Why Isn’t Marvel’s Avengers an Open-World Game?

Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s take on Marvel’s Avengers will be dropping onto consoles and PCs everywhere soon. As recent announcements have shown that the game is proving to be quite robust in the story and gameplay departments.

To expand on this, we spoke to the team at Crystal Dynamics, which includes Scot Amos, Head of Studio; Shaun Escayg, Creative Director; Vince Napoli, Combat Director; and Phil Therien who is the Warzone Director.

How hard was it to differentiate each Avenger, with their different powers and abilities, and translating it into different playstyles in the game?

Vince Napoli: Basically, we looked at each character and asked what we want to see from them and who they are, and not worry about mechanics and gameplay but rather what we want to play and experience from them. We built the entire combat system from that, like with Iron Man being able to fly and shoot systems.

After that, we have to code the AI to react to all this as well. Storywise, we also thought of how AIM would tackle each and every hero, and designed the enemies from there.

Were there balancing issues when it came to each hero’s abilities and how they would affect the gameplay?

Vince Napoli: There will always be balancing issues, but we have a system to customise how abilities affect your teammates and the gear system lets you customise it even further, like turning Iron Man’s Unibeam into the Omegabeam or into a spread-fire shot.

Balancing the extremities of these systems were fun for us, and if there weren’t cool abilities to make you feel powerful, it wouldn’t warrant existing anyway. Balance is a double-edged sword for sure.

How fluid will the skill system be in creating different playstyles and builds?

Vince Napoli: There are 50 levels for each character, split between three aspects, from core abilities to heroic specialisations. This allows for a lot of fine-tuning for your character, and each has its own stylisation to it, like turning Kamala Khan into a support-driven character or Hulk into a very offensive character.

How many Marvel movies does it take to finish the campaign?

Scot Amos: That’s a good way to put it, but we can’t really answer that right now. But between the well-crafted and full campaign and the Warzones that you can replay over and over, there’s a ton of content in the game for players to sink many hours into.

Vince Napoli: It’s probably as long as a few Marvel trilogies, honestly.

Will the loot that players find be randomised?

Vince Napoli: We have a pretty robust loot system; there are rarity types that are driven by the activities you do and difficulty of missions you tackle themselves. Within the items themselves, there is an element of randomness to their perks. So, we have a whole combination of both randomised loot and specific ones in the game.

Why did the team decide not to go for an open world?

Phil Therien: So, it’s a very deliberate decision - we could’ve have gone that way, but we wanted to make a game that had a global presence. Especially once you’ve completed the campaign, and you have assembled the Avengers. You are at the War Table and you see the Earth in front of you, and AIM is still very much a global threat.

We wanted players to go all over the place, so we crafted regions, which are subsets of a bigger open world. We craft them in such a way that we can add on to them in any way we want. Instead of having a single open-world map, we have more flexibility settings-wise and tell our story wherever we want.

We’ll definitely add more regions after the game’s launch, which is something we’re really excited about.

Should players focus on playing just the campaign first or should they jump between the Warzones and whatnot?

Scot Amos: I personally recommend playing through the campaign first, where you’ll be introduced to the characters and learn the story and setting. By playing through that campaign, you get to play all the heroes and their role in the story. After you’re done with the campaign, the Warzone will open up even more, with more missions and go even further with stopping AIM’s machinations.

Shaun Escayg: There’s also certain gear and costumes that you can get from playing through the campaign, but at the end of the day, you can choose to play however you want.

How does the story of this new video game adaptation compare to the comics that inspired it and the ongoing MCU movies?

Shaun Escayg: This is an original Avengers story. We were inspired by the original comics and the movies as well. When we crafted it, we wanted to create it original, make it a Kamala Khan-focused story, and follow her journey in joining and assembling the Avengers.

From there, you can go out and defend the world from a growing threat of villains who would want to to take advantage of the world’s weakened state. This is our version of 80 years of Marvel comic books.

What were the challenges in crafting this world and fleshing it out? How did you guys manage to deal with this in an Avengers title?

Shaun Escayg: It started with seeing the superheroes as a threat and having the Avengers disband in a way. In our story, the solution to the disbandment of the Avengers is AIM, where they offer science and technology as an answer to superheroes. This was our way to tell a different kind of philosophical question to the purpose of superheroes as a whole.

This is the question that divides the Avengers, and where Kamala comes in. Just like we are, she’s a fan of the Avengers, who just happened to receive superpowers. She sees the opposite of this argument, she sees that the empathy of the Avengers and them learning from their mistakes is what makes them the true protectors of the Earth.

The story and the conflict came from these opposing themes, and I’m excited to see players experience it.

Will this game will be part of a larger, Marvel video game universe?

Scot Amos: This is definitely our version of the Avengers, as much as it is inspired by the comics. The universe and story are definitely expanding and after launch, with more regions and stories, that will definitely be epic.

Marvel’s Avengers will be releasing on PC, Stadia PS4 and Xbox One on September 4, with a future release for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.