The true check for the way far a hero shooter is prepared to go together with its roster is the way it handles its assist position. Overwatch is proof that heroes like Mercy — and later Brigitte — can management the tempo of a match and subsequently the complete sport, shattering metas and sparking new ones. Marvel Rivals season 1 continues to speedrun Overwatch’s historical past of stability with the discharge of the Invisible Girl, a hero that appears constructed to bend what it means to play assist.
It might be arduous to not with the bucket of skills she carries along with her. Susan Storm can heal, harm, push, pull, sluggish, defend, and, oh proper, go invisible. Evaluate that to Mantis, a assist who can heal and shoot and infrequently root enemies in place. Or Loki, who’s a four-star-difficulty hero centered on misdirection. The Invisible Girl, nevertheless, is a four-star-difficulty hero who can merely do all of it.
The catch is that she’s legitimately arduous to play. Her major hearth is a projectile that passes by way of enemies or allies and loops again to her, inflicting a second hit because it returns. It sounds easy, however has extra depth than you would possibly understand at first, as a result of the place you goal determines how briskly it ricochets. Bouncing your photographs off the bottom, close to everybody’s ft, reduces the delay between the 2 hits and lets her burst folks down shortly (or up shortly, if you happen to’re therapeutic). However if you happen to ever have an ally in between you and an enemy, you need to line them up so you’ll be able to hit them each on the similar time. One thing so simple as aiming is dependent upon the place you’re standing, the place your targets are standing, and what sort of harm or therapeutic output you need in that scenario.
In different phrases: The Invisible Girl is tailored for individuals who really feel constrained by the relative simplicity of the opposite assist heroes. And whilst somebody nonetheless pretty new to Marvel Rivals (with over 3,000 hours in Overwatch), it’s refreshing to have a hero who can clear up the types of issues therapeutic can’t deal with. Her Psionic Vortex is an enormous annoying orb for stalling enemies as they attempt to cost into your group, and her Drive Physics can yank enemies towards her or toss them off the map. These are the types of skills different heroes, like Jeff the Land Shark, have to make use of a complete final for. She will additionally pull up a defend on allies that blocks harm, and her final cloaks allies in an enormous circle. You are feeling like you are able to do something.
Taking part in the Invisible Girl is what I think about it’s prefer to be an airplane pilot and really know what all of the knobs on a management panel do. The Overwatch participant in me winces on the overwhelming complexity in her package, whilst somebody who gravitates towards these sorts of heroes. It’s actually enjoyable to knock a Spider-Man away from my group or disappear my group’s Hulk as he rampages on the purpose, however it has me extraordinarily curious if future helps shall be as stacked as her.
Overwatch heroes are inclined to have a handful of skills with a number of methods to make use of them. Ana’s therapeutic grenade heals her, boosts therapeutic on allies, and nullifies therapeutic on enemies. It’s all packed into one versatile potential, which suggests misusing it may well actually harm. Talent in Overwatch is about how good you’re at biking by way of these skills and utilizing them to make up in your weaknesses. Marvel Rivals appears to swing within the different path and provides heroes so many skills that it’s OK to disregard them generally. The Invisible Girl takes this to the acute and is considerably extra highly effective than the opposite helps due to it. It’s potential she’s simply over-tuned as one of many first new heroes to be added to the sport, however I fear it’s a bar future helps gained’t have the ability to meet, particularly as gamers enhance over time.
Regardless of the variations, Marvel Rivals is actually speedrunning Overwatch’s turbulent historical past of stability. Mister Incredible, who joins the roster with the Invisible Girl, is a tank disguised as a harm seller. Overwatch had this drawback with Doomfist and turned him right into a tank within the sequel. All it takes is a number of extra of those sorts of role-breaking heroes to threaten the goofy hero shooter vibe that Marvel Rivals is supposedly going for.
