@F7ovrdrv
MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS PROJECT (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix – TBA – TBA) – I don’t really find myself caring about a lot of E3’s “big” titles. Kingdom Hearts has yet to show a Marvel World, and until/unless it does, I don’t see myself legitimately getting excited for it. The Last of Us 2–while I know will have a great story–is going to play like every other Naughty Dog game, because.. Naughty Dog. And so on, and so forth. I just care about a handful, including Forza Horizon 4 and, this, Crystal Dynamic’s The Avengers Project project.
One of my most missed games to date is still X-Men Legends II: Age of Apocalypse. The Ultimate Marvel Alliance games were good too, but never great like Age was. I know this Avengers game won’t play anything like those–but, ehhh, 4chan thinks I’m wrong so I GOTS to be wrong!–and it’s been too long since we’ve had a big super hero team-up title. No, the LEGO games don’t count; they’re fun for 10-minute bursts, but the combat is always garbage.
Details on this game are scarce. The most that we could gleam before some rando on 4chan sent the following details just hours after this article, is from the job postings for the game and the hiring decisions. According to DDg11B (because a dweeb with that username MUST be correct), “The Avengers Project is Avengers: Ultimate Alliance. But it’s not just Ultimate Alliance 3, it’s a full reboot with the name on it (think something like the new God of War, minus the story continuity: similar name, totally new gameplay/story structure). That’s the reason why the tagline of the first teaser was “Reassemble”, to hint at it being a reboot. This is also why the previous Ultimate Alliance games got uprezed recently for current-gen.”
Oh, word? Ya boy DD continues on. “The game takes place from the perspective of multiple Avengers after a cataclysmic incident broke the team apart (think more Dissassembled than Civil War), but there are 3 which are the core focus: Captain America, Iron Man, and Scarlet Witch (who you heard in the trailer). They aren’t the ONLY playable characters, but they are the leads of the story. Gameplay wise think a mix between Uncharted and Infamous.” Makes sense! Please do go on, DD! “It’ll also have connections putting it in both the same world as the PS4 Spider-Man game (that Sanctum Sanctorum appearance in still images was not just for fun), as well as Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel Games wants in on that shared universe idea that have made the films literal billions of dollars.”
Hmmm… Former Uncharted director, Shaun Escayg is on the development team, joined by Dead Space producer Stephen Barry. No matter which direction they go in it’s safe to say the game already has a strong backbone. Every job listing for the Avengers Project requires the person to have experience “leading other developers to build engaging various game modes and campaigns”. The Lead Combat Designer will design, test, and implement the combat systems, along with the boss battles. Finally, there’s the External Lead Designer, who will be tasked with “easily breaking down core level design elements and use them for creating combat, puzzle, and traversal sections of a level”.
Originally, there were fears that this was going to he yet another competitive online game, but with these elements, I see it possibly shaping into a co-op shared world. If done correctly, this could be my next addiction when you really think of all the great Marvel events/storylines that they could use as expansions. And the different character looks that can be used and equipped as armor sets and pieces.. Mmm MMM!! Ok.. this Deacon has to calm down. There isn’t even a proper trailer or a screenshot, so we’re looking at 2019 at the earliest. And all of it possibly “assembling” like the current Tomb Raider series does. I need this.
-Felipe Crespo