Phoenix is in Marvel Rivals, which suggests I’d lastly put Overwatch 2 on the shelf for a bit and get again into NetEase’s hero shooter recreation. Not out of some deep admiration for Phoenix, thoughts you. The one issues I learn about her are what I gleaned from Wikipedia after NetEase introduced her for Marvel Rivals season 3 and one necessary truth from her character trailer: She truly strikes like a standard human — nicely, mutant — and that was thrilling, one thing I couldn’t say for Rivals prior up to now.
Because the recreation launched in December 2024, Marvel Rivals gamers have periodically complained on Reddit about how sluggish character motion velocity is, or appears to be. Some stated it felt like strolling in sluggish movement; others stated it was only a perspective trick, that after all video games like Overwatch appeared quicker, for the reason that digicam is first individual and appears extra dynamic. I agreed with the previous and lamented the sluggish strides and glacial assault tempo that plagued each hero in Rivals, steadily enjoying much less and fewer because the perceived difficulty grew increasingly annoying.
Now that Overwatch 2 has its third-person Stadium mode, and after seeing how Phoenix appeared to maneuver extra rapidly, I made a decision to see if my idea about the remainder of Rivals being so sluggish was proper. It was. Form of.
The follow area in each video games contains areas with distance measurements to assist calculate injury drop-off ranges, which additionally doubles as the proper place to check motion velocity. After messing round with a number of characters, I confirmed that Rivals characters take roughly half of a stride longer to journey 5 meters in comparison with Overwatch 2 characters. That appears like an issue, however Rivals’ distance scaling can be a bit completely different. 5 meters in Rivals is about 11.5 inches, the place the identical distance is roughly 10 inches in Overwatch 2.
“Why does this matter?” you may be asking. The reply is that it means Rivals characters transfer about as quick as most Overwatch 2 characters, and even quicker, since they’re technically masking an extended distance within the same-ish variety of steps. It’s not a velocity difficulty. It’s a mode difficulty.
Cloak and Dagger, Namor, Spider-Man, and the remaining transfer as in the event that they’re auditioning for a job in Baywatch, loping dramatically down the battlefield in huge, rangey steps. Prolonged pauses punctuate assault combos for everybody who isn’t the martial arts knowledgeable Iron Fist, turning what must be high-energy battles into one thing that wouldn’t be misplaced in a ballet. Most assault sounds and animations are muted, too. Winter Soldier’s swanky pistol appears like a popgun with a silencer on it, and Scarlet Witch’s life absorption has, nicely, no life to it. All that is elegant in an understated means, positive — but it surely’s not very tremendous.
Phoenix adjustments all of that. A searing whoosh sound accompanies her assaults, with a small explosion after three consecutive hits on the identical enemy. Her different offensive ability detonates an excellent greater explosion. She zooms round in flaming-bird kind to rapidly relocate, and may even mix this with a second mobility ability, one which doesn’t have an obscenely prolonged cooldown timer. When she dodges or adjustments course, she’s transferring rapidly as an alternative of leaning lazily to at least one facet as if she will’t be bothered, and there’s a quickness to her motion animations that provides a way of urgency, even when she’s not truly transferring quicker. (She isn’t. Cloak and Dagger cowl the identical distance in fewer steps.)
Mainly, NetEase lastly discovered a mix of fashion and performance that isn’t boring and doesn’t make you’re feeling such as you’re swimming by pudding. Phoenix performs and strikes such as you’d count on a skilled fighter to maneuver, so although she is probably not essentially completely different from different characters, her fights really feel thrilling. And that’s sufficient for me.
