We’ve known for a while that more Marvel heroes would be added to Marvel’s Avengers some time after the game launches, and after the latest War Table event, we learned that the first of those would be Hawkeye. There’s no telling who will be released beyond that, but one question that came to players’ minds with news of post-launch content already planned was how the new characters would be balanced with the old when they’re added. Philippe Therien, the director of the War Zones portion of Marvel’s Avengers, addressed the topic in a recent Reddit AMA to give some insights into how the team will approach future content.
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A user in the Reddit AMA asked about Marvel’s Avengers’ post-launch characters and how Crystal Dynamics would ensure the current roster we know of wouldn’t fall out of favor when new characters are added. Therien responded by saying the team’s goal is to make sure every hero offers something new, but not so much that they significantly alter the balance of the game.
“Our goal is to create heroes that bring something new to the table but don’t dramatically alter the power curve in a way where the older heroes’ become outdated,” Therien said. “As far as storytelling goes, we are going to focus stories around the new heroes meeting up with the Avengers so our strategy is to treat past heroes’ as the Avengers team rather than trying to focus too much on narrow silos of stories. HOWEVER and that’s a big however, it doesn’t mean we won’t have interactions between new heroes and existing Avengers, that’s something we are super passionate about!”
The question’s a fair one that many character-driven games with post-launch content have to address. New character have to be compelling enough to play, but the power creep has to be contained so that they’re not instantly more useful than the existing roster.
We’ve seen some of how Crystal Dynamics will approach post-launch characters through Hawkeye’s reveal. Different from the other heroes, Hawkeye will have his own separate storyline. You’ll be able to play through it by yourself or with others, but how that’ll work hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Marvel’s Avengers is scheduled to release on September 4th, and you can play through the game’s beta starting next week and throughout the next few weekends depending on what platform you’re playing on and if you’ve pre-ordered the game.
