Character swap, ping system, and more features Marvel's Avengers needs

Marvel's Avengers may be full of memorable moments and offer countless hours of fun playing with friends online, but it launched on September 4 as an imperfect game in need of a tune-up.

Here are the 5 improvements that Marvel's Avengers needs the most.

5. The ability to switch characters or command your allies

Marvel's Avengers locks you into playing as a single character for every mission with no options to switch to or command the other characters in your group. While this makes sense in a multiplayer setting, it can become frustrating when playing alone, especially when some collectibles are locked behind "Hero Gates" that require certain abilities that not every character has.

These Hero Gates include a broken barrier that requires a strong attack to be destroyed or a computer that needs to be hacked. Iron Man is the only hero that can open both, while Ms. Marvel, Hulk, and Thor are only able to break barriers and Black Widow is limited to hacking. Captain America can't do either.

When playing alone, you can still come across these obstacles and have no way to access it. This feels like a massive oversight and one of the most frustrating experiences on anyone's playthrough. The most ideal solution would be to allow players to switch between characters during a mission if they are playing alone or at least command other characters to break doors or hack computers.

Alternatively, there could be alternative methods for accessing the rooms depending on your character. Otherwise, many players will continue missing out just because they didn't know ahead of time which kinds of Hero Gates would spawn when they choose their character.

4. A way to mass dismantle your gear

A less frequent but still annoying aspect of the Marvel's Avengers experience is that you can't mass dismantle gear that's in your inventory like you can with the extra storage menus.

Each character's gear inventory is limited, which means that frequently you'll have to manually delete each individual armor piece. An option to tag all of the pieces of gear you want to dismantle would go a long way in making the process of switching and upgrading gear much less annoying. Alternatively, you could be able to just favorite the pieces of armor you want to keep and then "Junk" the rest.

3. New Game Plus (or at least a way to replay story missions)

The single-player campaign contains some of the best levels and set pieces in all of Marvel's Avengers, so why can't we replay it?

After you beat the story, it's impossible to replay it unless you entirely reset progress. It's baffling that Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix would lock away some of the game's best missions after you only play them once.

After dozens of hours with the multiplayer missions, I keep getting the urge to replay the campaign now that my characters are more upgraded and fun to play than ever before. Yet I can't. The only way to do this currently is to purchase an alternate version on a different platform or delete the save file to restart entirely. This choice is a bit baffling, especially when compared to games like Destiny 2 where replaying old missions is the bread and butter of the grind-based experience.

2. A Ping System

While this isn't an issue if you're speaking over voice chat with friends, it can be difficult to coordinate with random players in online Marvel's Avengers multiplayer.

Outside of emotes, there isn't much in the way of communication, and that gets even worse when some glitches occasionally make it impossible to see where your allies are. Other online multiplayer games like Apex Legends and Fortnite use ping systems to great effect as a way to meaningfully engage with online teammates in a nonverbal way.

A ping system would be the best way to help online groups keep track of each other and to prioritize targets. Fortunately, a ping system already in the pipeline as the developers at Crystal Dynamics have confirmed it in a post about beta feedback. A ping system can't come to Marvel's Avengers soon enough, however, and it should be a necessity for any co-op game going forward.

1. Crossplay and Cross Progression

Marvel's Avengers need to implement cross-play and progression. A Square Enix account is required to play the game, so you'd think this would already be the case. Sadly, the only form of cross-play and progression the game will get is between current and next-gen consoles when those come out later this year. Which is to say that players on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 can play together, as can Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S players, but all of these players won't be able to play together across console lines.

Of course, PS4's exclusive content like Spider-Man and getting skins early would make crossplay difficult as Xbox, PC, and Stadia players won't have access to some characters and skins. Still, that really just shows how questionable those exclusivity deals are. If Square Enix wants to create a large and sustainable community for Marvel's Avengers in the long term, cross-play and cross-progression would be necessary additions.

Marvel's Avengers is available now for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.