Best of Xbox Game Pass – Marvel’s The Avengers

The Avengers heading to Xbox Game Pass was probably, to steal a phrase from Thanos, inevitable. It sold okay but struggled to make its development budget back, and its reception was rather lukewarm. Hell, my own review was hardly a glowing recommendation. But now that it’s on Game Pass? Well, Marvel’s The Avengers becomes a more enticing prospect. It may have found its true home. Time to suit up.

Fairly likeable Avengers fan-girl Kamala Khan stars in the fairly solid campaign mode where you get to barrel around as each of the Avengers in turn, getting to grips with the button-mashing combat and how each of the heroes handles. It’s not a game that scores highly in the variety category, but the core combat is actually a lot of fun, and there’s some hidden depth once you start unlocking some of the later abilities. I’m personally a fan of playing as Captain America because you can get some nice shield bouncing combos in, but the Hulk is also a blast.

It’s all leading to the Live-service game that appears after the campaign where you bounce from mission to mission, building up your Avengers with new gear and costumes. You can tackle it solo, if you prefer, or venture out with a bunch of randoms or a few friends. Without a shadow of a doubt, taking a few friends along and telling them to get their spandex on is the best choice. Everything is more fun with friends. Especially spandex.

This package includes the Black Panther expansion which added the character plus a bunch of new singleplayer content. And Hawkeye has been put into the game. There’s also the promise of getting all future expansions automatically, although that probably isn’t going to include Playstation exclusive Spider-Man. Keep in mind, though, this is a heavily monetized game with most of the best skins and trinkets only available via real money. If you aren’t too bothered about having the flashiest costumes, however, you can enjoy the game without spending anything extra.

I’m also happy to report that if you’re lucky enough to have a Series S or Series X the long, dull loading times that Marvel’s The Avenger’s suffers from are far, far better. They haven’t been stomped into the technological graveyard like other games have managed to do, but it’s a Hulk-sized improvement over what it was. I mean, I used to keep a book nearby so I could get a couple of chapters in while waiting for missions to load.

There’s been other improvements made, like shortcuts in the base to make getting missions a lot easier. But then again, a few things are worse, like slower levelling. Considering it’s already a grindy game with repetitive missions and gameplay, making levelling up slower seems like a dumb move. A lot of changes are coming down the line, though, so hopefully these issues get ironed out.

Marvel’s The Avengers is not a magically better game because its on Game Pass. It’s still quite generic with flashes of something much better. Hardly worth spending much money on. But on Game Pass it simply becomes a good deal, and if you’re looking for a decent time-sink to while away the hours it might even be worth the subscription cost on its own. You can log in, power through a couple of missions, have a good time and then go do something else. Or you could just enjoyable the fun if forgettable campaign, which is the closest we’ve gotten to getting a good Avengers game.