One month in and my relationship with Avengers isn't in the best of places.
Relationship is the perfect analogy for time spent with this game.
It's exactly like that relationship that we've all had at one time or another in our lives, that crazy wild passionate honeymoon period followed by sudden realization a few weeks later, that you put a lot of time and effort into something that is ultimately going nowhere.
Going nowhere might be a little harsh, if nothing else there has been a series of hefty patches making constant improvements to the game.
Going forward there is going to be more content more characters but is it too little too late?
People's thoughts and opinions on this game are going to very greatly, mostly dependent on what they expect to get from the game and how much time they have to do it.
What follows are my personal opinions almost a month into launch and around 80-90 hours spent in game.
It's not you, it's me....
So off the bat, I do like this game.
Still an amazing looking game, great fun to play, with some of the most satisfying combat in any game of this genre.
My main complaint is that I just don't have the time. Time is one thing that this game will leech from you. But not a good way as in "I lost myself in the game and hours flew by."
Of the time I've spent playing this game, after the completion of the campaign section, probably around 25 to 30% of that time has been spent on loading screens, in queues, or having to restart because of some kind of matchmaking glitch.
From starting the game to actually entering a multiplayer mission on "quick" play, It takes upwards of 5 minutes. (Conservative estimate).
You also have to factor in that, to remain competitive and keep up to date with hero cards etc. You need to complete dailies....
You can collect the dailies from two faction representatives, however these are located in different locations, which again requires you a lengthy loading process, then you have to run over to them and collect all of the quests individually.
If you did the previous day's quests and increased your faction reputation, you may have to go to the faction vendor to cash in and collect your valuable upgrade materials.
Of course the faction vendor is not located conveniently next to the faction representative, oh no, another lengthy jog to the other end of the helicarrier. (In which you are prohibited from using any of your movement enhancement skills and passives).
So in reality to do all of this and one quick mission, you are looking at around 30 to 40 minutes. this is an optimistic estimate not factoring in any problems with matchmaking.
Now for some people with all the time in the world this will not be a terrible issue. But for those of us with limited time for gaming, It's a bit of a deal-breaker.
We just don't want the same things....
So let's say you have the time and you finally get into your mission. You may be lucky and have a wonderful group who all want to achieve the same goal. But nine times out of 10 you're going to be with a group of people who are all going to rush off in different directions to try and achieve different things.
Most people around the power cap are going to want to just run missions fast and efficiently, to get the mission rewards and upgrade materials. Probably grabbing the DNA caches quickly along the way.
They will either already have the equipment that they want (or want to upgrade to 140), or be content that gear will just drop organically on strike completions. So for them, the quicker they can complete missions and strikes, the more missions and strikes they can complete and the happier they are.
For other players, possibly new level 50s looking for gear upgrades, they are going to want to rush off and do every high value target, mystery location and search the map for caches.
It just ends up in a push me, pull me tug of war of frustration. The Higher level player ends up doing all the strike content, while the lower level player rushes around looking for things. This players in turn becomes frustrated when the higher level player activates an elevator and they are forced into the next area, without their precious shiny.
This is all for the most part, due to a lack of endgame content. There is basically nothing different for players who are at power cap to do, so everyone is forced together and left to try and compromise.
In fact the only real endgame content at the moment is the mega hive.
Which bafflingly is single player only, in the multiplayer "Avengers initiative" section of the game.
I think we should see others....
I know it's only a few weeks since it's launch and I'm sure that will undoubtedly be more content added as we continue.
I also know that looter shooters such as this are inherently repetitive.
But when you analyze it, there is so little content. Many of the strikes are just repurposed from previous strikes.
Hives are just several strikes layered together.
Villain sectors are one of only two humanoid villains, or a couple of warbots.
I think Marvel's Avengers underestimated the average players appetite for content and diversity.
Of course there will be some people who will want to get all six heroes to maximum level before moving on, these people will most probably be very satisfied with the game in its current state. But the majority of players will already know their favorite; level it up and want to use that to experience end game, before trying other characters.
I only have an hour or so in the morning, before my family get up and I have to prepare for work. So I really want to maximize this this "quality time".
This morning, I had the suddenly realization that I didn't want to sit there for half an hour on the off chance I would get a decent strike group. I could use my time much more productively playing other games.
But... I can change... Don't leave me...
Square Enix have been extremely communicative with the Avengers community. They have a road map and promises of changes and more exciting content, on which I am sure they will deliver.
However, I am unsure whether promises are enough to hold on to a particular (large) section of the player base. A player base that is already bored and having their heads turned by other newer, more exciting, complete games. A situation hauntingly familiar of another failed relationship with "Anthem".
For me, for now at least, the relationship is over.
Maybe, one drunken evening we'll meet up again for old times sake. Who knows? Maybe it will have changed enough to rekindle something.
But for now, I've started to see Hades and there's talk of getting a dog.
Comments