Marvel Rivals: The Live-Service Savior

Marvel Rivals feels too good to be true. The free-to-play, third-person team shooter starring Marvel superheroes might look like every financial scheme in gaming wrapped into one lethally mainstream product, but compared to its competition in the live-service multiplayer genre, it’s doing everything right. Evergreen battle passes? Unlockable cosmetics? 1-to-1 currency transfer? With a roster of 33 iconic characters to play as, Marvel Rivals is shaping up to please both the average gamer as well as the diehard comic book fan. Surely, it can’t follow up on all of its promises…can it?  

Short answer: yes. Rivals is a vastly fun, beautifully polished game that sticks out from its live-service competition thanks to its pro-consumer choices. Let’s talk money. Being free-to-play, the developers have to make a profit somewhere, and that place is in the cosmetics market. Being a superhero game, audiences expect to be swapping costumes, but being a free-to-play game, audiences are expecting to pay for them. The big question heading into Rivals’ launch was how expensive these sought after skins would be, as well as if one could earn them through play alone. 

Rivals has 3 currencies: Chrono Tokens, which the player earns by completing daily challenges and events to use on items in the battle pass; Lattice, earned by playing the battle pass and paying real money; and Units, a secret third thing that is effectively the same as Lattice, used only in buying cosmetics. 

As you can see, there’s a lot going on here. In some ways, it can be deceptive. You can convert your Lattice into Chrono Tokens, but not vice versa. Units and Lattice are practically interchangeable on the skin market since you can split the price difference between them. It’s nice that the conversion rate is $0.99 = 100 Lattice, so making the decision to put real money down is an easy one to calculate. The battle pass, which expires at the end of every in-game season, is 490 Lattice, or a $4.99 payment, but if you want to put down $9.99 for the Luxury battle pass, the player can keep it forever, eliminating the FOMO based pricing strategies that other live-service titles have used to keep players on the hook.

As someone reluctant to spend any money ever, I’ve certainly been tempted.  I’ve bought the battle pass, even though I don’t play many of the characters it’s doling out skins for, just for the chance to earn Lattice and Units for the ones I do. The Chrono Token economy can be tight, as you must rely on daily challenges and events to earn them, and battle pass progression is strictly linear, meaning you have to buy everything inside it, not just save all of your Tokens for one desired item. 

As for the quality of the cosmetics themselves, I’m conflicted. As a comic book fan first and foremost, it’s disappointing to see how few comic inspired skins there are compared to the army of MCU costumes available at launch. We have characters like Adam Warlock and Wolverine that are still deprived of comic book looks while their MCU skin bundles are available for 1600 to 2400 Units. Bundles, while expensive, are easier to swallow while they come with not just the costume, but a profile background, icon, a unique emote, and spray paint to tag the maps with. These add-ons certainly ad value, but buying just the desired skin at a slightly reduced price is also an option. 

Simply put: I’m not impressed by many of the cosmetics on offer. I can appreciate some deep cuts, like Venom’s “Space Knight” skin, and even some original designs, like Cloak & Dagger’s “Growth & Decay,” but few feel worth the money or work needed for purchase. Additionally, some characters are privileged over others. Spider-Man has 5 total skins, Captain America and Iron Man boast 4, while Moon Knight has a single additional costume. It makes sense to prioritize popular characters, especially ones who have been in movies, but some equity would be appreciated. Of course, not every outfit that’s been revleaed has been added to the game at launch. Future season rollouts will determine the strength of the skin market, the lifeblood of this game’s economy, and when new characters and cosmetics are added. 

Okay, enough about the money. Is Rivals a good game? I’m no competitive gamer, so I can’t speak to the strength of it as a potential e-sport, but in my experience, Rivals is a fun, casual-friendly PvP experience that’s beautiful to behold. Most players will be struck by the game’s fresh, flashy presentation and unabashed comic book influence to its visuals, but I was most impressed by the easily navigable menus. Expressive but not busy, they’re smooth, snappy, and never lag. The robust user interface just screams polish, and that goes for its infrastructure as well. I played on launch day, along with more than 400,000 others, and experienced next to no glitches, server crashes, or disconnections. Sometimes, however, I encounter a nasty little bug where my character teleports a small distance from my intended position, but it’s a small, rare annoyance. 

What keeps me coming back to the game is the roster. It boasts characters both famous and infamous, popular and obscure, all of them viable and strong with enough practice. Squirrel Girl and Jeff the Land Shark’s inclusions sparked a lot of chatter, even more so when they were found to be some of the most powerful in the game. I was glad to see some X-Men in the mix, Magik and Psylocke in particular, and I was honestly quite touched to see Cloak & Dagger—street level D-listers at best—make the cut. 

What’s most clear here is that NetEase, the developers of Rivals, actually read comics. When I heard Wolverine and Magneto talk in-game and they remarked on Krakoa, or when Winter Soldier and Black Widow reminisce, I know that the people behind the game have done the work necessary to bring these characters to life with authenticity. Given how influenced the lore, visuals, and characters interactions, and roster are from the source material, I’ll forgive their MCU reliance on the skin market. Being made up of film veterans, comic mainstays, and dark horse deep cuts that have stolen the show, the roster is sure to be even more robust as it grows. 

Unfortunately, the roster’s one flaw is that it’s lopsided in the split between Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist characters. Colloquially, gamers know these roles as “Tank,” “DPS” (Damage Per Second), and “Support.” But it’s not so clear cut here, as a character like Cloak & Dagger—yes, character singular—splits the difference. The player can switch between the lovebirds at any time, using Dagger to heal their team or Cloak to lay down damage. The game has 10 Vanguard, 7 Strategists, and 16 Duelists, meaning most games with random teammates are going to have an uneven makeup. More aggressive players are going to gravitate towards Duelists, and they have more options to choose from than a typical Tank or Support enjoyer. Adding mandatory roles might please the hardcore crowd, but could damage the massive casual audience that the game is bound to draw in. Personally, I think people should just give Support a try. 

Looking ahead, we have some leaks detailing a glut of new characters coming down the pike. The Fantastic Four, Blade, and Ultron leaks are credible, since in-game models and portraits have circulated, while the others remain to be seen (I have a laundry list of characters I’d like to see personally, but I’ll mercifully spare you.) Leaks regarding new maps on Krakoa and Arrako are particularly pleasing to X-Men fans like myself, as well as anyone who’s tired of the ones we have at launch. It’s unfortunate that we know so much about what’s to come, but a relief to know that the developers have a roadmap and plenty of updates on the way.  

As a comic book fan and gamer, (a monstrous combination, I know), Marvel Rivals is a dream come true in many ways. Having a polished, non-predatory multiplayer game in the live-service space is enough, but the fact that it’s starring some of my favorite characters in fiction, all lovingly designed and portrayed, is what sends it over the top. Being the kind of game that it is, it will never be free from micro-transactions, but with 60 years of Marvel history to pick from, I’m confident that these cosmetics will be a cut above the competition’s. Rivals is going to have a long, successful reign as one of the best in its class, not just as a multiplayer shooter, but as a superhero game as well.

 

(Updated for accuracy regarding individual cosmetic purchase on 12/9/2024)