GamerEscape

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite launched last week and we’ve been working our way through its story mode, and battling against others online.

How does this latest entry in the popular mash up fighting series stack up against its predecessors?

Let’s take a closer look!

Yikes. Maybe not that close of a look.

The first thing I noticed going into this is that the look of this release, instead of focusing on a comic book style like the previous titles in the series, tries to do a weird middle ground of realism and cartoon. The result is…well, look at poor Rocket Raccoon up there. Some of the characters look alright with this style, but others look…not great.

The poor visuals show up throughout the game as well. The heavily comic book-themed UI from MvC3 is no longer here, leaving a boring, bare bones interface that offers nothing but the most basic of looks and functionality.

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite offers a story mode, which takes a few hours to knock out. It tells the stories of how the Marvel and Capcom universes collided with each other, having you play as a variety of the thirty characters on the roster as you work towards the goal of defeating Ultron Sigma.

The story isn’t great, but it’s not horrible either. Unfortunately, it feels like Capcom was heavily relying on a Marvel Cinematic Universe-focused roster to help both the popularity of the game and its story. A huge downside of this is, as a result of a more MCU focused roster, there are zero X-Men characters.

No Wolverine. No Magneto. No Cyclops. These characters that have been such a big part of the MvC series are no longer a part of it.

Even more disappointing for both the story and the character roster is the already announced DLC. Characters such as Black Panther and Monster Hunter, who are featured in the story mode, are not included at launch, instead being paid DLC.

Infinite also rethinks some of the core elements of the game, letting players select only two members for their team, in addition to selecting an Infinity Stone.

Characters can easily be switched in and out. A combo that starts on one character can then be continued by quickly switching in your second, making for some fast and fun fights. The game also has some more beginner friendly mechanics in the form of auto combo and easy hyper combo, which can let you chain a combo by repeatedly hitting light punch. The easy hyper combo can be activated by hitting heavy punch and heavy kick at the same time. Those more experienced with the fighting game genre probably won’t have a use for these, but for a newcomer it’s a nice way to help ease you into the fighting scene.

The Infinity Stones offer an interesting element of strategy that didn’t exist previously. Each stone will offer up some kind of attack during the match such as homing blasts, attacks that leech health, or one that will draw your opponent towards you. Additionally, after filling up the gauge for it, you can trigger an Infinity Storm which, depending on the stone, enacts effects such as restricting enemy movement, increasing your Hyper Combo gauge, or reviving a fallen character. With six different Infinity Stones to choose from, there are enough options that anyone should be able to find one that caters to their preferred fighting style.

In addition to the story mode, players will be able to to tackle training and mission modes to help hone their skills before heading into battle. Infinite offers several fighting modes including an Arcade mode, a 2 player local mode, Vs CPU, and an online mode. The online mode is broken into several sub sections including ranked and casual matches as well as a beginners league which will let those at the lower ranks battle it out with other low ranked players in a chance to rank up. As someone who has enjoyed the fighting game genre but never been particularly good at it, the Beginners League is a great addition for gamers that want to ease their way into online battles.

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite is an addition to a series that adds deeper gameplay mechanics at the removal of some of the characters and aesthetic that made the game popular in the first place. The story mode is a welcome addition for more casual players and the auto combo and easy hyper combos with the inclusion of the Beginners League makes it easier than ever for newcomers to get into the series.

~ Final Score: 7/10 ~

Review copy provided by Capcom for PS4. Screenshots courtesy of Capcom.