Near the beginning of Avengers - sorry, to be clear, that's Marvel's Avengers, the videogame - Thor lifts up a bit of steel that's pinned a civilian to the ground, and says "Lucky for you, I am mighty!"
That line, though it's brief and lifted from the Age of Ultron film, has cast a shadow over my expectations for Avengers ever since the prologue footage first released. The delivery is all empty machismo. It comes in the midst of an extremely scripted action sequence, where you alternate between all the Avengers and basically just mash 'X' a bunch between each cutscene. Would the Avengers game just be a big-budget button-masher where a bunch of comic book pastiches yell extremely silly dialogue at one another?
Avengers isn't (quite) a button-masher, and there's a lot more heart to its vision of the titular hero squad than first impressions might suggest. I've been made to care about this particular iteration of superhero group, and that bodes well for the game's long-term service plans and episodic story updates. Perhaps most importantly, this is a surprisingly deep action-RPG that's both challenging and rewarding. It's a terrific foundation with a lot to enjoy right now. Or rather, it will be - once a host of frustrating technical issues are ironed out.
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