Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite Review

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: September 19, 2017
ESRB: Teen / PEGI 12
MSRP: $59,99
Available Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: Fighting

The Marvel vs. Capcom series has been going on for a while. Infinite is the sixth game with the words “Marvel vs. Capcom” in its title, though if you were to count the X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Street Fighter games this series dates back to 1996 and Infinite would be the 8th game of the whole “vs.” franchise. Even still it feels like a relatively unknown series compared to the likes of Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Street Fighter or Injustice.

MvS Infinite is geared more towards younger audiences. You aren’t ripping out opponent’s spines as in Mortal Kombat. That’s not to say that there aren’t some monstrous dark characters in the game. You can even play Nemesis from Resident Evil and Frank West from Dead Rising. Some fan favorites from previous games were thrown out but the majority is still there. In total you’re looking at a roster of 30 fighters, 15 from Marvel’s side and 15 from Capcom.

One thing that makes Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite different from most fighting games is that you are always playing as a tag team. Meaning you select 2 characters before every match, not one. Each of your characters has only one life bar and when both characters’ life bars are down you lose – or if you deplete both opponent’s life bars you win. Switching your partner in and out is as easy as pressing the R1/RB button.

Like other fighting games you have move lists for each character. They are totally simplified as the game targets younger audiences and wants to give them an easy start. The game isn’t easy to master by any means. It’s easy to learn, however. Most characters have only 4 special moves or so. The move lists are tiny. It’s up to you to figure out how to chain them together. Luckily, there are 10 training missions for each char that will teach good combos and basic moves.

Every character has an auto-combo by pressing Square (PS4) / X (Xbox) repeatedly. These aren’t particularly powerful and won’t lead to victory in online battle, but it’s good enough to bash your way through the story and arcade mode. Interestingly, I could not find a difficulty select for Arcade anywhere. In the story, if you lose a match, it gives you the option to lower the difficulty but there’s no way to select the difficulty outright.

A lot of things are copy & paste jobs from previous games such as the hyper combos. Those are basically your “finishers”. I found those relatively useless against CPU opponents (because they block them) but it’s nice that they are there. Each character has at least one level 3 hyper combo and on average three level 1 hyper combos. These result in a special animation as seen in Street Fighter or Tekken games. It’s cool that there are so many of them!

A feature unique to MvS Infinite is so called “Infinity Stones”. Those are actually usable in combat and unlock different extra moves. For example, the reality stone lets you shoot red bubbles at enemies that hurt them. Other stones can make you teleport towards enemies, pull them to you, catch them in a bubble and more. Over time your infinity bar fills up. Once it’s filled you can unleash an Infinity Storm. Those are the most devastating moves in the game and trigger overpowered effects for a few seconds. It’s an interesting twist I have not seen in other fighting games yet. However, it’s kind of game breaking because of how powerful some of these Infinity Storms are.

The story takes roughly 3 hours to beat. Half of that is cutscenes and the other half fighting. Mostly you are bashing the same drones over and over again (especially in the beginning). The game has really horrible graphics and even worse character designs. It’s just not up to the standards of modern-day fighting games. The Marvel characters in particular look disfigured (Tony Stark is the worst one).

The online mode was working fine when I tried it. Although I have heard from a friend that he has trouble finding any matches. As far as I can tell it worked as expected for me.

A few words on trophies & achievements: they are actually a bit annoying. This is due to the online requirements. You have to reach 10th rank online. This is hard because you lose points when you lose matches. So you have to get really good at the game or boost it somehow. One of the online trophies basically forces you to boost: it’s for defeating all 30 characters in online matches. Because you can’t control what characters your opponent is going to pick this could take a thousand matches or more as some characters are less popular than others. Most people will have to resort to boosting in order to get the platinum. It’s just silly to put such trophies in the game. If you’re a trophy hunter not fond of boosting online trophies you may want to steer clear of this game.

VERDICT:

Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite reuses a lot of old content and doesn’t keep up with modern day fighting games. The mission mode is great, the story and arcade are not. The character designs are the ugliest I have ever seen in a fighting game. They look nothing like the original characters. It’s as if Capcom intentionally tried to make them as ugly as possible. It’s an okay fighting game for younger audiences, easy to learn due to simple move lists, but hard to master due to countless combo possibilities. If you’re a fan of the series it’s worth a look, otherwise stick with more modern fighting games.

FINAL SCORE:

7/10

Played on PS4 Pro (version 1.01) using EU retail copy. Finished Story, played through Arcade with a few different characters, played 100+ missions in mission mode, tested online mode.

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If you want to learn more about the game, check out the Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite Trophy Guide & Roadmap.