Overwatch Ignorance Enhanced My Experience With The Marvel Rivals Beta

Eight years on from the release of Overwatch, the video game industry appears to have realized people like hero shooters. Well, maybe it’s known for years and only now caught up - it takes a hell of a long time to develop a game nowadays. Whatever the reason for the sudden influx of Overwatch-likes, this summer has been the season of the hero shooter, and since I’ve not played a single second of Overwatch, I expected it to be a summer during which I’d have time to finally make a dent in my backlog, safe from frustrating matches against seasoned veterans.

Even with aspirations of finishing Tears of the Kingdom and finally getting around to giving Baldur’s Gate 3 another chance, I figured that since Marvel Rivals is free to play and Concord was free to try, I’d give them both a go. Concord was a lot more fun than I expected, and while I can’t see myself spending $40 on it, I enjoyed my time with it. Marvel Rivals, on the other hand, got me hook, line, and sinker, and not just because I’m a shameless Marvel shill who will buy or play anything with its logo slapped across it.

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Overwatch Inexperience Preferred, But Not Required

The Marvel Rivals beta has come to an end and I’ve spent the last two weeks playing almost nothing else. I tried every single hero, getting to grips with their abilities and move sets and trying to figure out who’s best (it’s Storm, by the way). I’ve spoken to a few other people playing the beta, and all of them appeared to have experience with Overwatch. As I fired up Rivals for the first time, I feared my hero shooter inexperience would hold me back, and my first match seemed to confirm that. I kicked things off with Spider-Man, swinging around at speed, no idea what was going on. That’s what happens when you let a four-year-old choose your character.

I dropped Spidey, persevered, and quickly discovered I didn’t need three years of Overwatch on my resume to enjoy this game. On the contrary, the more I played, and the more I spoke with Rivals-playing Overwatch vets, the more I realized my lack of hero shooter experience was a plus. My biggest takeaway from speaking with Overwatch fans was how much they compared their Rivals experience to it, and understandably so. Play Sonic after a lifetime of Mario and you’re going to compare the two whether it’s fair or not.

The comparisons weren’t necessarily negative, but they were there. Heroes that are clearly Marvel’s takes on Overwatch characters, mechanics that Overwatch does better because its team has been working on them for almost a decade. None of these things occurred to me because that Overwatch bias isn’t there. I don’t know who Tracer is so I don’t care that Star Lord is her Marvel clone. I also didn’t choose my Rivals main based on my go-to in Overwatch because, well, I don’t have one. Knowing if Overwatch has a Storm equivalent would be handy, though, as now the beta is over, I have a hero shooter-shaped hole in my life. No, wait, right, Baldur’s Gate. I really do need to play Baldur’s Gate.

I Don't Care If Overwatch Does It Better

As for the stuff that Overwatch does better than Rivals - because it has had an eight-year headstart, surely - I didn’t notice it. I’m not rolling my eyes at Netease’s attempts to do something Blizzard mastered years ago because to me, it’s all new. While Marvel would love to prove to those people that it can do Overwatch better than Overwatch does Overwatch, I selfishly hope its focus remains on hero shooter newbies like me and it doesn’t try to run before it can walk.

I’m well aware of how self-centered that sounds, but the unwinnable war to become the next Fortnite has proved time and time again that you can’t go after a juggernaut’s core audience and expect to win, even with a roster of Marvel heroes at your back. Even the good faith Blizzard has squandered via Overwatch 2 and its various issues hasn’t pushed so many players away that the sequel is struggling. Overwatch fans are still playing Overwatch, and even if some of them did pop in for the Rivals beta, not many of them will be back long-term for its full release. They have Overwatch, and Overwatch is going nowhere.

Marvel Rivals has a rare opportunity here - the chance to establish itself in what is quickly becoming a saturated genre where there is already a free game dominating the market. It just needs to keep appealing to people who aren’t already committed to Overwatch and if there are others like me coming out of the beta, then it can do that.

I will be there day one when Rivals gets a full release, and judging by how much of it I’ve played for the past two weeks, it won’t be a game I’ll drop off of for a considerable amount of time. If Netease can tempt over a few Overwatch fans who’d prefer their go-to hero shooter to be riddled with superhero IP, even better. The focus needs to be the hero shooter uninitiated, though. That with more layers and improvements combined with a steady flow of new and interesting heroes and Rivals could be a game that runs for years. Not necessarily a challenger to Overwatch, but a competitor that shares the hero shooter pool with it and gives newcomers an access point to the genre.

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