Gaming

Marvel’s Avengers: Does it stick the superhero landing?

A title featuring Earth’s mightiest heroes carries great expectations

Published

September 21, 2020

The Avengers is the most popular superhero team today thanks in large part to the 23 films and counting that belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU. This could lead one to believe that anything that has “Marvel’s Avengers” on it will be well-made and polished because of heightened expectations and the backing of perhaps the largest entertainment company today. Well, not quite.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming following the rather lukewarm reception to the A-Day trailer that was released in E3 2019. But that was just a trailer. Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics — the companies responsible for the game’s development — still had time to address things.

While there may have been improvements here or there, the overall experience just falls a bit short of the grandiose, spectacle, and fun factor that we’ve come to associate with the Avengers.

Heroes divided

So what’s wrong with it, exactly? There’s not one big glaring thing. But the sum of its parts just doesn’t feel like it makes up a cohesive whole.

Just like how the team was split up after the disaster that was A-Day, the game feels like it’s split between two disjointed parts.

The first is the Reassemble Campaign which takes you through a 10-12 hour single-player Action-RPG type of campaign. You get a chance to play as all of the Avengers but the story is mostly told through the perspective of Kamala Khan AKA Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel hard-carrying this game

The second is the Avengers Initiative which is the multiplayer live service part of the game. It’s the part that the developers hoped would keep players coming back.

While the two game modes share the same combat, skills, items, and mission design, the overall experience varies heavily depending on what type of game you’re into.

Ms. Marvel coming of age story

At the core of the Reassemble Campaign is Kamala Khan/ Ms. Marvel. She goes from this bright-eyed fangirl in A-day to a hero in her own right, fighting alongside the heroes she admired.

As someone who generally prefers single-player games, this was the part of the game I enjoyed the most. It’s got enough heart, humor, and character that made the MCU such a mainstream hit, while also sprinkling a little bit of Saturday-morning-cartoon campiness.

The best thing about the story is the dynamic between the characters: Kamala and Bruce Banner’s mentor-mentee relationship, the anger between Tony Stark and Bruce after the latter’s testimonies in court after A-Day, and this bromance between Tony and Steve Rogers.

There’s a lot of great character moments here that should be familiar to Marvel fans whether you came in from the comic books, TV series, or the MCU.

It isn’t without any problems though. Thor had very little to do with the plot except for just being there. He played the deus ex machina role when he first rejoined the team. I guess that’s fitting for a literal god.

The boss battles are also very mediocre. After squaring off against Taskmaster and the Abomination, the next boss battles will all be against AIM Robots. For a superhero hero team with such a rich rogues gallery, this was rather disappointing.

Modok was the only other non AIM robot villain

While it sort of makes sense given the flow of the story, I think they could have thrown in even at least one more Marvel villain there or at least have another tussle against Taskmaster and the Abomination.

Other than that, the story is pretty solid. I wish I could say the same for gameplay.

Grinding for gear

The core of the gameplay is the combat, skills, and gears. This is what connects the single-player campaign to the multiplayer missions. It’s a mixed bag to say the least.

The skill tree for each character is deep but you’ll have to grind through the missions to really get to all of them. More on this later. Meanwhile, the gears are… okay.

There are plenty of skills to unlock

While most other reviewers griped about the lack of cosmetic effect from the gear you pickup, I thought this was mostly okay. It’s almost the same with Marvel’s Spider-Man where I can pick whatever suit I want but change my abilities depending on what the mission requires.

The thing is, in the Spider-Man game by Insomniac, the suit came at no cost. In Marvel’s Avengers, while you can grind your way into some awesome cosmetic changes, a bulk of the better looking ones are stuck behind a paywall. That’s what really grinds most people’s gears, I think.

What grinds your gears?

I also recognize that more thought could have been put into the gears seeing as the whole point of the game is getting loot and items while you’re out on missions. For instance, they could have opted to have a set of cosmetic options for gear that negate certain status effects like frosting.

