Video games are a big part of today’s society, impacting home, school and work life. This being said, it is important to find the game(s) that work for you. 

As someone with over 450 hours and a top 500 peak, I can confidently say that Marvel Rivals is a game that both the casual and competitive player base can enjoy. 

Throughout my time on the game, I have experienced a lot of ups and downs. Whether it be my own skill, my rank or even just one game, it is never the same experience. This creates a dynamic experience where gameplay constantly evolves, ensuring every session feels fresh and engaging.

Boasting a rich lineup of fascinating characters, the game encourages players to experiment with unique team combinations to outplay their opponents. Each character provides a unique ability set to affect how you play, but every one still requires skill in their own way. 

This brings up another thing I like about the game, as it relies on skill rather than meta. In games like Call of Duty or Rainbow Six Siege (other “shooter” objective-based games), there are characters or weapons often considered “meta” (really good), and this can affect who you choose to play, or how, because it helps your chances of winning. In Rivals, however, this is not the case. 

While some characters are considered stronger than others, it does not make them any more viable depending on how skilled you are. This is something that has been and will continue to be very hard for game developers to balance, and Netease (developers of Marvel Rivals) has done a great job of it.

A brief rundown of the three roles within Rivals; Vanguard, the classic tank role, with characters such as Captain America, Doctor Strange and Venom. Expect to have high numbers in the damage blocked category and possibly high damage with game-changing ultimates.

 The Duelist class, or the “DPS” class as many like to refer to it as.  your assassins, high damage, fun to play characters like Spider-Man, Starlord, Iron Man and more. 

The final and debatably most important class is the strategist class. This role not only provides the team with crucial healing, but also stuns (causes a temporary freezing effect), ultimates that make you almost immortal, and high DPS (damage per second).

 While each role has its own specific purpose, you cannot have one without the other. The most common team composition consists of two tanks, two healers and two DPS, which gives a perfect balance.

Another feature that the game has done a good job of is incorporating some lesser-known characters into the stream and not just leaning on the main characters in the Marvel Universe. While this is not to say that some of the fan favorites are not included, with heavy hitters like Captain America and the Avengers, Wolverine and the X-Men , the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy and even some infamous villains like Magneto and Ultron make appearances. Alas, there are still some additions that caught me by surprise and that I did not know like Squirrel Girl, Angela, Jeff the Land Shark, etc. 

With how often new characters are added (eight per year), this opens doors to more niche characters to get the spotlight and give way to an even more variable play style.

It cannot be expected that Rivals is perfect, and there’s always parts that could be done better. A big flaw is the ranked system. While not all people like to play ranked, a large majority of the player base is competitive and many (myself included) believe that the system by which you rank up and down is heavily flawed and needs to be reworked. I do not find many problems with this game other than this, as it provides an issue when attempting to be competitive. 

If a player were to lose a game where they did very well because of a teammate that performed very poorly, the player who did well could still lose more elo (ranked points). That being said, while it is a pretty big problem, it is also one of, if not the only problem. This suggests that the game is trending towards the right direction.

 It is important to note that allegedly there will be an overhaul on the ranked system in the near future, hopefully in the new season 5, which came out Nov. 14th.

 Overall, Marvel Rivals continues to grow with each update. Its focus on balanced gameplay and creative characters makes it stand out among other team shooters. Even with a few issues, it remains a game that both casual and competitive players can enjoy. As the new season approaches, many players, including myself, are excited to see how the game will improve and what it will become in the future.