5 Tips You Need To Know Before Playing Marvel’s Avengers Game

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics Marvels Avengers has been out for a week and fans have been enjoying it the world over. It was a game that from it's announcement to it's launch had to really prove itself to the fans. From Kamala Khan's infectious personality to the new looks of the Avengers, players are coming around to all aspects of the game. One universal truth of the game is the story. The game is delivering on the quality of story-telling fans have come to expect of Marvel. If you've been on the fence about buying in or are about to assemble with some of your friends, we have you covered. Here are five tips you should know before diving into Marvel's Avengers game.

It doesn't matter if you're jumping into a mission or if you're on a new level just looking for your next Avengers. You will always be rewarded with a treasure chest or two by exploring around. There's no downside to taking your time to check inside every nook and cranny. Treasure chests include gear, crafting materials and comic books (more on that next). Gear obviously makes you stronger and even weaker gear has a use. You can break it down to use the crafting materials to make your strong gear, stronger. Sometimes on missions you might have an objective right in front of you, explore first! There's no time limit for missions and sometimes you might hit that objective and it launches the next scene. This has had happen to me twice right after a fight when a treasure chest was right near me, but I didn't grab that first.

Of all the tips in the Marvel's Avengers game, this might be one of the most overlooked. The game has one major, important collectible and that's comic books. Unlike a game like Grand Theft Auto that wants you to collect mysterious hidden packages, or find crazy jumps, you actually get something for the comics. For every comic book you find you get a small incremental stat increase across all of your heroes. The more you collect, the better the bonus. This could be a small increase to status resistance like being frozen, or increase how often you can stun enemies.

There are other collectibles that go into your codex, these don't provide any actual bonuses like the comics. However, they do help provide more background and story on the stuff we don't see. For example, early on you can collect audio files from the hearing that disbanded the Avengers. Or journal entries from a bad guy who doesn't seem as bad...but after these journal entries you realize is SUPER BAD.

When choosing your gear, it's easy to just pick whatever piece has the highest level on it. This is fine to start out, but eventually you'll start to notice gear comes with special perks on it. Maybe it gives you a damage bonus whenever you finish a light combo. Or it gives you a quick heal whenever you revive an ally. These are very important, especially if you can stack multiple effects. But there's more to learn than just these buffs. Each piece of gear comes with a stat light Might, Resilience or Precision. Maybe attention to these stats! I did not and while running around slamming Ms. Marvel's feet into bad guys faces I realized all of my power was actually in...ranged attacks? If I was properly itemizing my stats I could be face kicking even harder.

Marvel's Avengers allows for co-operative play online, either with friends or other random players from around the globe. However, some people prefer to play alone. That doesn't mean you actually have to play alone, in fact, you're making it harder on yourself if you do. You can select to bring companion heroes along with you. So if you're taking on a mission as the Hulk, you can bring your Iron Man, Black Widow and Thor on the mission as well. They retain all the abilities you've unlocked for them and this gives you a nice incentive to play multiple heroes to make sure they're up to the task at hand.

When I first played Marvel's Avengers during the opening BETA week for the PlayStation 4, I had quite a different reaction to the heroes and how they played than I do now. Ms. Marvel and the Hulk were among my favorites, while Iron Man was my least favorite to play. The main reason is that the short tutorial you get on the heroes during the Golden Gate Bridge mission doesn't really do them justice. But when I got hands on with each of them in the HARM Room, my opinions changed. The HARM room challenges takes you through unique ability and fighting style of the heroes, showing you how to really play them. Taking some time to learn the intricacies of each heroes strengths can go a long way in determining how you put them to use.

Shielded enemies in this game are the worst thing to deal with it early on, especially if you don't know the tricks to doing so. There are two ways to overcome them. The first is only available to some heroes. Heroes like Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow can vault over shielded enemies. You do this my tilting the left stick towards them while holding O and if timed right, you flip over them. Continue your assault to finish them off. Characters like the Hulk can't do this and require an upgraded move. All heroes have access to upgrades that will extend your combos and allow for 'defense breaks'. This is usually a heavy attack by holding down Triangle. It requires precise timing so you aren't knocked out of your attack mid charge, but learning this will save you a lot of headaches in the future.

If you enjoyed our article on tips for the Marvel's Avengers game and want more comic related content, check out our podcast The Other Identity with Robbie Landis and Ben Morse.

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Feature Image, Screenshot from Marvel's Avengers by Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics.