Marvel Rivals Is More Than An Overwatch Clone

"Marvel Rivals" fully releases on December 6, 2024, and gamers are cautiously optimistic about how it's going to perform. "Rivals" looks an awful lot like "Overwatch," but people who played the game's beta have realized that it's much more than a simple reskin, and that it could have the power to stand on its own two feet.

To be fair, it's a weird time to be releasing a hero shooter. "Overwatch 2" brought good and bad changes to the original's formula, but it definitely failed to live up to pre-release hype. Then there's Sony's recent attempt at a hero shooter, "Concord," which bombed so hard that it got pulled off the market after just two weeks. That context might make it seem like "Rivals" is on shaky ground, but it might actually work to the game's benefit. Developer NetEase clearly took some design cues from the first "Overwatch," and more than a few gamers have made numerous comparisons to Blizzard's mega-hit. That said, NetEase has also been able to see "Overwatch" change over the years, and it seems like the devs have set up "Marvel Rivals" to harken back to the early glory days of "Overwatch." There are some new twists thrown into the mix, and when those features combine with the absolutely gorgeous graphics on display in "Marvel Rivals," there could be enough here for the game to buck the current downward trend with hero shooters.

When comparing "Overwatch" and "Marvel Rivals," think of the latter as less like a cover song and more like a remix. Yes, there are some noticeable similarities, even if you haven't put a ton of time into "Overwatch," but there have definitely been some moves to shake up the formula. The most immediate difference players will notice between "Marvel Rivals" and "Overwatch" is the shift in perspective. "Rivals" is a third-person shooter, and that's more than an aesthetic choice on the part of NetEase. The devs have set up "Rivals" to be more about spacing, teamwork, and ability knowledge than crosshair accuracy and lining up headshots — a direction some feel "Overwatch 2" has leaned toward too heavily. Beyond that, as players start digging into the newer game's 26-character roster, they'll find that they can't just rely on their "Overwatch" reflexes to get by. Six-person teams can be made up of any combination of characters, but players can get access to special team-up abilities by pairing certain characters together.

Then there are the maps themselves. "Rivals" has put a focus on verticality, which makes sense considering how many Marvel characters can levitate or fly. You'll need to keep your head on a swivel and remember to look up every once in a while in order to succeed. The maps are also partially destructible, so blasting through certain walls and platforms adds another layer of strategy. Again, it really seems like an emphasis on movement and team coordination is what NetEase hopes will differentiate "Rivals" from its competitors at a gameplay level.

Very few would have been satisfied if "Rivals" was a straight-up "Overwatch" clone, but some who played the closed beta were really happy to find that "Rivals" feels like a throwback to hero shooters from half a decade ago. Kotaku noted, "For some, 'Marvel Rivals' probably embodies the best parts of 'Overwatch,' a lot of which have been patched out and tweaked in the game's eight-year history." Echoing that sentiment, MMORPG.com reported, "['Rivals' is] an incredibly fun shooter that reminds me of the best times I've had in the genre."

On the other hand, there are aspects of "Rivals" that really aren't clicking for some people. PC Gamer found the characters and abilities in "Rivals" to be completely underwhelming, saying, "Frankly, aping the biggest hero shooter around is probably a really good idea, but NetEase has failed to actually capture what makes 'Overwatch' work." Others have noted that the closed beta had some serious balance issues, which admittedly is par for the course with a multiplayer game that hasn't been released yet (not to mention, one that's based on a whole universe of super-powerful characters with wildly different abilities). The graphics, while impressive, also have a tendency to overwhelm or even stutter when a half-dozen or more superbeings are blasting lasers and magic at each other in a small area.

Still, "Marvel Rivals" looks like it's shaping up to be something like an "Overwatch Plus." It doesn't offer Marvel fans a truly unique gameplay experience — we had "Marvel's Midnight Suns" for that — but it does offer hero shooter fans a solid Marvel-themed power fantasy. Whether or not that will be enough to keep the game afloat is something we'll all find out together.