Marvel Rivals Will Make All Heroes Free-to-Play at Launch, Captain America and Winter Soldier Added
He can do this all day.
Marvel Rivals stormed onto the hero shooter scene with its open beta in July, garnering a ton of attention with its unique spin on teamwork and broad array of beloved Marvel champions. Luckily, players won’t have to wait too long to get their hands on the full game, as Marvel Rivals launches on December 6. That wasn’t nearly the only thing announced during Gamescom, however, as there were two other bombshells dropped, including one of the most iconic superheroes ever created coming to Marvel Rivals.
Captain America is the next hero being added to Marvel Rivals, and his massive star-spangled shield obviously fills the Vanguard role — essentially the game’s version of a tank. But he’s not the only addition. Cap’s childhood friend-turned-villain, Bucky Barnes, will be joining the roster as Winter Soldier, who looks particularly interesting. Winter Soldier is a Duelist (or damage dealer) and has abilities based around his cybernetic arm, like pulling in enemies or some kind of weird tentacle slam. Both characters looked like they continued Marvel Rivals’ philosophy of making each playable hero specialized and highly different.
Marvel Rivals’ unique feature is its powerful Team-Up abilities, and it’ll be interesting to see how the balance between characters changes as new heroes are added.
Perhaps the even bigger reveal, however, has to do with Marvel Rivals’ pricing. Surprisingly, every single hero in the game announced so far will be free to play at launch. It’s a move in line with what a lot of big hero shooters are doing — even Overwatch 2 announced earlier this year that forthcoming heroes would be totally free for players.
In our extensive hands-on preview, we talked about how Marvel Rivals has the chops to be a great hero shooter but just needs a little bit of work to give it an edge in the highly competitive shooter market. Taking a hard free-to-play stance is a smart move that entices players to jump ship from other games they might be sticking with; it’s honestly one of the best decisions NetEase could have made with this game. Combine that with the power of the Marvel brand, and Marvel Rivals certainly seems like it already has the keys to success.
The new additions bring the number of playable characters to a whopping 25, with both iconic heroes and niche unknown heroes represented. Here’s the current full roster for Marvel Rivals:
Vanguard (Tanks)
- Groot
- Doctor Strange
- Thor
- Magneto
- Peni Parker
- Venom
- Hulk
- Captain America
Duelist (Damager/DPS)
- Spider-Man
- Storm
- Iron Man
- Hela
- The Punisher
- Star Lord
- Scarlet Witch
- Black Panther
- Magik
- Namor
Strategist (Healers)
- Loki
- Jeff the Landshark
- Rocket Raccoon
- Mantis
- Luna Snow
- Adam Warlock
