Marvel Rivals Season 1 is about to begin, adding the Fantastic Four to the free-to-play hero shooter’s roster so that they can beat up Dracula, who has swamped the Earth in eternal night. It launches January 10th at 1 am PT / 4 am ET / 9 am GMT, and developers NetEase are paving the way in the traditional manner by rebalancing the character line-up so as to simultaneously win the adoration of certain player groups, while plunging others into apoplectic fury.
Do you like running rampage as Hela, goddess of death? Was that you who shot me full of crows on Klyntar last night? Well, how does 25 points off your base health suit you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Screw you too.
Hela is one of many who’ve succumbed to the nerf. NetEase’s Thanos-style fingersnap has also made the Incredible Hulk less incredible: according to the full patch notes, it drops the Indestructible Guard gamma shield value for Hero Hulk from 250 to 200. Somewhat counter-intuitively, HawkEye has undergone a rework to make him less effective with a bow – “decreasing the medium-long range damage capability, reducing the threatening combat radius, and slightly improving the close combat resistance for the avenging archer”.
Black Panther’s survivability has also been cut: the patch reduces “the additional health provided to self after refreshing Vibranium Marks with Spirit Rend from 40 to 30, and the upper limit of additional health provided from 120 to 75.”
For every loser there is at least one winner, naturally. Black Widow “was very much in need of optimization when evaluating the release experience of her abilities as well as a slightly increase to the threat of her ultimate ability.” Her Edge Dancer, Fleet Foot and Electro-Plasma Explosion abilities have all been juiced up.
In other news, Sea king Namor is better at throwing eggs, and Squirrel Girl’s Squirrel Tsunami has undergone a sinister evolution. The tsunami’s component squirrels will now “rush towards the nearest enemy after bouncing instead of bouncing randomly”, though the tsunami’s overall health has been halved. No longer shall the laws of chance save you from being set upon by berserking nutcrackers. These are dreadful times indeed.
You can read the full patch notes here. Again, all this is a warm-up for Season 1, which introduces noble stretchyman Mr Fantastic, see-through lady Invisible Woman, prancing fireboy Human Torch, and grouchy rockdude The Thing. They’ll arrive as part of a season storyline in which Dr Doom and Dracula have conspired to switch off the sun, Mr Burns presumably being unavailable for recruitment at the time. Leaks further suggest that robonemesis Ultron is on the way to the line-up too.
Here’s a press release rundown:
Darkness engulfs New York as the Timestream Entanglement leaves Doctor Strange trapped in the Entangled Astral Plane, scattering the Darkhold pages. Dracula and Doctor Doom disrupt the moon’s orbit, plunging the city into eternal night and unleashing an army of vampiric creatures. With the world on the brink, the Fantastic Four join forces with iconic Marvel heroes, standing together in the epic battle to break the mystical darkness with science. Ignite the battle against Dracula with the Fantastic Four in Marvel Rivals!
Marvel Rivals continues to steam up Steam, ranking at 6th most played at the time of this article’s publication. Our Ed Thorn was ambivalent in his season 0 launch review, summarising it as “like Overwatch, if Overwatch was overcomplex and frequented Comic Con”. He found much to like about the abilities and presentation, but argued that the spread of somewhat interchangeable hero designs transformed matches into “slightly formless blenders”. Are you still playing?