Marvel's Avengers developers talk multiplayer, monetisation and the lack of MCU

Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics finally unveiled its long-awaited Avengers project at E3 this week, but left us with more questions than answers.

In a gameplay presentation today, I saw an extended version of that Avengers reveal played out in front of me – the level themed around “A-Day” where a hapless Avengers squad battles masked foes and become distracted from a larger threat. It’s a heavily-scripted level which sees each of the game’s five starting heroes become playable for a short section where they each battle waves of largely-identical enemies across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, before Black Widow faces off against Taskmaster in a boss fight.

Again, I was left with more questions than answers. Crystal is showing this particular level but talked earlier this week of a much larger plan for the game, one which turns it into a co-op games-as-a-service vehicle. And, while a generous-sounding plan for post-launch DLC was promised, it remains to be seen how any of the game’s multiplayer sections actually work.

And then there’s the faces. Seeing an Avengers cast not look like the actors we’ve all watched on the big screen this year remains jarring.

I caught up with Crystal Dynamics’ lead designer Philippe Therien and senior producer Rose Hunt after the presentation to put some of those questions to them.

You’ve picked the Avengers heroes people know best from their MCU appearances but of course these aren’t those iterations – and Iron Man does not look like Robert Downey Jr. Were you expecting the reaction from some fans where they’ve been taken aback?