Marvel Rivals is the clean slate that Overwatch 2 deserved

The first thing people will think when they watch the trailer for Marvel Rivals is, “Woah, that looks quite a lot like Overwatch”. The second thing they’ll think is, “Man, what happened to Overwatch?”

On a surface level, the comparisons are obvious. You’ve got a class-based hero system with objective-based gameplay. You’ve got a colorful cast of instantly iconic characters. Squint your eyes, and the pictures of the maps we’ve seen so far could be taken straight from Numbani.

However, there’s more here than just the look of the game that appeals to Overwatch players. Beneath the cosmetic similarities, there’s a feeling of freshness. Overwatch has a long, complicated, and messy history, and Rivals has none of that yet.

One of Overwatch 2’s bizarre contradictions is that for the last few seasons, the dev team has consistently made good decisions for the game’s longevity. The move away from story missions to focus on PvP, the core that made Overwatch so great, is the correct one. A return to having all heroes unlocked from the start helps accessibility, and the new maps and heroes have all been up to the same standard as those added in Overwatch 1.

But all of these decisions, however smart and good, sit in the context of massive disappointment and unmet expectations. There will never be a way to frame a refocus onto PvP, the best and most important part of the game, as anything other than an admittance that PvE was a failure, a failure that lost Blizzard any kind of goodwill from the community.

And so, as an Overwatch player, it’s difficult for me not to feel a sense of envy when watching the announcement of Marvel Rivals. I’m reading about a multiverse-style story about Dr Doom involving new interpretations of iconic characters, and I can’t help but think of the Overwatch cast: a massive achievement in character design left to stagnate in the same immobile lore for years. Why don’t they get a story like this?

And maybe Marvel Rivals won’t deliver on any of these promises. Maybe it’ll be an utter failure. It would hardly be the first Marvel-based co-op flop, or the second. But Rivals has hope, hype, and freedom from a past that drags down any attempt to restore faith in the game. I miss that.

The Rivals announcement reminds me of the cinematic that announced the launch of Overwatch 2, and I remember watching that and feeling so much hope for the game’s future. It would be nice to feel that again.