Feel like a superhero

Despite sharing mostly the same controls — light and heavy attacks, dodging, and jumping on the main buttons plus special abilities on the shoulder buttons — the game does a good job of making each character feel distinct.

Your experience playing as Iron Man will be very different from the one playing as Thor despite both sharing the ability to fly. Same is true for Captain America and Black Widow even though they’re both mostly grounded melee fighters.

Marvel’s Avengers

The stretchy Ms. Marvel also offers perhaps one of the most unique play styles as she also has the ability to heal. It’s perfect for when you’re embarking on multiplayer missions.

Mission unbearable

The missions are where I think the game fumbles a lot. They have a relatively good combat core to build around, but the level designs and challenges leave so much room for improvement.

The missions revolve around retrieving an item, defeating hordes of AIM robots and soldiers, and most frustratingly, defending a small circular area while being swarmed by even more AIM robots and soldiers.

Combat can get chaotic

It’s just a whole bunch of small fries coming at you from left and right. There’s very little variation and it can get old real quick. What’s even more frustrating is to really level up the characters, these are the missions you have to grind through. You don’t get to the really good parts of the combat unless you go through these missions.

Remember the final act of both The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron where the team is battling against armies of Chitari and Ultron’s robots? That’s what the missions feel like except it happens over, and over, and over, and over again.

Good for team players

To balance the opinion, I spoke with our good friend Francis Romero who is both a long-time gamer and huge Marvel fan. Unlike yours truly, Francis actually finds enjoyment in the missions.

What struck me the most with his observation is how team play is crucial in the missions. You can customize your characters’ loadouts to fit the needs of the team. Each one can play a certain role so you can accomplish missions with relative ease.

Flying to a mission

For instance, he said he wasn’t a fan of Ms. Marvel being part of his main team but being a healer, she would be an essential part of the team.

In this regard, the play-with-friends appeal is real. It’s honestly not my cup of tea, but there’s certainly something here that can be enjoyed by people with actual friends or those who play well in a team-setting.

A better future

The other appeal of Marvel’s Avengers being a live service game is the promise of a better future. The developers have already promised that any future DLC content will be free-of-charge.

Hawk-eye — both Will Barton and Kate Bishop — have already been teased and there are more characters coming in the future. Each character, I supposed, will come with their own unique story that will build on the campaign. Their abilities will also be something to consider when building a team for the Avengers Initiative missions.

While the present may be slightly disappointing, a promising future awaits.

Does it stick the superhero landing?

The promise of a better future shouldn’t be the leg that a game stands on. The game can be a little fun at best and a messy, buggy experience at worst.

The loading time from one segment of the game to another is ridiculously long. It almost feels like you can watch an entire MCU film and the game would still be loading when you come back to it.

This loading screen can go on FOREVER

Marvel’s Avengers is weighed down by the expectations surrounding it. When you have a title so mainstream and the backing of an entertainment giant that has dominated the mainstream consciousness for a better part of the decade, it’s fair to expect a polished game. One that feels like the triumphant third act of most MCU films.

Instead, it feels more like the first time Tony Stark took the Iron Man Mark II out for a spin in the first Iron Man movie. It was a fun but clunky ride, and when he soared to go higher he ran into an icing problem.

Marvel’s Avengers

In many ways, that’s what this Marvel’s Avengers game feels like. It’s clunky but fun and while it’s not perfect, there’s certainly something here that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics can build on.

It doesn’t quite stick the superhero landing, but it sure as hell didn’t crash and burn.

Features

The ROG products I still remember

More than memorable machines

Published

June 30, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

Every time a company announces an unusual product, someone inevitably asks, “But who asked for this?”

It’s a fair question. Practicality matters.

But after spending years reviewing tech, I’ve started appreciating another question just as much.

What if nobody had tried?

That, to me, is the story of ROG.

I only really noticed ROG when we started GadgetMatch back in 2015. Back then, they certainly didn’t feel like the powerhouse they do now. But even then, there was something different about the brand.

Looking back after more than a decade of reviewing their devices, I don’t think what defines ROG is that every product has been the best in its category.

