Avengers Game Reveal At E3 2019: Social Media Was Not Kind To Square Enix's Reveal

The long-awaited first look at the forthcoming Avengers game, titled Marvel's Avengers, finally came at Square Enix's E3 2019 Press Conference. The company saved the reveal for the end of its press conference, but it probably didn't get the kind of overwhelmingly positive reaction from the internet that it might have liked. While it stars the core Avengers team from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it doesn't feature the likenesses of the actors who fans have grown accustomed to over the last ten years. That, unfortunately, likely resulted in the character designs getting dragged on social media.

The Avengers reveal finally showed something of the game that's being worked on by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. Despite an extended look at Avengers, things are still pretty cryptic: though it seems to be a third-person action game, it's not especially clear how it plays. (Since the debut, we got to play Avengers but were still left with questions.) We do know that it's an original Avengers story (the same way Insomniac's recent game, Marvel's Spider-Man, was divorced from existing storylines). And it seems that Captain America buys it early in the game, with the story picking up five years later after they disband in response to taking the blame for destroying a big part of San Francisco.

There was plenty of news included in the presentation, including an upcoming Avengers beta coming to PS4 first and its release date. While the action is cinematic in the game's trailer and Square Enix's announcement included details like cooperative gameplay, free post-release DLC, and an all-star voice cast that includes Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Nolan North, Travis Willingham, and Jeff Schine, it was the character designs that captured imaginations, and not in a good way.

It's not just that the MCU actors' likenesses weren't used--although that was part of the reaction. Captain America's riot officer body armor and Thor's weird headlight shirt were among the issues many seemed to take with the designs. There were also plenty of people wondering where Hawkeye is. You can check out some of the meanest (or funniest) reactions below.

We've got plenty more E3 2019 coverage throughout the show, including rundowns of all the news out of the Square Enix press conference, and all the other press conferences, too--be sure to check back throughout the week for news, previews, and impressions from gaming's biggest show. Among other things, we got a fresh look at another Marvel game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which is coming to Switch in July. A new trailer showcased its characters and we learned about some of the teams coming as DLC.