One of the most persistent questions surrounding Marvel’s Avengers since it was announced has been “How exactly does co-op work?” Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics has said that co-op will be relegated to special missions apart from the main single-player campaign, and that players will be able to freely assemble teams of up to four from the game’s roster of characters. Beyond that, we haven’t shown how co-op will actually work in action.
Thankfully, Crystal Dynamics finally provided a look at co-op during the just-completed Marvel's Avengers War Table livestream, which just wrapped up. And that’s not all! They gave us a taste of a new single-player Thor mission, featuring Hulk and Iron-Man as wingmen, and detailed the game’s character customization. If you’ve got about half an hour, you can check it out for yourself, below.
And if you don't have a ton of time to spare, you can just check out the new story and War Zone trailers, below.
Finally, here's that Thor mission on it's own.
As seen in the new livestream, Marvel's Avengers will be split between single-player Hero Missions and co-op War Zones. Players will be able to fully customize their characters before tackling a War Zone, and some special skins will have to be purchased with real money. Here's a bit more detail on how Hero Missions and War Zones work:
Marvel’s Avengers offers players a truly rich experience, with a combination of Hero Missions and War Zones. Hero Missions are single-player only and are part of the initial Campaign. They are designed to showcase each hero’s unique abilities as you reassemble your growing roster. War Zones can be played solo or with a group of up to four players as any Hero in your roster. Each mission dynamically scales based on the team size and player level.
Players in Marvel’s Avengers will also be able to customize Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in a number of ways. While each Super Hero will play true to their unique power sets, each will have the flexibility to play differently based on the gear you equip them with and the skills you enable, so no two player’s heroes will play in exactly the same way. Each hero has dynamic combo systems, Heroic moves, an intrinsic ability, and signature move sets to unlock and customize – many inspired by classic moves from the 80 years of history in all media, others crafted as originals just for this game.
Players also customize these iconic Super Heroes with classic, fan-favorite, and all-new original outfits inspired by over 80-years of Marvel history, including Iron Man’s suit from the 2014 Original Sin storyline, or Thor’s Donald Blake identity, which is a nod to an alias of Thor’s who first appeared in 1962’s Journey into Mystery issue 83.
Marvel’s Avengers will arrive on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on September 4. It's been announced the game will be a PS5 launch title whenever the console happens to arrive. What do you think? Did the new gameplay impress you? Or is it failing to assemble much excitement?
