Marvel's Avengers was officially revealed earlier this month during Square Enix's E3 2019 conference. Unfortunately, no gameplay was revealed during the presentation. However, some gameplay footage surfaced online soon afterwards. This leaked footage showed off gameplay of the game's five
Avengers: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and The Hulk.
What was quite worrying out the albeit blurry gameplay footage is that it was rife with "Quick Time Events". This is the term for those scripted moments in which the player must simply press a single button at the correct time. The practice of including these has become quite frowed upon within the industry - as it almost entirely removes the player's control, making it more akin to a movie.
Perhaps on account of the worry caused by the leaked footage, Crystal Dynamics have clarified (via
WCCFTECH) that the game will not feature quick time events all too much. Noah Hughes, the director of
Marvel's Avengers, explains that the first mission of the game "A-Day" includes more quick time events than any other:
"They’re much more prevalent here than they are anywhere else in the game. This is an opening sequence. And we actually use in some cases what looks like a quick time event to train the player." Hughes went on, revealing that there are less QTEs as the game goes on. This is because they're meant to ease the player into full control of the characters.
So in the case where we see Thor smash down in the opening of the level, we’re really introducing you to those heavy attack buttons, and then onboarding you with that. And generally, there are a few exotic moments where you may have to express the effort of the hero or something like that. But it isn’t a core part of our gameplay, and it’s one that we don’t want to overuse, I think that we use them for both training and exotic moments. But we use them sparingly. And because I think they can be useful for us. But again, I think it’s like any of the tools in game design, which is we tried to do the best we can for our experience, we want the players to have them.
Marvel’s Avengers begins at A-Day, where Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor are unveiling a hi-tech Avengers Headquarters in San Francisco — including the reveal of their own helicarrier powered by an experimental energy source. The celebration turns deadly when a catastrophic accident results in massive devastation. Blamed for the tragedy, the Avengers disband. Five years later, with all Super Heroes outlawed and the world in peril, the only hope is to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Marvel's Avengers will be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia on the May 15th, 2020.