Gaming

The New Video Game Avengers Look Like Butts, And Fans Are Unhappy

The Avengers are back! But not as you know or want them.

by Amanda Yeo  13 June 2019
E3 - Square Enix - Avengers

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Marvel’s Avengers will soon be returning to our screens, but not as you’d know them — or probably want them.

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Every Trailer From Square Enix's E3 Presentation, Featuring The Dollar Store Avengers

At Square Enix’s E3 presentation this week, the company showed off the first footage of their upcoming Marvel’s Avengers video game.

Fans’ hopes were high, not only because practically everything bearing Marvel’s brand seems to turn to gold these days, but because the game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal.

These studios were behind the warmly received 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, which not only humanised the Lara Croft of old, but gave her a significant graphical update. People were keen to see what they’d do with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and were looking forward to jumping in and swinging Thor’s hammer.

Unfortunately, the video Square Enix showed at E3 sapped much of the enthusiasm for Marvel’s Avengers into dust. And most of it was due to the Avengers’ faces.

Many gamers have acknowledged that acquiring rights to the likenesses of Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universes’ actors would be a complicated and expensive undertaking. Though we may wish to gaze at a lovingly rendered digital recreation of Chris Evans’ beautiful face as we punch supervillains, not all dreams can come true.

That is fine. That is understandable. We may not like it, but we can accept it. What is not understandable is why, given the wide world of facial configurations the developers could have gone with, the heroes of Marvel’s Avengers have come out looking like they’ve been hired to appear at a three-year-old’s party.

Avengers‘ Bruce Banner didn’t need to look like Mark Ruffalo. He just needed not to look like an actor from a Grey’s Anatomy porn parody.

Marvel’s Avengers has clearly taken some influence from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, most noticeably in Bruce Banner’s purple shirt. However, given that none of the heroes look anything like their big screen counterparts, it just makes them look like the knockoff pack of plastic figures your misguided dad gets you from the two dollar store.

Particular criticism has been directed at Marvel’s Avengers‘ rendition of Black Widow, who arguably looks the most like a composite from a police computer.

Marvel’s Avengers is due for release 15 May 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Hopefully the final game is much better than the uninspiring preview we’ve seen thus far.