Marvel Rivals devs conducted 'exhaustive research' to come up with the game's roster of heroes and abilities so it could live up to 'exceptionally high player expectations'

pcgamer.com:

I used to go to every single midnight showing of an MCU film, but after Avengers: Endgame, that dedication slowly waned as I found it impossible to enjoy the films on offer with the same enthusiasm that I used to. I thought I might just be tired of superheroes in general, but it wasn't until I started playing Marvel Rivals that I realised that the heroes never stopped being cool—only the movies did.

From the start, I was impressed with how the 35 heroes currently in Marvel Rivals all managed to stand out with different strengths and playstyles. There were no copypaste stand-ins, and while there are a couple of shared abilities like double jumps or stuns, every hero ends up feeling unique.

Now, this didn't just happen by chance—in an interview with Unreal Engine, the lead technical designer Ruan Weikang describes just how much hard work went into creating each hero, their memorable abilities, and the Team-up abilities that have become so integral to the game.

«As a global premium IP with 85 years of history, Marvel commands exceptionally high player expectations regarding the authenticity of its superhero characters,» Weikang says. «The development team needed to ensure that each hero possesses not only distinctive personality and abilities but also maintains a balance between characters to guarantee competitive fairness and integrity.»

Most of the hero abilities in Marvel Rivals are surprisingly well suited to their character. Jeff The Land Shark's whole persona of being just an adorable and friendly little guy who helps out whenever he can matches with his status as a Strategist and his helpful and a little aggressive ult, which can gobble up heroes—healing allies and damaging enemies. Then there's Loki and his shape-shifting ultimate, cunning abilities like the ones that let him sneak around undetected or create clones of himself to confuse the enemy, living up to his title of the God of Mischief. While Hela, the Goddess of Death, is known to most as the Server