Changes in costume, personality and gameplay.
The story in Marvel’s Avengers will incorporate a five-year time jump, and following that jump the Avengers will experience costume changes and personality shifts.
Revealed in a VentureBeat interview with lead combat designer Vincent Napoli and director Shaun Escayg, it’s revealed that following the catastrophic event known as A-Day that supposedly results in the death of Captain America and the disbanding of The Avengers, the remaining heroes go through these costume and personality shifts.
Napoli said, “Picking up five years later, where they’re at is very different from where they are in the beginning, which also gives us a very different — it’s not just costumes and aesthetics, but different personalities, different gameplay space.”
To this, Escayg responded “Also, it affects some of our heroes in other ways. I can’t give away details, but they’re affected by their mental state.”
Marvel’s Avengers Costumes and Characters
It’s worth noting that we’ve already seen at least one major costume change during the game’s E3 2019 cinematic trailer, where Tony Stark sports a white suit of Iron Man armor while flying in space. However, it appears that The Avengers, while on Earth, don’t immediately change their costumes once they begin reassembling five years in the future.
Iron Man’s white suit of armor in space.
Elsewhere in the interview, the developers also dig into The Avengers’ human side, explaining how the disaster at the beginning of the game changes them. “When the disaster happens, it levels the city, and now the Avengers are leaderless, as well as guilt-stricken,” said Escayg. “We’re going to journey to reassemble the Avengers and see whether they can persevere.”
The developers also noted that they want to show the heroes in their non-superhero forms, when they’re vulnerable. “A lot of the story is about the human element of these heroes,” said Escayg. “How do they deal with guilt? How do they deal with loss? Can they put their differences aside?”
Story Conflict in Marvel’s Avengers
Escayg continued, discussing how the different heroes deal with conflict, saying “Bruce Banner is one of my favorite characters because he’s always in conflict with who he is. He’s a scientist, very intelligent, and very docile in a way. Then all of a sudden he has this part of himself that’s enraged, that can destroy anything with a flick of his hand. Is he dangerous? Is he really a hero? He’s battled that his whole life.
“Then you have someone like Iron Man who’s also very smart, very dependent on technology, very much about saving and protecting the world using technology, but he’s also very arrogant. He takes chances where other Avengers won’t. There’s conflict because of that.”
To this, Napoli said “There’s a trailer moment you might have seen with Iron Man and Bruce five years later, going into what’s changed with them. That gets into one my favorite things we’ve done with the story, Iron Man and where he’s at and where he goes. It’s definitely going to explore them in those more vulnerable states. This is not the only way you’re going to see them. That’s part of what’s cool about doing this kind of branching crazy story.”
“It’s all about the conflict, right?” said Escayg. “What happened on A-Day? Who was at fault? Widow was in charge of the bridge. Did she fail? Should we have gone back and helped Cap? These are the human things that we wrestle with as well, and that’s what grounds this and makes this different from any other Avengers story.”
Marvel’s Avengers at E3 2019 and Release Date
During E3 2019, IGN had the chance to sit down with Napoli, where he detailed the game’s skill, gear and cosmetic customization options. We also spoke with Escayg, who revealed that The Avengers’ designs won’t change following fan criticism, and discussed how the team will try to cope without Captain America. We also learned eight new details about Marvel’s Avengers relating to its multiplayer, hero line-up and more.
Marvel’s Avengers has a release date of May 15, 2020 and is coming as a PC game, PS4 game and Xbox One game.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
