Unless you've been living under a rock, you've undoubtedly heard of, or have heard someone talking about the new Marvel Rivals game. Since its release, Marvel Rivals has been extremely well-received and has posted crazy numbers of concurrent players (According to Steam data). At its peak (so far), the number of concurrent players topped out at 480,990. That's insane! While a far cry from the all-time record of 3,257,248 (Steam) currently held by PUBG, it's still impressive.
Marvel Rivals is also drawing strong comparisons to the Overwatch series. From map layouts to gameplay mechanics and character abilities, its hard not to see similarities. Many Overwatch players have made the migration over to Rivals and the transition has been practically seamless. While still new to the game myself (8 hours played), I couldn't help but wonder how so many players are already playing at professional levels. Especially considering that the game just came out on December 5th. But, I digress.
Introduction to Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 team-based third-person shooter based on, you guessed it, Marvel superheroes. As of writing and before any major updates, there are a total of 4 game modes, 8 maps( some bigger than others), and 33 characters. The game modes are as follows: Domination (think KOTH from TF2), Convoy (similar to Escort in Overwatch 2), Convergence ( Hybrid from Overwatch 2), and Conquest (a mix of TDM and Kill Confirmed).
Current Available Characters
Adam Warlock
Black Panther
Black Widow
Captain America
Cloak and Dagger
Doctor Strange
Groot
Hawkeye
Hela
Hulk
Iron Fist
Iron Man
Jeff the Land Shark
Loki
Luna Snow
Magik
Magneto
Mantis
Moon Knight
Namor
Peni Parker
Psylocke
The Punisher
Rocket Raccoon
Scarlett Witch
Squirrel Girl
Spider-Man
Star Lord
Storm
Thor
Venom
Winter Soldier
Wolverine
All of these characters have special abilities and ultimate attacks. I will give credit where it is due. the abilities and ults match up with the heroes very well. Some are obviously better than others, but its all dependent on the in game situation as to whether it will be a game changer or not. Heroes also benefit from specific other heroes being on the same team, known as a Team Up effect. They grant buffs and other abilities on top of what is already available to you.
Game Modes
Domination
Teams fight each other to hold control of a single point in space called the Mission Area
Convoy
One needs to escort a moving vehicle to the end of the map while the opposite team tries to stop them.
Convergence
This mode is played similarly to convoy, with the difference that the attacking team needs to capture a Mission Area first.
Conquest
Standard Team Deathmatch mode in which each player tries to get as many eliminations as possible, while also trying not to die and give the opposing team points. Teams don't get points for simply getting kills. Each eliminated opponent drops a coin that you must collect to score said points. These coins become more valuable as the game progresses. Win by scoring 50 points or by having more points than the opposing team when the timer runs out..
At the end of the day, the game is fun, but it can also be infuriating. Certain heroes are more toxic than others (I'm looking at you, Jeff the Land Shark), some feel overpowered and some feel underpowered. I'm sure in future updates they will make the appropriate adjustments and add more maps and heroes. This is to be expected with any new shooter that comes out. They're always tweaking, balancing, adding features, weapons, etc. I expect the same from Marvel Rivals.
Rivals came out of the gates swinging and posting a very respectable number of concurrent players during its peak (so far), and it has maintained respectable numbers since. That being said, there have been quite a few instances of games coming out hot and the fizzling hard (Starfield, Palworld). Time will tell with Marvel Rivals as well. It is still in the infant stage, if you will. It has the added bonus of being a Marvel IP, but its not bulletproof.
Comments