Avengers: Endgame memorably featured a jump forward in time, but it turns out that Square Enix’s upcoming Avengers video game will have a time jump of its own. During its E3 presentation, the developers explained that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will disassemble after the catastrophic events of A-Day. The story will then fast-forward five years into the future. While speaking with VentureBeat, game director Shaun Escayg and lead combat designer Vincent Napoli teased how this tragedy will affect the heroes.
As seen in the game’s first trailer, a celebration of the Avengers’ heroics turns ugly when an experimental energy source explodes on their helicarrier. The blast appear to kill Captain America, and also takes out most of San Francisco as well. Half a decade later, the disbanded team still hasn’t fully come to grips with what happened.
“It’s all about the conflict, right?”said Escayg. “What happened on A-Day? Who was at fault? Widow was in charge of the bridge. Did she fail? Should we have gone back and helped Cap? These are the human things that we wrestle with as well, and that’s what grounds this and makes this different from any other Avengers story.”
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Some of the team’s guilt was on full display in the trailer. Once the story resumes, we see that Tony Stark has grown his hair out and is no longer the freewheeling idealist he used to be. Instead, he dejectedly wonders if the Avengers did more harm than good while they were still active. Of course, Tony won’t be the only one wrestling with these feelings as the game progresses.
“There’s a trailer moment you might have seen with Iron Man and Bruce five years later, going into what’s changed with them,” said Napoli. “That gets into one my favorite things we’ve done with the story, Iron Man and where he’s at and where he goes. It’s definitely going to explore them in those more vulnerable states. This is not the only way you’re going to see them. That’s part of what’s cool about doing this kind of branching crazy story.”
Obviously, fans are excited to play as their favorite Avengers and beat up the game’s assortment of bad guys. But as Spider-Man PS4 demonstrated, superhero games are more than capable of balancing action spectacle with down-to-earth humanity. According to Escayg, the creators are determined to show the team “affected by their mental state.”
“Picking up five years later, where they’re at is very different from where they are in the beginning, which also gives us a very different — it’s not just costumes and aesthetics, but different personalities, different gameplay space,” added Napoli.
What are your thoughts on watching the heroes confront their inner demons in Marvel’s Avengers? Let us know in the comment section below!
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