Marvel Rivals is a mood game. Play it on a good night and it feels like the best hero shooter you’ve touched in years. Play it on a bad night and you’ll wonder why you bothered loading it up.
The score lands at 6/10, and that’s not lazy math. It’s genuinely a 10/10 when your team clicks and a 2/10 when matchmaking throws you into a stomp. Average those out across a real play session and you get exactly a 6.
The character kits are the best thing about this game, full stop. NetEase actually did the work of translating Marvel powers into mechanics that feel right. Playing as your favorite hero doesn’t just look cool, it feels cool. Each character plays differently in ways that matter, and landing a perfectly timed Team-Up ability gives you a rush that most hero shooters can’t touch.
Winning in Marvel Rivals hits harder than winning in other games in the genre. When your composition comes together and you execute clean, the dopamine payoff is real. That “jackpot” feeling keeps you queuing up again.
Matchmaking is the biggest problem this game has, and it’s not close. Balanced matches feel like the exception rather than the rule. You’re either completely dominating or getting run over, and both feel boring after a few rounds. The middle ground where an actual competition happens just doesn’t show up often enough.
Losing streaks in this game are especially brutal. It’s not just that you lose, it’s how long and painful it feels to lose. The experience drains your motivation to queue for one more in a way that few other games manage.
There’s also a “been there, done that” ceiling. In a market already crowded with hero shooters (Overwatch 2 sitting at a 3/10 for comparison), Marvel Rivals sometimes leans too hard on the Marvel brand to justify itself. When the matchmaking fails you, the IP alone isn’t enough to keep the session fun.
Marvel Rivals is worth playing if you go in knowing what it is: a high-variance experience where the brand and the character design are excellent, but the infrastructure underneath them still needs work. The best character kits in the genre are in here. So is some of the most frustrating matchmaking you’ll find anywhere.
Play it. Just don’t be surprised when it makes you feel both ways in the same night.
Score: 6/10
Marvel Rivals scores 6/10 on immediate fun. Highest highs and lowest lows. Feels like gambling with your time due to abysmal matchmaking.
Abysmal matchmaking. Hero shooter fatigue.
One question: did it deliver immediate fun? Graphics, story depth, difficulty and critical acclaim are ignored. Pick-up-and-play accessibility is rewarded; anything that makes you wait for the fun to start is penalized.
How we score: We don't care about graphics, story depth, or critical acclaim. One question — did it deliver immediate fun? We reward pick-up-and-play accessibility and penalize anything that makes you wait for the fun to start.