Generally speaking, the maps of a team vs. team shooter are static; you can blast all of the buildings you want, but they’ll be immune in order to prevent players from simply destroying cover. For NetEase’s and Marvel Games’ upcoming hero shooter Marvel Rivals, that won’t be the case, as environmental destruction will be a thing. But how does the game balance that sweet superheroic collateral damage with the need for teams to still have some cover? That’s the subject of the game’s latest dev blog.
The short answer, as one might expect, is to design maps where only certain things could be destroyed, thereby opening up some potential new strategies for teams to navigate; some buildings can be destroyed in order to open new paths or create new cover, while other “essential” structures remain invincible to all of that superhero smashing.
With that being said, the devs have plans to make these tactics “cooler and more Marvel” — and not without some consequences — with the advent of what is called thematic environmental destruction. Given examples of this system include Loki rebuilding destroyed buildings in the Yggsgard map or “spider-bot shenanigans” in the Tokyo 2099 map.
The game’s ongoing closed alpha won’t feature this system in the Shin-Shibuya map, but it is planned for later tests, and overall fans can look forward to some level of arena-blasting mayhem when the game goes live.