It’s that they were rarely afraid to try something new. That’s a much harder thing to pull off.

The courage to experiment

I think ROG has always been willing to do things other gaming brands usually played safe with.

The late 2010s are probably the best example.

Gaming laptops were these behemoths that would break your back if you carried them around for an extended period. Then came the first iterations of the Zephyrus. It wasn’t just another gaming laptop. It was one of the first that genuinely attempted to shrink the gaming laptop form factor without giving up what made it a gaming machine.

From there, the attempts to try new things just kept happening. There was the ROG Phone. The Mothership. The Flow series. Dual-screen head scratchers. The ROG Ally. And more.

Not every experiment was perfect. That’s okay.

Because experimentation isn’t about getting everything right the first time. It’s about giving yourself permission to build something that doesn’t already exist.

That’s why, through all these years, the products I remember most aren’t the ones that played it safe.

The one that kept me curious

If I had to pick one ROG lineup that best represents that mindset, it’d be the Flow Series.

My first brush with it was the original Flow X13. My honest reaction?

“That’s… novel.”

At the time, I saw it as another attempt at shrinking a gaming machine. It came with the ROG XG Mobile—a proprietary external GPU that even used its own custom connector. That particular idea didn’t exactly age too well.

But what really made me gravitate toward the Flow series was the Flow Z13.

ROG calls it a tablet. Form factor-wise, it is. But that thing was chunky. Still, it became my work-and-play buddy for a good few months.

I took it with me on overseas coverage. During the day, it handled everything I needed for work. At night, I could finally unwind with a few games—something I don’t usually get to do while traveling for work.

I use NBA 2K to destress. The Flow Z13 felt like bringing a more-than-competent workhorse and an Xbox Series S in one convenient package.

The Flow didn’t necessarily solve a problem I already had. What intrigued me was what it represented.

To me, the Flow Series is ROG’s promise to keep trying new things. It constantly reimagines what a mobile work-and-play machine can be.

Where the Zephyrus now feels like a promise fulfilled, the Flow still feels like a promise to keep experimenting.

The easiest recommendation

If the Flow represents experimentation, then the Zephyrus represents refinement.

Whenever someone asks me for one gaming laptop recommendation, I almost always end up pointing them toward a Zephyrus.

It’s just the perfect marriage between a sleek work laptop and a gaming rig. There’s very little friction in recommending it because it looks like what most people expect a premium laptop to look like. Then, in an instant, it shifts gears and handles practically anything you throw at it.

That’s also why I’d recommend a Zephyrus over something like a Strix for most people. The Strix feels like it’s built for someone who fully embraces the gamer aesthetic. The Zephyrus feels more understated.

It’s the machine I’d recommend to someone who wants to look professional in a business meeting, then decompress at a café afterward by firing up a favorite game for a quick round or a side quest.

Through the years, that’s probably been the recommendation I’ve given more than any other.

Gaming, untethered

Then came the ROG Ally.

Before the Ally, I almost never played PC games away from a desk. All my life, PC gaming meant sitting at a table somewhere. The Ally really opened up the idea that PC gaming could happen anywhere.

That became especially obvious during the holidays. Whenever I went back to my hometown, I used to bring a bulky gaming console with me.

Last Christmas, I only packed the ROG Xbox Ally X. It completely satisfied my gaming needs.

Back in my tiny studio unit—which, admittedly, isn’t the ideal setup—it’s also become a great way to wind down before bed by knocking out a side quest or advancing a story for a bit. I don’t exactly recommend lying on your side while gaming, but hey, the use case exists.

One memory sticks out more than any benchmark ever could. Growing up, my older brother and I had to take turns using the TV to play games. Last Christmas, he was using the living room TV while I sat nearby playing on the Ally.

For the first time, we were both playing our own games at the same time. No taking turns.

That’s the kind of moment specs don’t really capture.

The products that stay with you

After using what is probably well over a dozen ROG devices at GadgetMatch, I’ve realized something. Their products might all be PCs—save for the ROG Phone—but they aren’t trying to be the same PC.

