Has time run out for Marvel's Avengers?

2020, miserable though it was, was nevertheless an impressive year for gaming. The Last of Us 2 and Ghosts of Tsushima provided an appropriately bold send off for the PS4, Fall Guys taught my wife the horrors of online gamers, Half Life: Alyx proved that VR might not be a fad after all and Microsoft apparently reached ten years into the future to give us Flight Simulator 2000.

But despite those heavy hitters, for sheer pants shitting excitement, two titles stood above all for me. One was the long over due AAA treatment for a certain superhero team and the other was a Keanu Reeves starring Sci-Fi RPG from the team that gave us The Witcher 3. Both releases resulted in near immediate formal apologies from the creative directors. Sucks to be me.

In many ways Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch was the best thing that could have happened to Marvel's Avengers (yes that's what it's called and I'm nothing if not consistent). At the very least Crystal Dynamics can hold their heads up high, safe in the knowledge that their game wasn't literally pulled from the Playstation store. As of the time of writing no one is actively suing Crystal Dynamics over the state of the game. 

For the record I don't hate Marvel's Avengers. It has a solid campaign, top notch production values and fantastic character kits. When it does work, it's everything you would want from an Avengers game, and there is no end of satisfaction to maxing out your favourite Avenger and truly unleashing their power set.

But beyond that the game is still, seven months later, woefully lacking in any meaningful content following that initial campaign. The so called 'endgame' is a never-ending succession of 

robots in corridors or deserted streets. It ultimately exposes the game for what it is, a single player RPG with a looter/grinder game awkwardly shoe horned in far too late in the development, pushed out the door unfinished with the hopes that the Marvel brand would save it. It's a naked attempt to ape the Destiny model and cash cows like Fortnite. The difference is there simply isn't enough here to support that model.

Compounding the frustration was the near silence from the developers following a pretty crummy launch. While not as Youtube friendly as Cyberpunks hilarious/horrifying glitches Marvels Avenger’s launch was full of bugs and crashes, it often struggled to hit 30fps and generally pissed off everyone who had been following the project for four years. Even stranger was the things that did seem to get attention. The game now has three 'Hub' areas that all serve the same, very limited purpose, the costumes are horrendous and hilariously overpriced, and just this week CD announced they would be adjusting the XP levelling to make it take longer to fully level up your character. There is still no roadmap, no substantial indication of what can be expected and no confirmation of the additional heroes we could look forward to. Expansions and content all took a back seat to hot fixes and patches and a patient fan base started to dwindle. 

But that was then, this now. After seven months the game is in a better shape. The framerate is stable, crashes are rare and Captain America's forehead doesn’t disappear during cut scenes. But aside from an, admittedly fun, Kate Bishop update we are still fighting robots in corridors and deserted streets.

Going forward all we have are rumours and hearsay. Dataminers have discovered what appears to be a list of upcoming heroes but only Hawkeye as been officially announced (Spider-man is coming as a Playstation exclusive but that’s a PR disaster for another day).There are rumblings that Black Panther will bring a substantial update but I would still bet my mortgage that we are fighting AIM robots in Wakanda.

What we do have is footage of an upcoming customisable H.A.R.M. room (think the holographic Danger Room from X Men). The footage is to promote Intel's processing power but it hopefully gives an idea of what the long awaited next gen update of Avengers will play like...

It's undoubtedly impressive but it does kill me that CD seems to think the problem is 'Not enough robots'.

Bioware just cancelled the long gestating Anthem 2.0 which is something of a canary in the coal mine for Avengers. The Marvel IP is strong, arguably the strongest pop culture IP in the world right now, but more of the same isn't going to cut it here. If this is it then the game will be canned in 12 months. Yes I want to play as Doctor Strange or Scarlet Witch, but if it their campaign can be completed and 

their kits maxed out in a weekend then I, nor anyone else, will stick around to fight robots in Asgard.

Is Avengers the next Anthem? Is there any chance of a No Man's Sky rebirth? Time will tell. I was optimistic, there is an astonishing amount of potential here, but it's looking increasingly likely that nothing short of a complete overhaul (an Avengers 2.0 if you will) and relaunch will do the job. Until there is some comprehensive vision of what Crystal Dynamics realistically thinks it can deliver then Earth's Mightiest Heroes will have been defeated by good old fashioned corporate meddling. And that breaks my heart.