MultiVersus 2022 Impressions
Can it Compete with Nintendo’s Smash Ultimate?
Can it Compete with Nintendo’s Smash Ultimate?
Writers Note: In my attempts to continue to move all of my writing to Medium, I am publishing these old thoughts about MultiVersus from its open beta access in 2022. These days, the game has been cancelled, with support cut off from Warner Bros. As much as I’d like to write a Rev-Eulogy, detailing the game in full through its time in 1.0, up to shut down, I am not qualified to do so. I did not play the game again, because of my experience from the beta. So, perhaps these thoughts from that time will showcase the rocky foundation the game set itself on, which may have in turn caused it to eventually shutdown (twice).
I installed MultiVersus the other day, out of sheer curiosity. The team behind it has some social media buzz, it’s free, and I’m bored. So, I hunkered down, played through all the tutorials, the advanced tutorials, and ended my first session by testing all the characters in their “lab” mode, designed to help you hone your skills. Truthfully, as much of a die-hard Smash Bros fan I am, I’m really not into fighting games. So, there was a bit of a high bar MultiVersus had to hit, in order to gain my attention and keep me coming back for more. Unfortunately, after the time I’ve spent with it, I’ve determined that the appeal isn’t quite there for me to continue playing.
As mentioned, I love Smash Bros, and Ultimate has been no exception. As it is the most popular platform fighter by a significant margin, and because I have experience in it, It’s easy to draw comparisons between the two. MultiVersus is definitely ‘floatier’, in its physics systems, in jumping, and falling, for example. I also think it’s a bit more complex than Smash with its techs, like in elemental effects or equipable perks. It’s also been engineered as a team based game, where the default mode has two player teams facing off against each other.
What makes this team based approach particularly interesting, is that character abilities can synergize with other characters your teammate picks. This, in theory, allows for some fantastic co-operative play, with a deep skill ceiling. The team focused approach is perhaps the most bold, but necessary choice made by these developers, that eases it away from games in the platform fighting games that already exist, so I definitely welcome the change, and the depth brought with it. The only issue you may have, is if you don’t have someone to play it with regularly, then unfortunately, you’re getting a watered down Multiversus experience because you’re not sure just who or what you’re getting paired up with.
The other huge difference is the perk system, and while I can see the direction and the potential of a system like this, these perks aren’t just tiny bonus’s, but rather, game breaking, meta changing, selections that can absolutely determine the outcome of matches. There has to be balancing changes on the way on many, if not all, of these, and hopefully the community sees more changes as the game moves out of beta and solidifies these core systems.
It really needs to be said that the monetization is horrendous. Expected with a free to play model, of course. But I still hope that these prices are tweaked as the game gets more characters, and they listen to player feedback. Judging from the monetization I’ve seen in other Warner Bros. games, I don’t think it will be changing very much… but the community can certainly hope, and vote with their wallets. I wish them the best of luck as they do so.
Overall, I see MultiVersus as an excellent alternative to Smash Bros if you don’t own a Nintendo console, and you can’t really get better than “free”. If you’re interested, I’d say it’s definitely worth trying, to see if it’s your thing, and bring a friend when you do so. Most players will know if it’s a game they’ll like or not by the time they’re done with all the tutorials (which takes about 10 or 15 minutes), and maybe after a match or two with a friend. Perhaps my opinion would differ if I could get some friends to play with me, but for now I don’t see myself returning until the roster is more or less considered complete, and then I’ll probably just boot it up for an hour or two to mess around with the characters again, and see how it all feels with any new changes.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.