Square Enix has offered up new details and a fresh helping of previously unseen gameplay for the Crystal-Dynamics-developed Marvel’s Avengers, which is scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and next-gen consoles later this year.
To begin its latest half-hour livestream, Crystal Dynamics shared a brand-new story trailer, mostly covering the key points we’ve already heard before. To recap, the Avengers have disbanded following the catastrophic events of the so-called A-Day, which unleashed a deadly disease on humanity. In their absence, a new organisation – Advanced Idea Mechanics (or AIM for short) – establishes itself, and events pick up five years later as Avengers fangirl and playable character Kamala Khan enters the scene.
Thanks to today’s stream, however, we now know exactly who’s behind AIM – and it’s a villain many Marvel fans will recognise: Dr. George Tarleton, otherwise known as M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing), who first entered the Marvel comic universe back in October 1967. M.O.D.O.K. is able to control machines with his mind – not ideal given that, post-A Day, AIM has flooded the streets with robotic AI.
Marvel’s Avengers: The MODOK Threat Trailer Watch on YouTube
With the basic set-up more firmly established, Crystal Dynamics then opted to reveal a few additional gameplay sequences, split between Avengers’ single-player story campaign and its co-operative multiplayer War Zones mode.
More story missions specific to particular heroes will unlock as the story progresses, and one of these, the Thor-focussed Once An Avenger, was shown in more detail. Here, players control Thor as he attempts to fend off an army of enemy robots as they attack the Avengers’ Helicarrier high above New York. What follows is a fairly relentless neon-hued action sequence, full of exuberant, eye-searing third-person combat, and back-up from the likes of Hulk and Iron Man.