The Marvel Avengers (opens in new tab) reveal has been a little, shall we say, messy. Following its appearance at the Square Enix E3 2019 (opens in new tab)press conference it still wasn’t exactly clear what sort of game it actually was. Now we know: the game has a core single player storyline that you’ll be playing alone, jumping between different Avengers automatically as the story and action necessitates it.
Crystal Dynamics, best known for its work on the Tomb Raider franchise, has crafted a traditional single-player experience to lead Marvel’s Avengers. Speaking to IGN, Crystal Dynamics confirmed that these missions have been scripted and structured in the same way that say Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Uncharted 4 might be.
The game will indeed feature four-player co-op, though – as you push through the campaign you will unlock extra side missions, and it’s here where the co-operative elements of the game will be introduced. In these missions you’ll be able to choose which Avenger you want to play as before then joining up with friends to tackle the objective. It has also been confirmed that if you aren’t interested in multiplayer, you can indeed play through the entire campaign – and these optional side missions – offline, should you want to.
Given Marvel’s Avengers release date is set for May 15, 2020, there’s still plenty of time for Crystal Dynamics to showcase its upcoming title and get in front of some of the biggest questions surrounding the game. Of course, given that the studio only showed off the single-player behind closed doors at E3 2019, we still have little concrete info on how the multiplayer/co-operative elements will actually function. Here’s hoping we get some clarification sooner rather than later.