‘Marvel’s Avengers’ doubles down with the Black Panther expansion, a full road map

Today at the Square Enix show, Crystal Dynamics did much more than just announce that Hawkeye was live in Marvel’s Avengers today. They took the opportunity to try out many doubts that fans and critics have had about the game, revealing a six-month-long roadmap of content, culminating in something that has been reported long ago, a great free expansion set led by Black Panther. in Wakanda, out sometime this fall.

I had the opportunity to speak to Studio Head Scot Amos and Executive Producer Morgan Gray for about 40 minutes ahead of all of this, where they set out their changing philosophy of communication, going back to where they had fallen short and anticipating what is to come.

What has been made very clear from the beginning of the conversation is that, Crystal Dynamics is still totally committed to the Avengers and the promised version of it with a long, interconnected story tied through a game live service with frequent updates.

These updates haven’t happened … often so far. I made sure that, the original plan was to get a whole bunch of more content out faster, but Crystal Dynamics had to give it all up and focus on things. basic with the game at launch. Combine that with COVID and California wildfires, and we have a recipe for a lot of delays.

However, they realize that their communication has been poor, and have not provided a clear enough view of where to look. In their show they even called one of my articles, where I named the game’s custom roadmap “datamining and fans’ dreams. Well, they listened. Avengers now has a literal roadmap.

Today is set to mark a turning point with the release of Hawkeye, Maestro and the Future Imperfect campaign, along with the release of the next-gen re-release for the game that should significantly increase performance, and some of additional features such as the ability to replay the campaign.

Going forward, in the coming months, Avengers will begin to receive more special “events” in a way they have not yet. There is something in store for the release of the film Black Widow in May, a “Red Room” challenge that will mark the arrival of real MCU skins in the game, another huge fan demand. The game will get another Villain Division with Monica’s original campaign villain star, untied from a hero’s release. Later on, there is a new kind of mission type that is largely unstructured, where players can grab around a waste field, working freely at will. Modifications to gear to make it more efficient are coming. Lower level players will find that they get stronger, faster (even if they have made the XP loop slower). They include cool new things like an artifact that could spawn Hank Pym to fire an energy gun at enemies as a one-time call.

And this all culminates with the Black Panther expansion (yes, it’s an extension, yes, it ‘s still free), which was watched during this release, but did not go a ton of detail. sharing information. What they told me is that Black Panther was a completely new character, ie it won’t just mirror mirror brawling Cap movements or anything, and that Wakanda is a completely new zone with new types of fields, puzzles and more. Datamining (or Crystal Dynamics) has said that Klaw will be the villain for that content, and it is possible that King T’Challa will not be impressed by anyone but Kratos himself, Christopher Judge , as Avengers continues to expand its A – list voice cast.

Is it real, unabashed good news around? Mmm I think there are a few resources to explore here.

While Crystal Dynamics said Omega level threats are yet to come, high-level combat and the AIM Labs-like attacks, even with the advent of the roadmap, those don’t have dates yet. I asked them what was going on with this content, because AIM Labs has been mocking it since its release, and here we are. It’s not entirely clear, they just say they want to make sure they “get it right” at the outset and make sure everything is fair and nothing breaks for what it is. ‘see some of the most important content they bring in.

I wonder how fans will find some of the content that has been described as reaching the six – month window until Black Panther appears. The Black Widow event is a revamped HARM room. Monica may be a new kind of boss fight, but she’s not just a high-profile Marvel speaker. And when it comes to AIM Labs, they still mock a headline segment like four Abomination clones, which seems like anyone’s idea of ​​a good time.

But it’s definitely bigger than the game has been so far, with yawning gaps between falling content. And system changes like better gear will help, and Crystal Dynamics says they’re working on something like a paragon system where XP lets you further upgrade your character once you hit max .

But some things were not mentioned at all. I stressed out without Spider-Man, the Sony-exclusive hero who was supposed to be out early this year, according to a long-changed timeline, and it’s unlikely to out it in the first year of release. , though they said yes, it still exists and no other heroes have been seen besides Black Panther, even with rumors like Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Bucky Barnes buried in the files. They also couldn’t tell me if Black Panther would signal the arrival of a new enemy race, something fans have been waiting for to stop fighting AIM, but they wouldn’t say, though. we know that Kree ‘s attack is about to happen at some point.

For the long, long time? I can’t tell them that, they’ve been working on content over the first year here. They want to point out that players can feel comfortable promising to invest in Avengers, and it looks like it’s not going to pull Anthem and just empty it before an extra chunk of content arrives out.

I want all of this to work. I wouldn’t want anything more to still play new Avengers extensions three years from now with a 20+ hero roster. But for that to happen, the next six months are likely to be important, and if Hawkeye, Black Panther and everything else can’t pull together a bigger collection, that won’t be good.

To sum up the old ad looter, “things seem to be moving in the right direction. I’m not sure if I could say a few weeks ago about Avengers, but I think fans who have been waiting for announcements and plans and new content should be satisfied with it. what they heard today. Lingering questions and moving timelines, but for now, things are in a much better place than we’ve been for a while now.

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