All 19 Confirmed Characters In 'Marvel Rivals,' Its Overwatch ...

Marvel Rivals

NetEase

What if Overwatch was Marvel heroes and villains? That seems to be the extremely literal concept behind Net Ease’s new Marvel Rivals, its third-person, very much Overwatch-like hero shooter that just debuted its first trailer.

Its Closed Alpha begins in May, and we have an official description of it that has also just been published:

“NetEase Games and Marvel Games are excited to announce their latest collaboration: Marvel Rivals, a cooperative, Super Hero team-based PVP shooter! Players can assemble an ever-evolving all-star squad of Super Heroes and Super Villains, while battling with unique super powers across a dynamic lineup of destructible maps from across the Marvel Multiverse. Marvel Rivals is in development for PC by a NetEase team composed of global talent, who previously worked on hit franchises such as Call of Duty and Battlefield.”

The trailer also showed off 19 heroes and villains that the game will supposedly launch with, which mirrors the exact list of leaked ones that was being passed around yesterday. While the art style may swing a bit toward Valorant, everything else looks like pure Overwatch. Here’s the list:

Rocket Racoon Star Lord Black Panther Iron Man Doctor Strange Scarlet Witch Namor Magneto Magik Storm Peni Parker Luna Snow Loki Bruce Banner/Hulk Spider-Man Groot Mantis Punisher Magneto Galactus(?)

A female Galactus was shown, but I’m not clear if that was some kind of boss, or a future addition. Doctor Doom is mentioned as the main villain of the initial storyline.

As you can see, there is a blend of Avengers, X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy with a few surprise additions like Luna Snow, a recent Marvel creation from Marvel Future Fight, and Peni Parker from the Spider-Verse. Also we have “lesser” heroes like Mantis, while we are missing huge heavy hitters like Captain America and Wolverine. No doubt there are plenty of future seasons and battle passes and whatever in order to get them later on.

Marvel Rivals

NetEase

There are a few things that stand out from Overwatch, namely the promise of environmental destruction that can significantly reshape maps. There is also a team-up functionality where linked characters can combine their powers for unique movies like Rocket and Groot or Iron Man and Hulk. And of course the biggest difference here is that this is a third person game, as superhero games from Arkham to Spider-Man to Suicide Squad to Marvel’s Avengers all tend to be, which does make sense given the genre we’re talking about here. And you gotta be able to see those purchased skins all the time!

There’s a lot to process in the trailer. We see Black Panther summoning Bast. Magik turning into her demon form. A bunch of cool moves. 12 characters out of the 19 will be available to play at Closed Alpha launch, and there’s no timeline for full release yet.

It’s very easy to be skeptical of a NetEase-made Overwatch clone, but we’ll see how it goes in a few months here.

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