You need to play the most divisive video game of 2020 ASAP

PS Now isn’t an Xbox Game Pass competitor just yet, but games like Marvel’s Avengers coming to the service are bringing it that much closer.

Marvel’s Avengers from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix came to the PlayStation Now subscription service on April 6, 2021. If users are subscribed to this service, which typically focuses on letting players try older PS2 and PS3 games through the cloud, then they’ll also be able to play through as much of Marvel’s Avengers as they can until September.

This is a fairly short turnaround for a game to hit PlayStation Now, as it usually takes a year or more for AAA games to come to the service, unlike Xbox Game Pass. Now that it’s part of a subscription service you might already own, it’s time to give this superhero game a shot and/or maybe PS Now.

Marvel’s Avengers might take some visual cues from the MCU, but it’s a wholly original world. The main campaign follows Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, as she attempts to reunite the Avengers. In the game’s prologue, Captain America dies during a devastating attack in San Francisco, and since the Avengers are mostly blamed for it, they disband.

Ultimately, the team comes together to fight AIM, led by MODOK and Monica Rappaccini, before seeing that there is an even greater threat after them. The story is then continued in Taking AIM and Future Imperfect post-launch campaigns, which added Kate Bishop and Hawkeye to the game, respectively.

To save the day, the Avengers must complete missions in AIM facilities across the world. Lots and lots of AIM facilities. While the action gameplay might make you think Marvel’s Avengers is like the Arkham Batman games, it’s actually much closer to an MMO-lite RPG like Destiny 2 in execution. Each hero has 50 levels of progression, unlocking new abilities and buffs with every level-up.

Additionally, each character can equip gear for slight buffs and has a battle pass-like challenge card where players complete challenges to unlock new costumes, nameplate, and more. Leveling up every character can keep you occupied for a long time, even after you finish the story.

Marvel’s Avengers was built to be a “games-as-a-service,” live title that players would engage with for years to come after launch. Unfortunately, it was met with quite a bit of controversy at release. It had a ton of glitches and could get very repetitive after you played for a long time like the game wants people to do.

Crystal Dynamics was on damage control for several months after release, fixing issues and releasing new characters after delays. This gave the game a bad rap, though it’s in much better shape now than it was just one month ago. Future Imperfect is out, there’s a clear roadmap for future updates, and most of the annoying bugs have been solved.

This game still has a lot of controversy around it, but if you want to see what all of the fuss is about you can easily play it with a PS Now subscription. If you don’t like it, you can quickly drop it. But if you enjoy it, you have the most thorough superhero RPG ever to sink your teeth into over the new few months.

Now, the next question is when does it come to Xbox Game Pass like Outriders?

Marvel’s Avengers will be on PlayStation Now until July 5, 2021.