What if I pitched you an idea for a game - a 6v6 role-based hero shooter, where heroes and villains use special abilities and weapons to defend and capture points or escort a vehicle to a designated checkpoint? I just described Overwatch, Blizzard’s highly successful spiritual successor to Valve’s Team Fortress 2. However, as of December 2024, a new challenger has entered the ring. While Valve has made the barest of updates to TF2, and Blizzard seems wholly unsure of what to do with OW2, NetEase has stepped in and released Marvel Rivals - a game that plays very much like a third-person Overwatch but with Marvel characters you know and love.

The most important thing to mention, right out of the gate, is that Marvel Rivals is good - really good. Where Overwatch had to create characters from scratch and develop their backstory, Rivals has a built-in history of over 40 years of comics and movies to draw from. Some of the most awesome skins in this game are from comics and MCU movies.

Rivals plays pretty much how you would expect. It has a third-person perspective, but beyond that, the feel of the game is almost a direct copy of OW. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Blizzard should be very flattered. Rivals doesn’t really shy away from this - it embraces the aspects of the game that it does differently without pretending it’s not heavily influenced by Blizzard’s shooter.

The art style is very reminiscent of comic books, and the seasons themselves are set up like issues of a comic, complete with their own unlockable art panels, referred to in this game as gallery cards. Level design is strong in the game, and with the exception of maybe one level, I find them all pretty enjoyable.

Game modes will be familiar to OW gamers - mostly consisting of escorting payloads and controlling points. Doom Match is a straight-up deathmatch mode that is available, but I have found it isn’t as fun to play as the team games. I would be interested in a team Doom Match mode, but so far that hasn’t been made available. One interesting gameplay mechanic is that Rivals does not force you into roles. Feel free to live out your dreams of a team of tanks or running 5 healers and one attacker. The possibilities are endless, and you quickly get a feel for how well your team composition is working.

Rivals introduces Team-Ups, where certain combinations of characters (like the Fantastic Four, or Magneto and Scarlet Witch) can enable new attacks or abilities for characters. These attacks aren’t game-changing by any means, but they are a nice addition to the existing OW formula.

One thing I enjoy is how the battle pass for each season is set up - once you purchase a battle pass, you can complete it whenever you like, even after the season is over. The only bad thing seems to be there is no way to buy older passes, so there is a slight amount of FOMO still, but it’s not nearly as bad as other games. The battle pass itself ran about $10 and includes four or five skins, plus in-game currency, the aforementioned gallery cards, sprays, MVP animations, and more. You earn in-game currency to buy items from the battle pass by completing daily, monthly, and seasonal challenges. These challenges range from “Win 1 match”or “Acquire 50 Assists” to more specific ones like “Get 4 KOs as Hela, Winter Soldier, Mantis, or Ironman.” The general feeling I get is that these are designed to get you to play and become familiar with multiple characters. Seasons also are long enough to give you time to get everything you want if you play consistently. I’m very impressed with the lack of FOMO in Rivals.

Each season includes special events as well. These mostly consist of extra challenges you can do to earn in-game currencies you can spend.

And now for the downside - while the skins are generally cool, the most awesome-looking ones are ridiculously priced. $26 for an Avengers: Endgame Iron Man or Spider-Man: No Way Home Spider-Man. Even the cheapest skin bundles are $16. I get that there needs to be some scale of economy to make the game profitable, but it seems like they would sell tons more skins if they were $5 - $10 instead of $15-$25. I’m a geek, not an economist, so maybe that’s wrong, but it has definitely reduced the amount of skins I would have impulse-purchased.

On a positive note - I have found that the game plays well on both my home PC and Steam Deck, as well as my PS5. The Steam Deck is a great way to play on the go, and after a weekend away from home, I was able to log in and play for multiple hours without any issue. I had minimal slowdown and no lag, even on hotel Wi-Fi. At home, my setup is a lot better, and I have had no issues with performance on PC, even though the game doesn’t appear to be super optimized. One small issue, which NetEase has already noted that they are working on, is the lack of cross-progression. As of now, you can play against people on other systems across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but you cannot log in to the same account and continue to earn rewards on an account from a different system. So my main account is tied to my PC, and my secondary account is on my PS5. There isn’t a timeline of when cross-progression will be available, but it is sorely missing at the moment. That being said, it sounds like the hold-up is implementing it in a way that makes platform holders happy, so maybe this is more of a political hold-up than a technical one.

At the end of the day, Marvel Rivals has fully replaced both Overwatch and TF2 for me. I love playing as my favorite Marvel characters. I enjoy the gameplay and the flexibility of being able to take my gaming on the road with Steam Deck support too. A well-executed battle pass and lack of FOMO are icing on the cake.

Marvel Rivals is available for free and is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.