One of the greatest sins you can commit in the creative field is to see the success of a certain property or franchise and think that you can do the “bare bones” of that and make a similarly successful entity. That’s not how it works. Instead, that’s how we’ve gotten so many “clones” or “rip-offs” of classic things, and it rarely benefits anyone when those are born. For example, multiple large-scale superhero titles hit the video game market and were successful. From that came Marvel’s Avengers by Crystal Dynamics, and many would’ve bet the game would be another in that line of successful superhero games.
The reason for this was the developer. Crystal Dynamics had proven themselves worthy of such a project due to their work with the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. So giving them the Avengers seemed like a great idea. However, almost from the first trailer, players feared the game wouldn’t be as great as the titles featuring Batman and Spider-Man.
The visuals didn’t “feel right,” the gameplay wasn’t grabbing their attention, and more. Sure enough, Marvel’s Avengers had a fair launch but a terrible follow-up and crappy reviews that labeled the game mediocre. That’s to say nothing of the “live service” model that has frustrated many who played it.
Fast forward to 2023, and the game is being shut down soon, and we won’t get any updates after that. The plug being pulled shocked many, but a new interview with the game’s creative director, Cezar Virtosu, might be even more shocking. Why? Because he apologized for the game!
In an interview with Edge Magazine, as revealed by GamesRadar, about a different title he’s working on, Cezar Virtosu noted that it wasn’t easy making the title, “It was a challenging production, let’s say.”
But he didn’t stop there. When the topic was brought up again about him being the creative director for the title, he said, “I apologize for that.”
What is there to apologize for? A few things, but no one would specifically demand an apology from him as it wasn’t all his fault.
One of the biggest problems with the game was that while the campaign was fine, it wasn’t “fun” to play as the Avengers. Some of their powers and stats didn’t feel like you were playing “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” It took them a long time to make the game fun to play in the long term, too. Microtransactions were also a big hindrance, and there were legions of bugs when the game first dropped.
While it won’t make up for everything, an apology is nice.
