Posted by The release of Marvel Rivals first season “Eternal Night Falls” introduces two new heroes, two new maps, and one new game mode. Just like with season zero, season one includes a limited time in-game event that involves completing missions, such as winning on one of the new maps two or three times, but I think it’s even easier than the season zero event, at least so far, because each mission has two different fulfillment conditions. And all of this new content is free. So how is it?
Mister Fantastic is a new duelist, or damage/DPS character, who occupies an interesting position as a hybrid damage dealer and tank. He’s a surprisingly slow to attack character with a lot of range and not the highest damage output, but what Mister Fantastic lacks in damage he makes up for in survivability. One of his abilities allows him to quickly close the gap between enemies or allies, granting allies a little bit of health and damaging enemies, all while healing himself. Between his abilities and basic attacks, Mister Fantastic works to build up a meter that when full, automatically turns him into an inflated state with a ton of health and higher damage output. He also has some crowd control capabilities as well as a counter that can even reflect back some character ultimate abilities. As for Mister Fantastic’s ultimate ability, it’s an AOE that he can trigger up to five times. I often find the ultimate being the weakest part of his kit, but it could probably be used to great effect under the right circumstances. In addition, he has a team-up ability with Invisible Woman that can be used to give himself even more health. Overall, Mister Fantastic occupies a powerful niche as a DPS character that can be really, really hard to kill, especially if played correctly.
Invisible Woman is a new strategist, or support/healer character. While she provides useful healing in her basic attack and an AOE ball ability, her most interesting utility is present in her forcefield shield and ultimate ability. Invisible Woman can freely summon stationary shields in front of her allies to block the opposing enemy team’s attacks. Her ultimate ability creates a field that turns herself and her allies invisible to everyone outside of the field, heals them, and slows the enemy team while inside the field. It’s a cool ultimate ability with nice utility that can be used to establish footholds for the team to push from. Finally, Invisible Woman’s last real ability is that she can automatically turn invisible outside of combat and manually when she uses a disengaging double jump. What makes Invisible Woman such a fun new addition to the game is that she’s a healer who can also support the team in other unique ways as well.
The first new map is Midtown, and it’s a Convoy/payload/push map where you have to escort a payload through the map. I have a mixed opinion of this map. I’ve played it a few times, in part because there’s a temporary game mode that’s only this map, and I think it favors the defenders over the attackers. I’ve primarily played this map on offense, and I have won it a few times, but it’s usually a very hard fought victory, especially during the second half of the map. I think I’ve only played defense on this map once, but it was a very easy victory. I’ll be interested to play this map more and see if it grows on me, but so far I’m fairly indifferent to it.
The second new map is the Sanctum Santorum, and it’s exclusive to the new Doom Match game mode. Doom Match is a twelve person free-for-all mode, but unlike most FFA modes, the top six players win. I’ve only played one game, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. As for the map, it’s cool. It’s surprisingly big with lots of pathways and portals, so sometimes I struggled to actually find people. Overall, it’s an innocent enough addition that I can enjoy every now and again.
“Eternal Night Falls” is off to a solid start. The new added content, while small, feels meaningful and impactful. We also know that there will more content added as the season progresses, including more heroes like The Thing and Human Torch. After an initially strong launch, Marvel Rivals continues to impress with its first season. And of course a new battlepass, cosmetics, and balance patch accompany the new season as well. Most of the cosmetics look really good with only a handful leaving something to be desired (i.e. the Peni Parker battlepass skin that’s literally just her base skin but blue). All of that being said, I’m very excited to see where Marvel Rivals‘ first season goes, and I would highly recommend checking out the game if you haven’t already.
Broad Scope Entertainment 