For reasons that are no doubt obvious to everyone, Marvel’s Avengers has been on the receiving end of substantial criticism as of late.
Spider-Man, one of the most beloved and iconic superheroes ever, was confirmed last week to be a playable character in the action-adventure title, exclusive the PlayStation family of consoles. Despite having little to no say in regards to the deal brokered between Marvel, Sony and Square Enix, developer Crystal Dynamics has also come under fire from disgruntled fans in the announcement’s aftermath, ire that, clearly, is misplaced.
The conscious decision to deny Xbox and PC gamers the ability to play as the wall-crawler is, of course, one worth scrutinizing, and, what’s more, fans are quite rightly concerned if Spidey’s exclusivity will result in a weaker or obviously disjointed narrative in versions of the game where he isn’t present. Unsurprisingly, the topic has been raised numerous times in subsequent interviews with members of the development team, and one recent interview has shed further light on the situation.
When asked by Wccftech (H/T, PlayStation Trophies) if it would be limited in how it would portray Spider-Man and his overarching story due to his exclusivity, Crystal’s Shaun Escayg had the following to say:
Without obviously giving any spoilers away, the window where you will see our version of Spider-Man, will fit into our story – and I have to obviously dance around this because I can’t speak to it – but just know that this Spider-Man is our Spider-Man, and will be in our story, will fit in that world with what happened [to them during] A-Day, between then and now – even [with] the villains that support that and how he belongs in this world and how long he’s lived in this world.
Elaborating on the above, combat director Vince Napoli is keen to reiterate that Spider-Man’s arc will be in addition to the core storyline present in launch versions of Marvel’s Avengers, meaning how the fight against A.I.M. plays out will be functionally identical between all platforms. “There is no swapping or changing anything to accommodate that [Spider-Man’s weaving into the story],” says Napoli, adding that the team consider the web-slinger to be a “cherry on top” that doesn’t affect or alter the main narrative in any way.
Some welcome clarification on the matter, then, though we’ll just have to wait and see if Crystal can satisfy its own intentions following the launch of Marvel’s Avengers next month.
