Q&A video posted from the official Twitter account. Clears up some confusion about RPG systems/open world.
Adj_noun's transcript is way better than mine, using that instead.
Second Q&A added
Transcript courtesy of Adj_noun yet again, thank you.
3rd Q&A
Adj_noun's transcript is way better than mine, using that instead.
Can one play the game totally single player offline rather than online?
You can play just about everything by yourself if you want to. I encourage you to play with your buddies. It's so much more fun in multiplayer. But yeah, most of this stuff you can play by yourself.
How does multiplayer work?
We have a really robust campaign that you can play through. You're going to play in different levels as different superheroes to further the narrative. We're going to have a base of operations that you're going to be able to go off and play multiplayer levels or come back to the campaign.
There's a huge world to explore. From that base of operation you go through many different places. We're excited to show you all the cool places you can go to. It was way too big to complain in one space, it's multiple different areas and takes the Avengers all over the place.
Will there be a skill tree for certain characters? Will there be leveling up?
There's absolutely leveling up. Each character gets their own skill tree. What makes it cool is the way you level your character may be different than the way I level mine. I can't go into a lot of details right now, but imagine this: your Captain America can do melee and range, you might focus more on range, I might focus more on melee, my gear set could be different, my skills could be different and my outfit could be different as well. When you play you get an experience tailored to what you like.
Could you go into the ways you can customize your hero?
You can customize your hero with costumes. We've got lots of costumes to choose from for your specific hero, you can customize your skills, and the gear that you play with.
Some heroes that in some instances don't have a helmet with their costume might have a helmet with another costume. You never know, there's a lot of variety.
While it's our own take on the Avengers, we're collaborating with Marvel directly to make these characters come to life so they're going to feel familiar and you're going to see that they play the way that you'd expect.
Is it going to be story driven or a GAAS thing?
It's absolutely a story driven game and it's going to keep evolving even after launch. A cool thing about this game is you're going to see new heroes being released, you're going to see new regions at no additional fee.
Is this game going to offer replayability?
Yeah, there's places where you can run through a mission with one character and then play it again with another character for a different experience. The Iron Man and Hulk experience might be pretty different.
Is the beta only for the PS4?
Beta's for everybody. Early beta for PS4.
Will there be any improvements on the graphics quality in the game before launch?
What you saw in the demo was pre-alpha. It's going to keep improving.
Is this open world?
The game was too big to contain in one open world, so we divided it into reigions. We went for variety instead of one big city. We're going to be releasing different regions for free in the years to come.
Second Q&A added
Transcript courtesy of Adj_noun yet again, thank you.
Transcript:
What is this game? People still want clarification on the structure of the game.
It is a single player narrative driven cinematic game. But it's a little different. It's a hybrid. You're introduced to this world on the events of A-Day. San Francisco's devastated. The Avengers are to blame. They disband and there's bickering amongst them.
You get that setep and you journey through the progression of particular characters that progress the story forward to see how the Avengers fare. As you go through the story, depending on where you are in the narrative, you unlock certain characters and you can then go off on a tangent with those characters, or with your own choice of characters, and play these missions that are all tied to pushing this story forward.
You can do so by yourself, or you can do so in groups of four. And then you can rejoin the narrative and push that story forward as well.
You can also choose to say, 'you know, I've got the setup, I really just want to play with my friends, and I can run off and play in that world with four friends as the Avengers of our choice'. Or I could say, 'you know what, I'm going to go straight down the story, not do any missions, just go through all the story in a linear fashion. I can play the entire thing, single player and co-op, by myself, and enjoy the experience of the Avengers'.
Why aren't these the MCU characters?
We set out to create an original Avengers story. We wanted our characters to feel like they belong in our world, that they're part of our story, that their choices, even their uniforms are all based on our story. They're at the peak, they make this awful mistake, and then they fall, and we get to build them up.
We cast them differently, we chose them differently, we drew from the Marvel comic books along with our friends at Marvel to get the best solution for this story.
How many superheroes will be added to the game post-launch?
Can't be specific, but we intend to at regular intervals release new superheroes and new regions for free. No additional cost. We're excited. Marvel's Avengers roster, the potential for it is crazy. We're such huge fans. We're combing through eighty years of history to find those characters.
And the multiplayer story in that world is so big, it's so vast. It's escalating threats. You get to team up with your friends and defend Earth from escalating disasters. It allows for many characters to be introduced.
Can you talk about the diversity of the regions that you'll be pulling from?
