The debut of Marvel’s Avengers at this year’s E3 was met with a fair amount of criticism, in no small part due to the character designs of our heroes. Yesterday developer Crystal Dynamics stated that, despite the controversy, these designs would not be changed.
The online reaction to the game has been strong, with a bunch of different reasons for the designs of the Avengers themselves being so reviled – the main one being that they look too similar to their MCU counterparts. While this game would’ve have been a good opportunity to go for a more comic-inspired design, instead we get characters that look like cheap copycats of the film’s actors.
Some have accused the designs of falling into the “uncanny valley” trope, where something about the faces just seems off. Others are more bothered by the bulky, unappealing costumes sported by some of the cast, particularly Thor and Captain America.
Speaking to IGN, Crystal Dynamics lead creative director Shaun Escayg discussed the negative response from the community, but stated that the designs would not change:
“We are always listening to, and welcome feedback from our community. There are currently no plans to change our character designs.”
He did however go on to emphasize that the games was still in its early stages and that, although the core designs wouldn’t change, they would be refined further before the launch.
“The trailer is showing pre-alpha gameplay footage, which means the level of detail and overall polish of the character models will absolutely continue to improve as we get closer to launch.”
While fans unhappy with the base designs of the characters won’t be happy about the news, the polish we can expect in the future may be all that’s needed for anyone who found the designs just a bit lackluster.
Marvel’s Avengers is expected to release on May 15, 2020 on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia. Check out the latest cinematic clip of the game, which centers around Ant Man’s Hank Pym. You can also learn more about the voice cast here.
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