Marvel Rivals is already starting the new year with a bang, introducing its first season of content for players to enjoy. Featuring the entire cast of The Fantastic Four being added to Marvel Rivals' already impressive roster of heroes, Season 1 will also introduce a new line of battle cosmetics with a darker theme befitting its vampire-inspired story. While these significant content additions offer plenty of reasons to be excited for the release of Marvel Rivals season 1, some much-needed changes are coming alongside it.
So far, only Mister Fantastic and The Invisible Woman's abilities have been shown, but The Fantastic Four are shaping up to be some of the most exciting characters to play yet. While the character abilities of The Thing and The Human Torch are a mystery, they're practically guaranteed to be a Vanguard and a Duelist, respectively, adding a new hero to enjoy for each of Marvel Rivals' archetypes. In this season and future updates, Marvel Rivals has the chance to avoid some common problems with competitive shooters.
Marvel Rivals Season 1 Receives Some Much-Needed Balance Changes
A Great Start To Keeping Marvel Rivals Fun For Everyone
While the changes were rumored for some time, season 0 damage bonuses while adding much-appreciated buffs to less popular ones like Captain America or Cloak and Dagger.
Alongside these general balance changes came some tweaks to character ultimates, preventing PC players from abusing Luna Snow's ultimate while adjusting Jeff's ultimate hitbox to be more visually accurate.
Prepare To Take On Dracula With The Fantastic Four, As Marvel Rivals Season 1 Brings An Odd Mashup
Marvel Rivals is bringing an interesting mashup alongside the first season's launch, with the Fantastic Four making an appearance as new heroes.
Given that Hawkeye and Hela were both massive pains for competitive players due to their overwhelming damage potential and difficulty to counter, it's no surprise they're some of the first to receive a much-needed nerf. While fans of the two heroes may be disappointed over the news, it's a necessary sacrifice to stop them from being permanently banned in most ranked matches, on top of reducing the number of players being one shot across the map.
A Chance To Avoid A Common Problem With Overly Competetive Games
Balancing Game Identity And Demands From Fans
So far, Marvel Rivals' developers have done well at sticking to their initial image of the game, focussing on game-breaking bug fixes instead of balance issues. However, this is liable to change as Marvel Rivals starts to stabilize. While many of these changes have targeted problems plaguing the majority of the community as a whole, it could be the start of a dangerous trend plaguing the industry.
All Marvel Rivals Season Zero Bonuses & Their Effects
To be great at playing Marvel Rivals, it's important to know what the season bonuses and their effects are for Zero and future seasons.
Competitive shooters like Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege, to name a few, are often dominated by the need to appease streamers and every whim of competitive players. While a competitive scene is a healthy way to keep a game like Marvel Rivals relevant in the future, this preference has bled over and negatively affected the casual side of games that can completely remove fun mechanics or character abilities. It's not a far stretch to imagine tactics like combining the Scarlet Witch's ultimate with a Dr. Strange portal or Spider-Man's pulling ability being nerfed or entirely removed after making an appearance in a major tournament.
Marvel Rivals is already off to a great start with its first season.
Despite concern over these issues, there's no reason to believe that Marvel Rivals will suffer the same fate as its competitors. Their current stance on a mandatory role queue is a surprisingly good sign despite some players' contempt. Regardless of whether the highly requested feature will eventually be added, Marvel Rivals is already off to a great start with Season 1, introducing twice the number of characters Overwatch has had for over a year in just a few months.
Editors Note: The original version of this article incorrectly referred to the Human Torch as the Flaming Torch and stated that it wasn't currently known whether four heroes would continue to be added each season, which developer NetEase has established will not be standard.
Source: Marvel Rivals/YouTube
Marvel Rivals
-
- Top Critic Avg: 78/100 Critics Rec: 84%
- Released
- December 6, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Violence
- Developer(s)
- NetEase Games
- Publisher(s)
- NetEase Games
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Limited - console crossplay, no PC crossplay
- Cross Save
- No
- Franchise
- Marvel
- Number of Players
- 1-6
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- Platform(s)
- PC
- How Long To Beat
- 7.5 hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 20 GB
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Your comment has not been saved