The Avengers is a global team. They investigate threats that are all over the world. We're about finding the areas we want to go to that are diverse, that are as different as possible, that provide us different gameplay elements, different ways to use the team's very unique traversals. Every character on the team moves in such a different way that we want to have enough variety in our environments to really make use of the character's abilities.
Can you control the characters freely or are you limited in movement? For example, seeing Iron Man fly at the Golden Gate Bridge.
In that Iron Man segment, it's part of the single-player campaign focus, which are more specifically linear sequences. We also have different areas which are much more open, which allow characters the full freedom of movement, the full freedom to use their unique traversal mechanics.
In the single player campaign, on these missions, you'll be able to fly around. In that Iron Man sequence, you can fly around. Of course, you're limited to the bridge at that point, but you're still flying around. You have a very specific objective at that point.
Does gear affect the stats of your character?
We have both cosmetic stuff for the characters like costumes, stuff that you can customize fully that does not affect the character's gameplay. And then we have a pretty robust gear and progression system that does affect the character's gameplay.
It was really important for us to separate those two because we wanted players to be able to look the way they wanted, but also to play the way they wanted.
Don't pay to win!
Can you play as any character at any time in single player, or will there be specific chapters tied to specific characters?
The character you're playing is based on the narrative. It's the best character to push that narrative forward. If you were to go through the story in a linear fashion, you will be playing as the story dictates.
However, you can still go off and do these tangents as your chosen character, whoever your favorite hero is, and level that hero up and do cool missions with that hero.
You can say, 'I don't want to play this mission, I don't want to play as Hulk, I want to play as Black Widow.' You can go off and play as Black Widow and learn and feel what it's like to be Widow in those missions. And then come back to the main narrative which dictates what you play as.
Will space be an explorable region or featured in the campaign?
Stay tuned.
Will there be free roaming?
You can roam freely in the larger based missions.
Will there be vehicles?
Our characters have built-in traversal mechanics that are so unique to them. They move the way you expect them to move, they move through the environment using whatever fits the character best. Let's leave it at that.
3rd Q&A
Can we play the game offline?
You can. One of the things that's important to us is not only can you assemble with up to four players online and play with your friends, but you can also play the entire campaign in a single player way offline if you want to.
Is there gameplay in the trailer?
Yes, there is. There's big chunks of gameplay in the trailer.
Is there a single player story?
Yes, there is. One of the things that unites Crystal and Marvel is our love of stories and storytelling. There is a huge spine of a single player cinematic led story filled with action and drama. But along the way you can branch off and do multiplayer and go on special missions, and even those missions connect back to the story.
Will we need to play the game as all the Avengers, or will we get to play as Iron Man for the whole game?
(They'd answered this one before; story missions are character locked, co-op/multiplayer missions you can pick any hero)
Will this game have a good balance between co-op and single player?
(Again, effectively already answered. It has both.)
But seriously, how will multiplayer work?
I think one thing to recognize is when you're playing the campaign we don't want you to have spoilers. As you go through the campaign we'll group you up with other players who are probably at a similar point in the campaign, but if you just love multiplayer, and you got this because your friend has it and you want to play together, you can jump straight in online.
We have an introductory level that introduces you to the world, but you can play this game as a multiplayer experience first if you want to.
Will there be alternative costumes for characters?
Yes. We went through everythign and found really cool classic costumes that we're going to make our version of, and then these geniuses then made their own original alt costumes that you can only get in the game.
How many of the five main characters are playable?
All five.
What's the combat like?
It depends on what hero you're playing. Every hero should be able to be the star of their own game. If you're playing the Hulk, you have crowds of enemies around you and you hardly care. You're picking enemies up and smashing them together like coconuts.
That's a completely different experience than if you're Iron Man buzzing around the sky taking out targets. Iron Man can also drop down to the ground and has a full set of melee moves. He can use his repulsors from range. You have Widow and her agility...every hero is their own game.
Will there be ultimate moves?
We have all kinds of moves for the heroes. They have unique ways to get around the environment, so obviously, Iron Man can fly, but Hulk leaps. You're able to do basic comboes and attacks. But of course, as an Avenger you have these special abiltiies. Like calling down lightning from the sky as Thor.
How long have the Avengers been together as a team before disbanding?
I think they've been together a while. Long enough to really get to know each other, to really focus as a team. Long enough to have conflicts brewing under the hood.
Does Iron Man fly all the time or can we choose to be on the ground?
(Already answered, he can fight on the ground)
Is this game on console or PC?
It's on PS4, Xbox One, Stadia and PC.
Will this game have photo mode?
Yes.
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