Marvel Rivals showed up at Gamescom this week with some major announcements. The first was that two new heroes are joining the game: Captain America and the Winter Soldier. But the bigger news was that Marvel Rivals officially launches on Dec. 6 and will be free to play, with all heroes unlocked at launch and beyond.
After the announcement, NetEase opened up a server just for media and creators to try out the new additions. Here are my early impressions of Cap and Bucky.
Captain America gameplay
Cap joins the roster as a vanguard hero, which is how Rivals categorizes the tankier part of its roster. He joins with his iconic shield, which can deflect incoming projectiles back toward enemies. In the trailer, we see Iron Man firing his ultimate ability at Cap, who casually launches it back at Iron Man’s team.
The First Avenger is surprisingly mobile, with a sprint ability that enhances his jump and enables his Super-Soldier Slam ability, damaging enemies and knocking them into the air. He also has a dash ability on a short cooldown. His ultimate ability, Freedom Charge, provides a speed boost and overhealth to everyone in his wake.
In a few games with Cap, I found him fun to play, especially as a hybrid tank who can sometimes hold the frontline like Doctor Strange and Magneto but also has the ability to dive into enemy backlines as you would with Venom or Thor. He didn’t seem to be quite as good at either of those tasks as heroes with more dedicated designs, but it was fun to figure out whether I should be diving or frontlining based on how the fight progressed. I was usually opening engagements by shield slamming onto enemy healers before sprint-jumping out into cover to get healed up and push back enemy tanks. It felt like a fun gameplay loop, and finishing kills with a ranged shield toss was a satisfying change of pace in his melee-focused kit.
Cap has a lot of abilities, so he’ll appeal to you more if you like managing cooldowns and resources — his shield has 500 health, so don’t expect to rely on it infinitely. Rivals has really impressed me with its approach to tanks, who generally have felt active and engaging to play. While other games struggle with making the tank role more attractive to players, I’ve had more fun playing vanguard heroes in Marvel Rivals than anything else.
Winter Soldier gameplay
The Winter Soldier is a new duelist hero, able to maneuver around the map and deal bursts of damage. His kit is built around his bionic arm, which is the source of several of his abilities, and a powerful handgun. The weapon holds only two rounds per clip but reloads automatically whenever you use one of his bionic arm abilities, which can slow or pull enemies or launch Bucky forward. The key to success is weaving between shots and abilities so you don’t waste time in reloading animations.
Winter Soldier’s ultimate ability, Kraken Impact, has two unique mechanics. The ultimate launches him in the air before crashing down on a target area, damaging and marking enemies. Enemies who are marked by the ult will instantly be eliminated if their HP drops below a certain threshold — commonly known as an execute ability in other games. And if a marked enemy dies within a short time frame, it recharges Kraken Impact briefly, allowing you to chain together multiple uses.
Winter Soldier, like Captain America, is a bit in between the play styles of other duelists. His abilities allow him to brawl, like Black Panther and Spider-Man, but his gun also lets him poke from medium range like Hela and Punisher. The key is to know when to use each part of his kit. My most successful games involved starting with ranged damage before using his Bionic Hook ability to pull someone out of position and finish them off with a few more shots and a Trooper’s Fist dash. Think: pull, shoot, dash, shoot shoot, slow, shoot… instead of shoot shoot, pull, shoot shoot.
Rivals has a pretty diverse set of damage-focused characters, and Winter Soldier adds to that diversity. He’ll probably appeal to players who like ability combos but aren’t as comfortable on pure melee heroes — or anyone who played a lot of Bionic Commando growing up.
Launch can’t come soon enough
Marvel Rivals is a pretty hectic game, and the “get in your face and pummel you” gameplay from Cap and Winter Soldier will only add to that chaos, but I think that’s part of the game’s charm. Neither new hero felt quite bursty enough to feel unfair, although tracking what’s happening with Bucky’s ultimate was challenging. Overall, they’re both iconic parts of Marvel history, and I’m excited to have them in the game.
We’re a little more than three months away from the official launch of Marvel Rivals, and my excitement builds the more I play. I’m hoping we get an open beta before then, and maybe a couple more strategist (healer) heroes, but overall it feels just about ready to launch. The only thing left is to see how much time off I can build up by then.
