It may seem like an obvious copy of Super Smash Bros., but we assure you that MultiVersus is much more than that. Aside from the shared concept of fighting between fictional and animated characters and battles involving up to four people, the mechanics of both games are fundamentally very different. In fact, MultiVersus is more reminiscent of a traditional fighting game, with fewer tricks and an emphasis on two-on-two team play.
However, after the success of the first beta last year, player interest dropped drastically. This is not unusual, as games always attract more attention when they are new and “everyone” is playing them, but many then move on to new hunting grounds when newer and more attractive alternatives come along. The big problem with the MultiVersus beta, however, was that it didn’t have much more content beyond each character’s basic skills and a well-made tutorial. Therefore, one of the big questions that the final version of the game raised upon its completion was how they would manage to keep the public interested and whether it would make sense to continue the fight without interruption.
What if they had achieved it? Well, MultiVersus has finally offered us a whopping 27 playable characters, plus of course those that are yet to be added. These characters are all characters from the many different Warner universes, such as Bugs Bunny, Batman, Tom & Jerry, Arya Stark and Shaggy Rogers, although these were already in the beta. However, there are also characters that were added later, such as Gizmo or Black Adam, as well as new ones, such as Agent Smith, Jason Vorhees and The Joker. One change worth noting is that the Support class has been removed and instead the Mage class has been added to those that were previously only support classes.
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When you start the game you get a short, obligatory tutorial, but what caught my attention is that for some reason Player First Games seems to have removed the previously complex system for training your character. This means that you now don’t get any additional perks that allow you to get the most out of more complex fighters like Harley Quinn or the Iron Giant. A decision that surprised us considering it was a system that had already been available since the beta. We assume they made this decision because you can no longer train with fighters you don’t own, which is an ingenious way to learn to fight with and against other characters, but we don’t think it’s a very good decision. Unfortunately, that’s not all… and for some reason you can now no longer play cooperatively against computer-controlled opponents either, which we don’t understand.
Unfortunately, the worst is not all. Now the game seems slower and more clunky than in the beta and, what’s worse, it seems to have technical issues both graphically and in the code. The game slows down from time to time, which is unforgivable in a fighting game. On top of that, I personally suffered several falls in the middle of some fights… something that very rarely happened to me in the beta. Also, after fights we now get less information about who landed the most hits, etc. And to top it all off, the prices of microtransactions are too high for my liking.
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So the game turned out to be a disaster? Not at all. Although the MultiVersus beta worked better than the official release version in many ways, there were thankfully some improvements. There are now a ton of different challenges and things to unlock, which makes playing even more fun as there always seems to be something new to achieve. As you’d expect, there are plenty of rewards and coins to unlock, although this is already part of the free-to-play model and not necessarily a MultiVersus-exclusive feature.
The game itself is still incredibly entertaining and it never takes me long to find companions when playing alone. In fact, more than once I’ve met other players who felt we worked well together as a team and played a few more games together… or we even added each other as friends. Although personally I think it’s best to play with people I know, especially when playing with my girlfriend or close friends. For me, this is the time when I enjoy the game the most and when it can be the most strategic.
On the other hand, the game system has changed a little, which has made the game seem a little slower than before. In fact, many people have been very critical of this, although personally I think it’s a matter of getting used to it. In addition, I think it makes the game more stable and offers more control.
As for the characters and my gaming experience, Superman was the character I played with the most, the one I liked the most in the beta and he has continued without disappointing me. On the other hand, as far as new characters go, Joker seems to me to be one of the strongest characters, although I suppose his stats will drop in not too long due to the terrible online encounters I had against this character. Finally and in contrast, I found Jason Voorhees more difficult to play, although I feel he could improve significantly if his stats improve.
Overall, I’m glad MultiVersus is back. I still find it a very enjoyable multiplayer title, even if Player First Games and Warner have made it so difficult, as it seems very odd to me to cut things from the beta (when it was criticized for its lack of content back then), and I don’t understand why the game system itself isn’t better than it is… So, to my great regret, this has to affect the score, and while not all of it is bad, its shortcomings have taken their toll and I’m forced to give it a lower score than the beta version.
