FEATURE | ? Comments |

With all the buzz swarming around the upcoming The Avengers film (coming this weekend to a movie theater near you), it's sort of surprising to see that a video game adaptation of the movie won't become a reality. Studio Oz (THQ Australia) was working on said game, but after 18 months of hard work on the title, the studio was shut down, so the game was cancelled. Still, I expected to see an Avengers video game come out along with the movie, but that wasn't the case. Sad to say, I'm unsure of what to expect from movie tie-in games; even though some of them have been pretty decent, too many of them still... well... suck. Maybe that's partly what happened. However, I wanted to fantasize with the idea of The Avengers game, so here are a few humble suggestions for such title, if it's ever made.

Suggestion #1: No Level 1 Thor!

Comic readers know that super heroes don't typically increase in level the way video game characters do. Thor has been the same level (give or take) for years. What bugs me about the leveling system is that by the time you get to the highest possible level and have all these cool powers, guess what, the game is over. Developers should ditch that process and give the players all the cool powers right away, allowing the players to focus on the story the game is telling, not grinding through the game for more powers... that's lame.

Suggestion #2: Let me play in the biggest sandbox

The most recent Spider-Man games have really nailed sandbox gameplay, and I would love to fly through the city as Iron Man or Thor, or run from rooftop to rooftop as Cap or Hawkeye. The bigger the playground, the more fun there is to be had. Sandbox games also make gameplay feel less linear, which is nice.

Suggestion #3: Get the original cast to do the voice acting

What I'm getting at is simply this: the game developers should zone in on all the things that detract from the gameplay experience and systematically eliminate them. The voice acting is often overlooked but can be a major disappointment for players, especially ones that bought the game based solely on their love for the movie.

Suggestion #4: The gang's all here. Let's act accordingly

I would rather play an Avengers game where the entire cast from the movie is represented in-game than be able to play with a bunch of downloaded characters solo. In other words, give me an experience similar to Mass Effect or Dragon Age where it's me and the computer controlling the rest of the team. That, in my humble opinion, would go a long way in making the player feel like they are a part of something bigger than simply playing as each character in a solo campaign.

Suggestion #5: Don't make another Alliance game, for the love of God!!

It's not that the Ultimate Alliance games weren't good, but for a lot of reasons they don't convey a workable story very well. There are too many video game clichés at work for Alliance to properly come across as a proper tie-in game. Plus the graphics are abysmal... I want a super hero game that plays like a, wait for it, super hero game! Cap shouldn't get beat up by street punks, Hawkeye shouldn't be able to beat Loki in a one-on-one fight, the environments should be destructible etc. The fighting and action should be reminiscent of a comic book, not 3D Streets of Rage or Gauntlet.

Closing note:

A wise man once told me that video games should provide a transcendent experience. Maybe it's time we took a long hard look at the conventions that video games employ that work against that goal. 

Dante' R. Maddox

[Other Features +]