Square Enix has announced some big changes for Marvel’s Avengers. Whether or not these changes are for the better remains to be soon. But for those who are already frustrated by the grind-it-out style of leveling up, this is probably not going to be welcome news.
As revealed in a recent update ahead of the upcoming Hawkeye DLC, the publisher explained that they have changed the way players level up. Essentially, it will now be even more difficult to level up after a certain point.
“Since we launched last September, our balance team has been evaluating the XP curve for leveling from 1-50 and we’ll be making some changes to address two core issues,” the publisher said. “The current XP ‘curve’ isn’t really a curve at all. In most RPGs, the amount of XP you need to level up increases as you gain levels in a curve, but our system is a straight line. This has led to pacing issues, such as skill points currently being rewarded too fast, which may be confusing and overwhelming to newer players. We want each decision to invest in a skill or Heroic to be more meaningful.
“Based on these issues, we’ll be increasing the amount of XP needed to level up, starting from around level 25,” they added. “This amount will increase the closer you get to level 50 so that it will take longer to reach higher levels, and will only affect character level, not power level. If you already have level 50 characters, which is the current maximum, this won’t affect you. If you have a character who isn’t level 50 and want to speed up their progress, take this time to do so before the update on March 18.
Here is the synopsis for Marvel’s Avengers.
“After the A-Day disaster destroyed San Francisco and created a population of Inhumans, the Avengers disbanded. In their absence, Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) swears to protect the people, but all is not as it seems. Start in the role of Kamala Khan, a teenage Avengers mega fan, on the run from AIM after uncovering a damning secret on their servers. As you reunite the Avengers, you’ll play as each member to learn how they work inside and out. Journey as each of the Avengers across and beyond the Earth to rekindle the Avengers’ confidence in themselves before there’s no world left to save.”
Additionally, Square Enix explained that they are going to do some tweaks with the cosmetic system. The idea seems to be that, ultimately, it will be less random than it is currently.
“We’ll be reworking how players obtain certain cosmetic items with the goal of providing more player agency and clarity about how to obtain them by removing randomness from the process. Currently, many of these items are only obtainable through a random chance in strongboxes or in Chastity’s store (cosmetic vendor). We want to make sure that when you earn a cosmetic item, it is something you have had a choice in working towards,” they said.
The game was intended as the next step for Marvel in the video game world. The hope was that this could follow in the footsteps of Spider-Man, only with a game that could be cross-platform. Not a PlayStation exclusive. Unfortunately, the reviews have been middling, many players have already abandoned the game and sales have not been anywhere near where Marvel or Square Enix expected them to be.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now.
What do you think? Do you dig the changes? Or are you bummed? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!