genre

First off, it is free to play like Overwatch 2 but instead of paywalling new characters everyone gets all characters for free from day 1. Meaning when you launch the game today you immediately have the entire roster of all characters currently in the game and this will remain true forever as in any new characters added down the line will simply immediately be made available to everyone's rosters

The game is fully funded through cosmetic microtransactions so every cosmetic aspect of the game is monetised from the MVP animations to the character skins to avatars, emotes etc.... And this is completely fine I wish every free to play game took this approach. Worse yet a lot of games that aren't free to play have started monetising both cosmetics and gameplay related items such as weapons like what CoD now does in paywalling new overpowered guns behind the season pass

But unlike other games that intentionally make the base appearance lame to entice you to buy cosmetics. In Rivals I actually prefer many of the base appearances over the current skins available for purchase. The character models are top notch and really look cool, sexy and badass depending on the character

In terms of gameplay there is a lot on offer here. You have the full range of modes and map styles that Overwatch 2 has only then of course in a Marvel setting. One new thing here is that maps have destructible elements so any good sniping platform for example is often destructible as well as some walls to open up new flanks or to make a position easier/harder to defend/attack

Some maps also have other unique elements such as goo sacks that can be attacked to make temporary bridges or activate a temporary left, create a temporary wall etc...

In terms of the character lineup it is quite vast with at launch on 6 December 2024 a lineup of 33 different characters made up of a mixture of heroes and villains. Each characters fits into one of 3 main roles; tank, damage dealer and support and within those you have a sub categories as well such as supports more focused on healing, supports more focused on debuffing/buffing and supports more focused on damage dealing. Or within the damage dealers you have bruisers, snipers, assassins etc...

A unique subclass for Rivals is the flying units. So Storm and Iron Man for example are perma flight characters who can fly 24/7 this adds an element of verticality that Overwatch never really had beyond Valkyrie but even she couldn't perma fly and these also each have their own counters

It is through the character roster that Marvel Rivals really differentiates itself within the Overwatch genre of games as different characters add very unique gameplay mechanics to the game. For example Dr Strange can create portals that both teams can use to travel between and shoot between and they work just like the portals in the game Portal so this is a very cool mechanic. One match I had an enemy Dr Strange put a portal in the sky above the objective and then his team's snipers were sniping us through the portal so that caught me quite by surprise. I change to Scarlet Witch and then used their own portal to go assassinate their snipers

The visual quality is also on parr, if not better than that of Overwatch 2. Where OW2 feels like an updated game from 2016, Marvel Rivals actually feels like a game from 2024. So it has better visuals, vastly superior UI and menus and overall just a much more modern feeling (in a good way) than Overwatch 2 has

Audio design is great with the abilities sounding just as they do in the movies, the character voice actors all feel very fitting and some will be very familiar if you've played other Marvel games. The way the abilities and characters function also feels authentic. Spiderman can web swing, and perform some amazing beatdowns on enemies while Iron Man flies around and unleashes air superiority on the enemy team. The characters also have unique voice lines with lore accurate allies and foes so this is a neat touch as well and interactions with both enemies and allies can trigger these voice lines

A big innovation in Rivals is the team-up mechanic. Certain characters have team-up passives and abilities that get unlocked if you go with those two characters together. The most iconic perhaps being that Rocket can jump on Groot's shoulder and this offers protection and height advantage to Rocket as well as changing Groot from a tank into a very dangerous damage dealing hybrid. But there are many unique team-ups that can really make the difference between winning and losing if you know how to use them

For example Spider-Man and Venom unlocks the venom explosive burst on Spider-Man and changes his visual appearance (he will have venom goo on him if you play Spider-Man with a Venom on your team)

There are a lot of team-ups in the game some are just two characters some require the entire team to take those characters such as the Avengers teamups and Guardians of the Galaxy teamups

All in all, this is the game that us Overwatch fans have been waiting for. While Blizzard has thrown Overwatch down the drain with Overwatch 2. Rivals is here to say hey Overwatch players, want to have fun again? And my answer is a very easy and very loud YES PLEASE!