Just how long is Marvel’s Avengers intended to hold your attention for when it finally launches next year?
Billed as both a single and multiplayer experience that’s big on narrative as well as optional extras, developer Crystal Dynamics clearly intends for its superhero action-adventure to have a long shelf life, a mission plan that it will expand upon with a wealth of free post-launch DLC. Additional characters and zones are already confirmed to be included under that banner, but even without such updates, Marvel’s Avengers is going to be big.
In a recent interview, Crystal Dynamics senior brand director Rich Briggs was quizzed on the hours of playtime fans could expect to accumulate during their time with the game, and stipulated that individual preferences and playstyles would assuredly result in an eclectic range of completion times.
“I think it’ll depend on exactly how deep you want to go into it,” Briggs told ComicBook.com, before he continued to compare Marvel’s Avengers‘ size with that of the studio’s Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. “If you think about previous Crystal games, you know that if you want to be playing your way through the core story, it’s going to be in that [Tomb Raider’s] area, 10 to 12 hours.” A modest playtime, for sure, though Briggs promises that fans looking for a meatier experience won’t be left disappointed.
If you want to see everything there is, and do all the side missions and everything else, you’re generally looking at 30 plus hours in the Tomb Raider games. So we’re not putting exact numbers on it just yet, but you can expect something comparable to what we’ve done in the past with that regard. And then, of course, you have the extended narrative and the extended game plan, more heroes post-launch.
A content-packed experience is on the cards, then, but Marvel superfans eager to tweak and tune their favourite hero will no doubt be able to surpass Briggs’ preliminary estimate. With myriad RPG features such as loot drops, gear customization, skill trees and cosmetics (some paid-for only) to chase, the title is primed to be a time-devouring monster when it lands next year and we can’t wait.
Marvel’s Avengers is out May 15th, 2020, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Google Stadia.
