Marvel: Powers United VR Will Leave Fans Disappointed – Review (Oculus)

On paper, Marvel: Powers United VR seems like everything comic fans would want from a Marvel VR game. With 18 playable heroes, 9 villains to fight, and numerous places to battle – it sounds like a recipe for success. Unfortunately, despite having a killer lineup, Powers United is more of a repetitive slog than a big blockbuster hit.

The Lineup

One of the most impressive aspects of Powers United is the gigantic roster of 18 playable heroes. Many favorites are included such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Deadpool, and more. There are a few lesser known characters as well, like Blackbolt and Crystal from the Inhumans. Each character has unique moves and abilities, so there’s tons of variety when it comes to choosing how you’d like to play.  Despite the variety, not all characters are as fun or effective as others. For example, Wolverine’s claws, though having a satisfying protrusion from your VR hands, feel ineffective compared to primary weapons on other characters. Swatting your hands over and over like a cat attacking a string doesn’t feel great or fun. Some characters just feel more powerful, and it’s a huge bonus if they can fly as well. We’d expect that each hero will have some strengths and weaknesses, but some feel like they aren’t worth using at all.

The balancing is unfortunate since it’s clear that the overall feel and immersion factor of each hero is fantastic. For example, playing as Rocket will have you standing three feet tall, whereas being in Hulk’s body will send you towering over fellow heroes. Throwing your shield as Captain America feels perfect, and drawing Deadpool’s dual pistols equally satisfies the fantasy of being a hero. This immersion alone will have fans feeling giddy at first, but hollow in the end due to the poor balancing and combat mentioned earlier.

Arena Combat

At its core, Powers United is a wave based brawler. Each time you play you’ll pick a character and squad up with three other players, or AI bot companions. There are numerous iconic stages from the Marvel universe from which to choose such as Asgard, Sakaar, and Wakanda. Though the stages are different visually, you’ll be doing the same thing in each with little variation. This includes fighting wave after wave of enemies, defending various points from more waves of enemies, and fighting bosses (also while fightings waves of enemies).

Starting a round as a new character you’ve never played before can be pretty exciting and changes things up, but not for long. Once you’ve had the five or so minute thrill of fighting as one of your favorite heroes, it can quickly become tiring as each game last around fifteen minutes. By the end, I was tired of playing as the character I had chosen and it felt too long overall due to the repetition.

Between each round, a scoreboard is shown, ranking you and the other players, creating a small competition to see who can take out the most baddies. As mentioned earlier though, some characters will be more effective than others – making the competitive aspect feel empty.

Other than the core arena mode, there isn’t much Powers United has to offer. Each hero has new outfits and poses to unlock, but there’s no other modes or progression to the game. Once you’ve tried all the heroes, there’s not much to see or do.

Our recommendation: For any long time Marvel fan, the sheer experience of being able to step into the shoes of your favorite heroes will be an amazing feeling. It’s clear that a lot of care and consideration went in to making you feel immersed as the character. Sadly, the incredible feeling of being a super hero is weighed down by repetitive and imbalanced gameplay. It feels like a huge missed opportunity that there aren’t more modes or any real reason to keep playing once you’ve checked out all the heroes. It’s a perfect game to show your friends and family, but not the meaty Marvel experience you’ve been wanting in VR.

*Marvel Powers United was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*

Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.