Crystal Dynamics had grand plans for Marvel's Avengers when the game first launched from two operations with new playable heroes in the first three months to a robust and evolving set of endgame activities, and of course, the PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man. For one reason or another, the original launch roadmap had to be completely reworked and rescheduled, but that didn't stop Crystal Dynamics from releasing two great characters in Kate Bishop and Hawkeye, and delivering on every promise it's made since.
Next week marks the release of Black Panther: War for Wakanda, the first official expansion for Marvel's Avengers, introducing a brand new hero in Black Panther, new villains like Ulysses Klaw and Crossbones, a whole new jungle biome, and a bunch of other exciting changes to the core game. With less than a handful of days until Black Panther: War for Wakanda is finally available for players worldwide, here's a last-minute wishlist for quality of life issues that need to be addressed in the expansion.
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Before the official release of Black Panther: War For Wakanda, Crystal Dynamics will be releasing a new War Table stream for the expansion with an in-depth look at some of the changes coming to Marvel's Avengers. Speaking of the War Table, no other single aspect of the game outside of the endgame needs to be addressed as badly as this one. The War Table is where players select what activity or mission they want to play, so naturally, it needs to be easy for players to navigate and provide clear details on rewards and progression.
In terms of navigation, the War Table in its current form is a mess and needs to be completely reworked because it's way too cluttered and way too difficult to find or differentiate activities. Take a note from Destiny 2 and bring all locations to the same screen, integrate new activity playlists, and make endgame content and rewards easier to find and understand. Right now, it's very difficult to know what to do when logging in, and that's because the War Table doesn't point players in any direction.
One known quality of life issue being addressed in the Black Panther: War For Wakanda expansion is the cluttered menu system, reducing the number of tabs to navigate through at the top of the screen and cleaning up some of the UI. Of the four tabs that remain in the game, one of them is called 'Objectives' and here players will find a list of active questlines to be completed.
Because some mission chains exist on a per-character basis or return as a weekly objective, one small but important quality of life request would be for the ability to abandon mission chains. It's a minor thing but players don't always want to complete random Vault missions they've picked up, partake in particular events like the Tachyon Anomaly, and run the recent Scientist Supreme Villain Sector chain again.
It's pretty well-known that Marvel's Avengers is lacking when it comes to endgame content and having consistent weekly objectives; there are limited types of missions and most of them don't feel rewarding enough to justify the time sink. With that said, the entire War Zones activity structure needs to be reworked from the ground up. Outside of challenges on the Battle Pass, there's little reason to go back and play Drop Zones, Threat Sectors, Vaults, or Faction Missions, and even if there was, most of the content feels exactly the same.
Crystal Dynamics needs to evaluate what activities are available in the game, what kind of activities are missing, and create different types of content that each serve a purpose because there's no reason for Drop Zones to exist at all right now. Once there is a good number of unique activities that all play a part in the levelling process and lead toward the endgame, Marvel's Avengers needs playlists for people that want to farm Hives or Villain Sectors, build out the Daily and Weekly objectives, and double down on the endgame.
Excluding Credits (Marvel's Avengers premium in-game currency purchased for real-world money) and Units, another currency used for cosmetic items but earned through gameplay, there are a total of nine different currencies. There's a currency for vendors, four different materials types that all work on gear, upgrade modules for high-level gear, unique materials for levelling minor and major artifacts, and another currency for DNA Chests in the endgame.
In Destiny, the game originally launched with an upgrade material for each of the three classes and Bungie eventually combined the three into one that could be earned and used universally to improve the game's quality of life. Crystal Dynamics needs to do something similar and reduce the number down to around five. Fewer materials overall, clear and concise ways to earn each one, and then have the two cosmetic currencies, one earned in-game and one paid for with real-world money.
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Another lesson that Bungie learned with Destiny was that eventually, certain types of gear or items will become obsolete, such as low-tier green gear, and it's important to make the appropriate changes to improve the player experience by implementing an auto-dismantle feature. In Marvel's Avengers, all green and blue tier gear should auto-dismantle once a character reaches Level 50 because it serves no purpose.
Ahead of the Black Panther: War for Wakanda stream, Crystal Dynamics has already confirmed that the UI, including the character screen and menus, have gotten a complete overhaul. So far, only the character screen has been shown and it's a great improvement, combining three previous menus into one, but it still needs a little more work to feel less cluttered. For example, the 'Comics' section has always been a part of the Codex menus tab and makes a lot more sense in that location. As long as the other three menu tabs aren't cluttered, the change will be a welcome one.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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