Marvel Rivals, the upcoming free-to-play Marvel comic hero shooter from NetEase,is launching on December 6th.
While the crowded genre is headlined by Blizzard Entertainment’sOverwatch 2, Valve’sDeadlock, and Riot’sValorant, NetEase feels like their game does enough to stand out.
In an interview withIGN, lead combat designer Zhiyong highlights two areas that the team hopes resonate with fans: environmental destruction and hero team-ups.
Zhiyong feels that these two features, in particular, will help gamers become immersed in the action and keep coming back toMarvel Rivals.
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Zhiyong explains that with the game built around superhero battles, environmental destruction can showcase just how powerful the game’s heroes will be. The team also aims to help it create dynamic changes on each map. For example, being able to knock down buildings where snipers can usually camp and pick off enemies changes the flow of battle.
“This helps ensure no two battles are alike, even on the same map,” Zhiyong tells IGN.
That doesn’t mean every part of a map is destructible. Zhiyong says that “certain static features, such as obstacles, key firing line-blocking structures, and crucial points of cover, are the glue that holds the map together. If these are completely removed, the map’s design will lose its meaning. All the destruction effects are designed on this basis. But despite this, we’ve still managed to include a high proportion of destructible elements in each map.”
What are Team-Ups in Marvel Rivals? NetEase Explains The Feature and Its Benefits
It’s natural for Marvel’s greatest superheroes to work together on the field of battle. It’s a common storyline in comics and movies: Earth’s mightiest heroes join forces to defeat their greatest enemies.
InMarvel Rivals, team-ups occur when two or more characters combine their abilities. For example, you may combine Venom’s symbiote spikes with Spider-Man’s abilities, improving the latter’s potency.
Zhiyong explains that combinations, such as Groot and Rocket Racoon, are not just lifted from the comics or the MCU but are also original to the game, though they still make thematic sense.
The team has also ensured that team-up combinations can still occur, even if certain characters aren’t in a match.
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The team at NetEase is being careful to make sure that the team-up system makes sense. Still, they want to ensure that it’s accessible for players rather than being overly complex. “Frankly speaking,” Zhiyong says, “we don’t want just any hero, or any two heroes, to be able to activate team-up abilities, as this would make the game overly complicated. After all, this is not a card game—players do not have an overview of the entire match available at all times.”
“Our players are more like six individuals joining forces to defeat their six opponents. They need to communicate and cooperate with each other. Therefore, we should not make the hero team-up design too complex. In principle, we should try to keep it to the current two to three heroes in a group, with a dozen or so team-ups available.”
