Back in 2011, I bought a copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with the aspiration of mastering its systems. Unfortunately as someone who has no real fighting game experience and is inherently lazy, I found it a pretty intimidating experience. In fact, I can still see it on my shelf now as I write this, quietly judging me. So when Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite says it wants to be accessible, I appreciate the olive branch.
I also realise that, for some, a word like ‘accessibility’ has other strong connotations when applied to a genre like fighting games. To the hardcore it might imply a lack of depth, but as Bill Rosemann – Creative Director at Marvel Games – tells me, that’s necessarily true and it’s something Marvel has a lot of experience with.
“A very key thing to Marvel in everything we create is accessible,” says Rosemann. “Whether you start reading the comics, or you start watching a TV show, or you’re seeing a film – we always say this may be their first comic, TV show, or film. It may be Doctor Strange or it may be Captain America: Civil War.
"So we start all of our stories very accessible, but we reward long term fans – so the more you read, the more you watch, you begin to make all of these connections. You watch a film, and you see Nick Fury approach another one of these characters and make these connections. The more you read, the more you watch, the more you see that it is very complex and interesting, and we reward you with your time. The game is the same way: very accessible, the more you play, the more you experiment... we’re going to reward all that time you’re putting into it.”
What we’re trying to do is make the game more elegant and simplified but still as complex and hardcore as it’s ever been.
Marvel has the mindset that any issue could be a person’s first, and that approach is informing Infinite. But as with previous games, it can still lead to a feeling, especially among die-hard fans, that their game is being taken away or diluted. I remember a similar conversation hovering around Dark Souls 2, yet that game turned out to be just as demanding as its predecessor. It does, however, make some of its systems easier to understand, which is no bad thing. Dark Souls doesn’t suffer noobs gladly.
“What we’re trying to do is make the game more elegant and simplified but still as complex and hardcore as it’s ever been,” says Mike Jones, Executive Producer at Marvel Games. “But we do want it to be approachable.” Jones stressed this was a new phase in the series – hence no ‘4’ in the title – and part of that goal is to attract a wider audience but not at the expense of alienating long-time fans.
“Say if you just love these characters and you want to hear a great story and see some great actions – it’s completely approachable in terms of how the systems work and in terms of how the controls work, but that depth is there if you want to find.”
Even though the team wouldn’t be drawn into specifics, Peter Rosas - aka Combofiend - a former pro-player and an associate producer on the project teased where that complexity is to be found.
“There’s a very heavy technical aspect required to play the old ones,” says Rosas. “MvC2 is very unforgiving if you’re not very technical. But with this one [...] because it’s 2 vs. 2. It’s instantly that much more accessible. What you have is players who can just jump in, pick two of their favourite heroes; they don’t have to worry about assists. They’re not bogged down with all these decisions. Character, character, and your stone.”
Ryu activates the Power Stone.
The Infinity Stones – a recurring plot device in the Marvel Universe and soon to be a huge element in the MCU – unlock Infinite’s complexity and depth.
“We understand that three characters has been a staple for the last 16 years or so,” says Rosas. “To that effect we looking at the stones, and we were looking at a third character, and when you think about how teams were in the older games: what you had were two characters and then a third character who was a function, whether it be some type of pick-up or just for their assist – they weren’t picked because they were necessarily liked. They were picked for their functionality.
“So then taking that into account we thought what if we used the stones as functionality. What if we applied the stones to the team and then you modify the team entirely. So now you have the stone acting as a third character but also more than as the third character. The stone modifies the team in a way that really lets a player to create their own identity.
“Say I play a team of Ryu and Captain Marvel, and he plays the same, and he plays the same. But I play the time stone, and he plays with the power stone, and he plays with the mind stone. Suddenly, our tactics are very different. Our strategies are very different, and now we’re having a discussion which team is the best? What is the best way to customise the team? What’s the best strategy? It begins this discussion now. There’s much more customisation. There’s much more depth.”
While the specifics weren’t forthcoming, each stones seemingly applies a team-wide buff, which can be used to either compensate for a fighter’s weakness, amplify one of their strengths, or add an element they lack entirely.
“So you see with Ryu [in the trailer] he uses the power stone to knock Captain Marvel against the wall,” explains Rosas. “So suddenly characters who didn’t have that ability have a way to extend combos or knock the opponent back. There are multiple uses for them. In addition to that, there’s a final effect we’re looking into.”
The Infinity Stones unlock thousands of different permutations to play around with. Or as Rosas describes it: it’s “for guys who want to sit in the lab and discover things through endless possibilities.”
Captain Marvel uses the Time Stone.
In the Marvel Universe, the Infinity Stones are among the most powerful objects, and in a neat move Infinite is applying that story logic to the fighting genre.
“They allow you to break the rules of the universe,” says Jones. “So thinking about it through a fighting game lens: what rules of fighting games would the Infinity stones allow you to break? So we’re looking at attack, mobility, vitality, space control – all those things where we’re adding tool to a character’s toolset that they might not have otherwise.”
“So with Captain Marvel [in the trailer],” says Rosas. “You saw she activated the time stone. All her attacks were extremely fast. She broke the law of time.”
And Jones expects this Infinity Stone system to drive the game’s meta in the long-run:
“You look at the history of fighting games [...] people have their favourites, but ultimately what happens is only five or six [characters] who have the tools surface to the top and are worth playing if you want to be competitive. What the [Infinity stones] allow you to augment the entire roster, and make up for weaknesses or double-down on strengths to create strategies and, hopefully, the metagame discussion we end up hearing is Ryu with the mind stone is OP, or Captain with the time zone is the best thing you could possibly do, but if you do X and use this set-up it’s way better to use the reality stone... or whatever it is. That’s sort of the lab experimentation, hardcore fighting game that we hope emerge.”
Read on for how Infinite is taking cues from Civil War and who we can expect to appear in the character roster.
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