On Wednesday we gave you a look at Marvels latest mobile title, Avengers Initiative. The game released yesterday, and after putting a few hours into it and clearing the first campaign, I’ve got a pretty strong opinion on the title.
Note: Avengers Initiative is available for iOS as well as Android devices. The review is based on the iOS versions of the game, though the Android edition should offer a similar experience.
I was hooked on Avengers Initiative from the start. After a short loading screen, Nick Fury brings you up to speed with a very flashy and very sharp looking cutscene. The story is simple: a lot of baddies have escaped from the Vault, and it’s up to you to find them, fight them, and send them back where they belong.
We mentioned on Wednesday that the game takes an episodic approach (as explained in the story, simply too many villains have escaped for the team to stick together, each episode will have you playing a different hero). You buy the game for $6.99, you’ll get to play the first chapter featuring the Hulk, and subsequent episodes will be delivered free of charge. Telltale Games typically takes the same approach, and it works wonders for them (insert obligatory The Walking Dead praise here), Marvel has to be hoping for that same success.
As you can see from our screenshots, the game looks great (especially on Apple’s retina devices). Hulk is extremely detailed, complete with a lot of polygons and some great textures. He even shows off some strong facial animations throughout the episode. This carries to other characters as well – each one looks fantastic. Sometimes it’s really hard to believe that visuals like this are being pushed from your cell phone. It sounds almost as good as it looks too, Avengers Initiative features some very strong voice acting and sound effects.
The game may look fresh, but gameplay wise, it feels more like a skin on a two year old title. Infinity Blade was released to much fanfare in 2010. The game was designed from the ground up for touchscreen devices: no virtual joysticks or buttons, just taps and swipes to control your onscreen hero. Combat has you doing the same, tapping and swiping to dodge and block your opponents advances, while you wait for an opening to strike.
Now isn’t all bad: Infinity Blade and its sequel are fantastic, addicting titles. The developer could have done much worse when choosing a game to take inspiration from. Sadly however, some of Infinity Blade’s strongest and most addicting features are strangely absent from Avengers Initiative.
Your Infinity Blade hero is infinitely customizable. Every piece of armor, every weapon, and there is even jewelry to give you magic abilities and stat bonuses. You find items in chests, by defeating creatures, and with credit you’ve saved from battling multitudes of enemies. It makes the game exponentially more replayable as you strive to master all of the possible equipment. Avengers Initiative sees very little of this: Hulk has a few costumes you can purchase which give you stat bonuses, but the quantity and level of customizability is nothing compared to that of Infinity Blade. I’ve finished the Avengers Initiative campaign, and I honestly can’t see myself returning until another chapter is released.
Another huge oversight by developer Wideload Games is iCloud support. With games like Infinity Blade and Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, I can jump into the game on whatever device I’m currently holding and not have to worry about it: if I play Infinity Blade on my phone while on the bus, I can open it on my iPad later and be in the exact same spot. By not including this, I’d have to run separate campaigns on each device, essentially meaning I’m going to end up playing Avengers Initiative on only one of them
Avengers Initiative is a lot of fun, and the title has some great presentation (though loading screens are sometimes a bit too frequent). The gameplay that Epic Games introduced with Infinity Blade works perfectly here, I simply wish that Wideload could have introduced some of their own innovations to the formula. Hopefully with the episodic nature of the title, they will build on what the game has to offer instead of simply throwing a new character into the same situations.
As mentioned above, the title is priced well at $6.99 (though it is plagued with a ton of in-app purchases). It’s a good buy at this level, had it been priced higher however, I wouldn’t be so sure.
Avengers Initiative scores a respectable 3/5