I’ve never played a PVP hero shooter game. My interest just wasn’t there, and I didn’t really have anyone to play with, so they simply weren’t on my radar. While my gaming-scape has changed a lot in recent years, so has my interest in finding new titles to play regularly with my group of friends; of course, with Marvel Rivals being the newest, shiniest toy, it made sense to give it a try. Now, this group that I normally play with has a lot of experience with Overwatch, so it was much more familiar to them than it was to me – re: a bitch was struggling. I absolutely hated the game when I first tried it, and the thought of Rivals being in our regular rotation bummed me out. However, the more time I spend playing, the more it grows on me, and I might be at the point where I (begrudgingly) accept that I maybe, sort of, kind of enjoy Marvel Rivals.
The main reason I disliked the game so much when I first tried it can be summed up in one word: overwhelming. There’s a LOT going on, and I found it nearly impossible to keep track of everything. For the uninitiated, Rivals is a 6 versus 6, objective-based team game – you might have to capture a point, or push a payload (mission vehicle) to the other side of the map, hitting checkpoints within a specific time limit. This game has its 3 roles (Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist, aka, Tank, DPS, Support) with a generous variety of Marvel characters to play in each category. Aside from having a ton of stuff going on visually in each round, you’ll have to pay attention to your positioning, manage the cooldowns of all your moves, watch your point capture progress/mission vehicle progress, take note of which of your teammates has their Ultimate (ult, for short), who has already used their ult, and of course, who might be about to ult on the enemy team. The first few times I played Rivals, I felt completely out of my depth.
I started off learning the Strategist role, and my god, if that isn’t the most stressful position in the game. I think a lot of people confuse characters that are mechanically easier to play with being “easy” in general, and I can assure you, playing Support not only requires the most attention, it’s also the most thankless role on the team. I came to realize quite quickly that if your team is suffering, it’s always the healers fault. 100% of the time, no exceptions. DPS going 0-10? Your fault. Tank pushing way too far into enemy territory and dying in front of their spawn? Your fault. Getting dived on by Spider-Man and Iron Fist while the rest of your team ignores your pleas for help? Jokes on you, also your fault. So prepare yourself for the “gg no heals” or “trash supports” message post-game from your Moon Knight that has 4 kills and was constantly pinging for healing from behind 8 walls, across the map, completely outside your line of sight. Not that I speak from personal experience or anything.
As a Strategist, you have to keep your team in your sight at all times, and make sure you’re prioritizing your healing – Tanks are super important, but so is making sure your Support partner(s) stay healthy. Saving your Ultimate to heal your team en masse, or to counter an offensive ult from the opposing team can make or break the game in some cases; keeping your teammates from getting mowed down by a Star Lord Ultimate is pretty darn satisfying. My personal favourite Strategist right now is Sue Storm, from the Fantastic Four franchise. She has a few offensive options, including her push and pull abilities (yeeting people off the edge of the map never gets old), plus her healing, and Guardian Shield are invaluable for keeping your team safe. I’ve had a lot of practice on Support, since that seems to be one of the roles that people like playing the least (I’ll usually fill for whatever role my team needs) and while I do generally enjoy it – it’s a real challenge trying to help your team while you’re being targeted obsessively – it can be tiring. Knowing you’re going to be the scapegoat for the team performing poorly, and being the first to be blamed when things go south, is frustrating to say the least.
Speaking of frustrating, we have the role that I seem to suck at the most: Vanguard. I’m a terrible Tank. I feel like I don’t entirely understand the role yet. The basics of pushing your opponents back, creating space for your team to cook, and helping to protect your Supports/DPS when you can are simple enough, but good lord do I struggle. I tend to get tunnel vision on what’s happening in front of me, and forget to turn around to check on my team (they’re all dead). I must have a tendency to push too hard, or be too aggressive about absorbing damage with my face, but I find my usual Vanguard games are pretty abysmal. Most of my time is spent making the walk of shame back from spawn to the point (or payload) and then immediately dying on the frontline, and heading straight back to spawn. In my experience, the role feels extremely dependent on the quality of your Support players – if they’re able to focus on healing you, it’s great. If they’re being dived, or otherwise struggling, playing up on the frontline feels impossible. Dr. Strange has been my Tank of choice – he’s pretty offensive, I like having a shield, and he’s still reasonably fun to play. I do have a hard time getting value from his Ultimate though. Somehow, the other team always manages to dodge my Eye of Avocado.
