(Advanced Idea Mechanics, basically bad guys who use science and robots) is nearly always enjoyable, but it also isn’t afraid to pause cinematic spectacle for more intimate and often funny character moments too. Jumping between different Avengers to strike back at the classic evil Marvel organization A.I.M. Played on its own, the Reassemble campaign is a fun superhero beat-em up that tells a great story, even if the closely tied co-op multiplayer that follows causes its progression to be unsatisfying and a chunk of its missions to feel like filler instead of superheroics.

As you might expect, however, what’s here at launch holds very little appeal (and certainly not much of my attention) once the campaign credits have rolled. Marvel, and The Incredible Hulk – is fundamental to Avengers, and it was at least sturdy enough to get me interested in the post-launch plans Crystal Dynamics has already laid out. The appeal of controlling that team of recognizable heroes – Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man, Ms. There’s certainly a lot to have fun with here, as every hero brings a distinct style to their combat while still being similar enough to make swapping between them from mission to mission relatively seamless. In this way, you could decide to just treat Avengers as a single-player game by playing its roughly 10-hour campaign and ignoring its multiplayer altogether if a game-as-a-service treadmill style of play wasn’t what you were looking for.īut the sins of the latter undoubtedly affect the former, and you can feel it within a few hours of launching into the campaign. Right off the bat, it warns you that the latter option is full of campaign spoilers, and you’ll still need to get almost to the end of the former to unlock all six heroes currently available. The main menu of Avengers actually has one button that launches its very strong “Reassemble” campaign, and another for its painfully repetitive and unrewarding “Avengers Initiative” multiplayer. While its single-player campaign is good on its own merits, that’s only a small portion of the whole package – and the endgame loot grind that’s meant to be the meat of the meal is an overly repetitive (and surprisingly buggy) mess that gave me very little reason to stick around.

It’s a loot-based brawler full of superhero flavor, but the joy of smashing villains in the face with Captain America’s shield can unfortunately only carry it so far. Plenty of games have followed in the action-looter footsteps of Destiny, but few have done so with a universe as exciting as Marvel’s Avengers.

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