GamesFPSMarvel RivalsMarvel Rivals does almost everything right, but boy does its progression suckWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesFPSMarvel RivalsMarvel Rivals does almost everything right, but boy does its progression suckWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: NetEase)
And I agree, but Marvel Rivals' progression problem goes deeper than its battle pass: there just isn’t a lot to earn or play for.
In Marvel Rivals there isn’t any of that. All of the rewards you can earn are either UI elements only you can see or some generic spray that does nothing to convey a particular achievement or time dedication. It’s disappointing considering Marvel Rivals avoids many of the pitfalls that other live service shooters have from a content delivery perspective.
Say what you want about Concord, but even that game understood that you needed to bake in rewards for each character that go beyond a few cosmetics. It had reward tracks for every hero with dozens of skins, weapon camos, charms, and more to earn, and that was with entirely original characters. Marvel Rivals squandered the advantage of decades of comic history to show up on day one without a sweet range of unlockables.
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My biggest fear for Marvel Rivals’ future is that all of this will just stay untouched and new progression paths and rewards won’t be added in. My doomer scenario is Marvel Rivals releasing a new season every three months with skins for 10-12 characters, leaving the rest without anything for that season. Given that each Battle Pass page only has rewards for one character in Season 0, this seems like an easy prediction to make, though I hope I’m wrong.
When you add in the fact that several heroes will be joining the lineup each season, you can see how the problem is only going to get worse. It could be several seasons before a character gets a skin, or even a new spray and emote.
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Overwatch 2 has really suffered from this recently, with characters proven to sell skins, like Mercy and Reinhardt, getting new costumes and outfits every season. But newer heroes like Venture haven’t seen a single skin since they joined the roster.
I’m not asking for the Rivals devs to suddenly drop 10 skins for every character that take hundreds of hours to earn, or even a mountain of cosmetics to mirror the hundreds of calling cards, camos, skins, and emblems available in Call of Duty every year. But it would be nice to havesomethingto earn, because right now there is as close to nothing as you can get.
These are small additions that really give me and many others a reason to invest long-term in a game. So many live service games are fighting for my time in 2024, and that is only going to increase in 2025.
I could be playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to earn Dark Matter. I could be playing The Finals’ newest season, which has a far more impactful battle pass progression flow. I could return to Fortnite and grind several battle passes at once with its recent Fortnite Crew subscription changes. But I am here playing Marvel Rivals because it is the most fun out of all of them. Now, I just need NetEase to give me a reason to stay logged in every day.
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