Which brings us to the third and final role, the star of the show, the one everyone and their mother insists on playing: Duelist. I understand the appeal: it’s a fun role, and you get that serotonin rush every time you manage to eliminate a member of the opposing team. My hottest take about playing DPS (amidst the current community drama regarding the difficulty of each role) is that it’s the easiest role to play. But hear me out. Mechanically speaking, the Duelists can be challenging because yes, you have to be able to aim, and a lot of the characters have several mobility options to master. However, your only job as DPS is to apply pressure with your damage output, and obviously, get KO’s. It’s the most selfish role in a few different ways, mostly because of how little you have to depend on your Supports to keep you healed (it’s much easier for a Spider-Man or a Star Lord to get to health packs around the map) and realistically, you only have to worry about yourself. Unless you’re peeling to help your supports with divers in the backline, you’re likely not paying a ton of attention to what the rest of your team is doing. You’re just focused on your own job.
While I also enjoy playing as a Duelist, I find it’s the role that I have to fight for my life to play because of its popularity. It’s rare that you load into a lobby and don’t get at least two people instalocking DPS. I have a new personal rule that if 4 or more people lock in DPS characters, I’ll also play DPS. I refuse to be the sole Support on the team – I still have a miniscule amount of self-respect, and I won’t subject myself to a miserable game of trying to keep a group of people with main character syndrome (who refuse to swap roles, naturally) alive. But anyway, I’ve had the most fun with Scarlet Witch, and Winter Solider (aka Bucky). Scarlet Witch is really good for helping your backline with divers, and her Ultimate, while hard to pull off, can be extremely satisfying if you manage to catch the other team with it. I love to play Scarlet with my group of friends, when someone else can play Dr. Strange, so we can combine his ability to create a portal with her Ultimate; if you start Scarlet’s ult on “your” side of the portal, her voice line (which indicates the use of her ult) can’t be heard by the opposing team. It’s extremely fun to float through that portal and catch 3 or more enemies by surprise when they inevitably get vaporized. The Portal Bomb. 10/10, would recommend.
Ironically, now that I’ve found my footing with Rivals, and though I find the gameplay to be enjoyable, the worst part of the game by far are the players themselves. I’m going to hold your hand when I say this, but a lot of the people who play this game are completely insufferable. As a recent example, I was playing the new “Giant-Size Brain Blast” mode with a few friends – you essentially run around a small arena and KO the people on the opposing team as many times as possible, and also, your head is gigantic – while the entire time, there were two specific players yapping at each other in the text chat. One was making fun of the other for having “TTV” in their name, and the TTV person was clapping back. I was totally baffled that in a goofy, specifically-for-fun game mode, these two morons still found it necessary to argue and insult each other. Like the band on the Titanic, they kept going even after the game was over. This is pretty standard for a lot of the games I’ve played. Like, respectfully, why can’t people who play this game just be normal? Why is being as awful as humanly possible to strangers on the internet so acceptable now? Instead of typing “gg ez” to the team that just got bodied, maybe mind your business? Maybe don’t berate the people who are probably employed and getting on the game to blow off some steam, and have some fun? Maybe don’t hop in voice chat to shout slurs and insults at your teammates? But hey, what do I know. All I can say is at least Rivals has an easy, responsive reporting system.
I’ve been called stupid, asked if I was a bot, told I was “ass” for playing a particular character, and constantly questioned about the use of my ult, which apparently is everyone’s favourite debate. And these are the more polite insults. I’m getting the impression that this is pretty standard behaviour in these types of games, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. It’s a weird sense of relief when your team has a positive interaction together, or when everyone is simply silent and plays the game. And it’s even more embarrassing when people behave like this in Quick Match, which is not the official competitive mode. I can only imagine how much worse people are in Ranked (actually yes I can, because I watch streamers play). I’ve seen people throwing games on purpose, ragequitting because their team asks them to switch roles/characters, and people being absolutely abhorrent in voice chat. Of course, it’s not all bad, but I feel like the general toxicity I see in the community is worth pointing out. It’s a consideration for people wanting a game to play in peace. I’ve been wanting to try Ranked, and get into the competitive sphere now that I feel confident about my gameplay, but this aspect is holding me back. I won’t even bother addressing the rampant misogyny with this player base (surprise, surprise) and how being a woman on Rivals feels like playing Russian Roulette. Will your teammates be regular human beings, or will you be harassed endlessly for 12 minutes? Find out next week on Dragon Ball Z!
I’ve been having a fantastic time with Marvel Rivals despite its downsides, and I feel like I understand the appeal of the genre more now. The prospect of the developers continuing to add more characters to learn (Emma Frost being the newest as of publishing this post) is super exciting. I like being able to challenge myself by practicing different roles, and improving – especially when my teammates are okay with me sucking. While I definitely prefer to play with friends (especially when I’m being carried to victory, shout-outs to Alex), the game feels addicting enough that I’ve found myself wanting to jump on and play, even when my squad isn’t available. If it weren’t for the fact that a huge segment of the community insists on being miserable and nasty to other players, I think I’d spend a lot more time in-game. I’m glad I gave Rivals a shot, even though I struggled in the beginning. I can easily see myself sticking with the game for the foreseeable future, and possibly even finding the confidence to give Ranked a try. Maybe.
Meghan Plays Games 