{"id":47386,"date":"2019-06-19T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47386"},"modified":"2019-06-19T06:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:58:51","slug":"marvels-avengers-was-missing-more-than-just-gameplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47386","title":{"rendered":"Marvel\u2019s Avengers Was Missing More than Just Gameplay"},"content":{"rendered":"

My column this week<\/a> looks at the E3 trailer for the upcoming Marvel’s Avengers<\/em> and talks about some of the shortcomings. I find this footage really frustrating to look at. In some games you can look at substandard art or unpolished gameplay and assume the team didn’t have the time or budget to make something better. But in the case of Marvel’s Avengers, it looks like the publisher is spending money and that money is somehow not showing up on screen. As far as I can tell, this isn’t a problem with publisher priorities. This is a basic project management problem.<\/p>\n

I doubt that the publisher would be foolish enough to ask a developer to make a mid-budget Marvel comics game with a large cast of diverse gameplay modes. That wouldn’t make any sense. But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that they did. If that’s the case, then why did Developer Crystal Dynamics aim so high with the scope? If they’re in a limited-budget situation, then it makes no sense to make these epic set-piece battles with large scale destruction of real-world locations. It makes even less sense to aim the visuals at this sort of half-assed photorealism rather than throwing a toon shader over the whole thing and making cheaper assets.<\/p>\n

These characters look just enough like their MCU counterparts to create expectations that this game can't possibly meet.<\/div>
These characters look just enough like their MCU counterparts to create expectations that this game can't possibly meet.<\/div><\/p>\n

On the other hand: If Square Enix is<\/strong> putting up the money for a big-budget superhero ensemble game, then… where is it? Why does everything look so shoddy? Why does it look like there’s no art directorRead the column itself for my analysis on the character designs and proportions.<\/span>? Why do the visuals look so last-gen?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why was this team given this property? For the last decade and change, the only thing these people have made is Tomb Raider<\/em> games.\u00a0Crystal Dynamics has no experience with:<\/p>\n