Even before launch, players touted Marvel Rivals as the Overwatch killer, and for a while, it did seem that way, with MR’s massive player count and Overwatch’s sudden drop in players.
What’s funny is that Marvel Rivals isn’t the perfect game. It has many of the issues that plagued early Overwatch. Now, some fans are coming out online to say that they’re appreciating OW now that Marvel Rivals has been out for a couple of weeks.
Overwatch v Marvel Rivals
With Marvel Rivals already being out a few weeks, some fans have been given a good chance to look at both games. While there was a lot of excitement for Rivals at the beginning, more and more players are starting to admit that Overwatch 2 is still a pretty solid hero shooter.
There may have been a dip in viewers when Marvel Rivals initially launched, but it looks like the fans are still coming back to Overwatch after all the hype was starting to die down:
Besides the fact that Marvel Rivals is considered an Overwatch clone, OW devs have been spending years honing and patching the game to address problems that players have been pointing out.
Some have even found it hilarious that current complaints about Marvel Rivals make them feel like they entered a time machine to hear about rants on early Overwatch.
Marvel Rivals Complaints
One of the most common complaints about Rivals is the lack of balanced teams. While it’s encouraged to have a team with an equal amount of Vanguards, Duelists, and Strategists, there are players who will instalock Duelists the entire time and not care if the team is balanced.
Overwatch also had this problem and remedied it with Role Queue. While it managed to balance out the teams, it did force players into a corner where they were only allowed to play one class of hero the whole match; switching classes mid-match to save the team became impossible.
Not to mention, lining up as a Damage hero meant players would have to wait in long queues before they got a match. Being flexible and queueing for all roles meant you were either going to play Healer or Tank.
So far, NetEase has been adamant about not bringing in Role Queue to Rivals, but that means players will have to suffer unbalanced teams with no healers or tanks when they’re needed.
Perfectly Balanced, as Things Should Be
For now, it looks like Overwatch is still going to stay strong while Marvel Rivals is finding its stride. It’s unclear what the future will bring for both, but as fans have realized, toxicity is a deciding factor on what makes a game fun.
It’s actually funny that Overwatch players noticed that the game suddenly felt less toxic the moment Rivals launched last month because a lot of those players moved to the new game:
If one thing is ruining games, it’s the monetization system, which is what some are saying is really killing Overwatch 2. It’s also disheartening that Rivals essentially has the same business model. Fingers crossed that this solid competition of both games will lead to some more consumer-friendly monetization down the line.
Overwatch is now available for PC, PlayStation 4|5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Marvel Rivals is playable for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.