Announced in May 2024, Marvel Rivals appeared to be a take on Blizzard Entertainment’s hero shooter Overwatch with a healthy mix of various Marvel characters. Following that similar blueprint, NetEase Games has worked alongside Marvel to bring these iconic comic characters to the hero shooter, with the roster already including popular characters like Spider-Man, Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and various members of The Guardians of the Galaxy.
MMORPG had the opportunity to sit down with Head of Production Paul Ella, Executive Producer Daniel Koo, and Creative Director Thaddeus Sasser to talk about NetEase Games working relationship with Marvel, game balance, and esports.
Despite what some may believe, Marvel did not have the amount of input one would expect when it came to how NetEase Games approached its characters. “We have a very symbiotic relationship with Marvel,” Said Paul Ella, Head of Production for Marvel Rivals. “We’re symbiotic at the moment with the game that we’re making, and Marvel and NetEase Games work with each other on a daily basis.”
He went on to mention that Marvel has worked hand-in-hand with NetEase Games to help them consider what characters from their roster would work best in Marvel Rivals with consideration to the maps, mechanics, and narrative.
“They have 85 years of history, and over nine thousand characters to choose from.. We look for characters that we feel will work well together. Not only within the game itself, but the narrative we’re trying to tell as well.” Ella elaborated, going further to discuss the team attacks that helps Marvel Rival differentiate itself from other hero shooters such as Overwatch. The team takes great consideration in working alongside Marvel to decide and create these synergies, and how to create these with a larger team in mind. “It’s all about teamwork. You know, The Guardians of the Galaxy, the Avengers, The Fantastic Four. There are team ups where using different strategies, different skill sets, they become bigger than the individual.”
I was able to experience that firsthand. During my first match of Marvel Rivals, I was thrown into the game as Rocket Racoon, a foulmouthed hyper-intelligent raccoon (as his name would imply) from The Guardians of the Galaxy. What I lacked in size, I made up for in the ability to climb an allied Groot, a large living tree from The Guardians of the Galaxy. We were able to perform one of these synergized team attacks that had me firing with reckless abandon on the enemy team, my rockets breaking through the shield of an opposing Doctor Strange. I managed to get a few kills like this, but it wasn’t something that allowed us to wholly decimate the enemy team.
I could tell that this specific synergy was based on a scene from Marvel’s live-action adaption of The Guardians of the Galaxy. But that could be said for a lot of characters. My personal favorite, Doctor Strange, had a kit that harkened back to his comic runs but also had a healthy sampling from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in how his shield and portal skill functioned and looked. Danny Koo, Executive Producer at Marvel Games, spoke to how the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and various comic runs inspired the kits for each character present in NetEase Games’ hero shooter.
“Whenever we create a character, we want to properly represent that character. So what are the three most iconic things about Doctor Strange? Well one of those things is magic. There’s this notion that magic has some kind of equivalent exchange, like if you use it, there’s a negative side of things and we wanted to show that through Doctor Strange’s gameplay. With that, we came up with new, fresh gameplay. And of course we picked things inspired by the comics and the movies that fans love about Doctor Strange.”
And this is something that was evident in my time with Marvel Rivals. I rotated between Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Magneto. Each of their skills were pulled from a comic run or manifested in the form of something fans of respective animated series or films would recognize.
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Scarlet Witch’s magic was a vibrant red and her hand movements akin to what you would expect to see from the films, whereas her design was clearly inspired by various comic runs. Magneto and Strange were a bit more overdesigned; their models were bulkier and embellished, but they still retained elements that remained consistent through comic runs and films. But what I recognized immediately was hearing familiar voice actors return to reprise their roles as certain Marvel characters.
“We like to cast voice actors that are familiar with Marvel properties,” Koo stated. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t pull in fresh talent. Our experience in recording with these talents was really fantastic, and because production has their ducks in a row we know exactly what we want to record.”
Upon answering that question, Ella jumped in to mention that the production pipeline for Marvel Rivals was, at this point, a well-oiled machine. Game Director Thaddeus Sasser noted that the team has benefited from being flexible when it comes to working on its roster of heroes. “One of the things we believe in is following the fun by failing fast. So finding things that just don’t work is beneficial to us. We learn from that. We say “OK, that didn’t work, why? Right. OK, let’s not do that, let’s do something else.” and that allows us to iterate quickly.” There was also mention of a roadmap, which helped direct the team in terms of production.
In terms of game balance, Sasser stated that “perfect balance,” isn’t really the end goal for Marvel Rivals. “What we really want to make is a fun and engaging game that the player will enjoy that you want to come back to. Not because it’s perfectly, mathematically balanced, but because you had fun while playing it.” He said in response to concerns about specific metas potentially overtaking the competitive scene. “The changes we make, all the tuning we do, will be in service of that. If one stagnant thing emerges, that’s not fun. So of course we’ll change that. Our goal is to make the game fun.”
Like most Hero Shooters, it seems like a natural choice for NetEase Games and Marvel to dip their toes into esports. And while Marvel Rivals does have a baked in PvP mode, Koo stated that Marvel and NetEase Games wants to make sure the game is the “best in class” before deciding to commit to something as ambitious as a fully fledged esports scene. “Hopefully, with enough data and interest, we can make something, because esports requires sponsors.”
Regardless of where Marvel Rivals ends up on release, it seems to have a solid foundation at the very least and potentially something for Overwatch players to dabble in between updates. Marvel Rivals is set to release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.
