Avengers Review: 3 Ups & 8 Downs

1. The Bugs, Glitches & Design Compromises

One feeling I can't shake is that Avengers existed as a story-focused experience at some point in development, only for story beats, levels and characters to be ripped apart like tear n' share bread, under the proviso that more money can be made over time.

It explains the invisible loot grind (because who implements loot from day one but doesn't care about cosmetics?), and it explains the abundance of bugs, glitches and all-round errors that plague what's here.

I'm talking consoles locking up, characters disappearing in cutscenes. Daily and weekly challenges not triggering, the environment itself violently spiking out of control, or enemies falling through the world to the point you can't trigger the next objective because they can't be killed.

The sheer amount of environment detail and the reuse of spaces points to a project that at one point, was going to use these locations in more meaningful ways. Instead they're stripped bare; their NPCs removed and replaced with loot chests, as a shift in project direction mandated.

Don't forget, Square Enix are the publisher who forced a loot grind into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

As mentioned in the Ups section, I think this can become something great - it just needs drastic amounts of content plugged in.

If gameplay can feel more experimental, the loot system can be made genuinely rewarding, levels made engaging and enemies overhauled to force group tactics or skilful play, this could become a must-play.

Right now there's simply not enough, and what's here feels threadbare.