Each one is built for a different kind of user.

And because GadgetMatch has spent so much time reviewing ROG’s lineup over the years, they’ve naturally become one of the measuring sticks I use when evaluating gaming laptops.

Not necessarily because they’re always the best. Mostly because of the breadth and depth of the lineup—and the amount of time we’ve spent living with these machines.

This was SO COOL.

You start to see the ideas evolve. Some stick immediately. Some need another generation. Meanwhile, some never quite find their audience. That’s part of experimenting.

Even today, I still think the dual-screen concept is on the cusp of something. It hasn’t completely made sense just yet, but I also don’t think we’ve seen its final form.

Years ago, I probably would’ve asked, “Who asked for this?”

Now I find myself asking something else.

“What if this is simply the first step?”

A legacy worth celebrating

Twenty years later, I don’t think ROG’s legacy is about always building the best gaming machine.

I think it’s about being brave and bold enough to keep trying new things—and having enough faith that its community will be there with honest feedback to help shape what comes next.

That’s probably why the ROG devices I remember most aren’t necessarily the ones with the highest frame rates or the biggest performance gains.

They’re the ones that made me stop and think,

“I didn’t expect someone to build this.”

As ROG celebrates its 20th anniversary and introduces its latest lineup—from the refined Zephyrus family to new Strix machines and the continued evolution of ideas like the Zephyrus Duo—I’m reminded that innovation doesn’t always happen in one giant leap. Sometimes it’s a series of bold attempts, small refinements, and the willingness to keep asking “what if?” until the answer finally clicks.

And after all these years, that’s still the part of ROG I remember most.

Learn more about the latest ROG lineup

As ROG celebrates its 20th anniversary, you can explore the latest additions to the Republic of Gamers lineup, locate an ROG Store near you, or learn more about ASUS’ No. 1 Quality and Service Package through the links below.

Entertainment

LE SSERAFIM to perform at BlizzCon 2026

BlizzCon’s closing act.

Published

June 26, 2026

GadgetMatch

Global K-pop sensation LE SSERAFIM is returning to BlizzCon.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the five-member girl group will perform as the closing musical act at BlizzCon 2026. LE SSERAFIM will take the Main Stage on Sunday, September 13 (PT), bringing fans another live performance after its BlizzCon debut in 2023.

The appearance also comes ahead of the group’s upcoming U.S. tour. Blizzard teased that the performance will make it a “Perfect Night” for fans attending the convention at the Anaheim Convention Center.

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LE SSERAFIM returns to Blizzard

LE SSERAFIM debuted in 2022 under SOURCE MUSIC, a label of HYBE. The group is composed of Sakura Miyawaki, Kim Chaewon, Huh Yunjin, Kazuha Nakamura, and Hong Eunchae.

The group’s name is an anagram of “I’m Fearless,” reflecting the confidence that has defined its music since debut.

This won’t be LE SSERAFIM’s first crossover with Blizzard. The group previously collaborated with Overwatch 2, bringing themed cosmetics and a special event to the hero shooter.

BlizzCon 2026 is sold out

BlizzCon is Blizzard Entertainment’s annual community celebration. It brings together fans of World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and other Blizzard franchises for game announcements, developer panels, esports, cosplay, and hands-on experiences.

Passes for BlizzCon 2026 have already sold out. However, Blizzard says tickets may still become available through the Tixr public resale marketplace.

Fans can learn more about LE SSERAFIM’s appearance on Blizzard’s official blog.

Gaming

AMD FSR Upscaling 4.1 now available for Radeon RX 7000 Series

Update drops earlier than expected, powering more than 300 supported games

Published

June 24, 2026

GadgetMatch

PC and handheld gamers can officially skip the wait, as AMD has launched its FSR 4.1 upscaling technology for Radeon RX 7000 series (RDNA 3) GPUs.

Computing and Graphics Group Senior Vice President and GM Jack Huynh made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter). This development brings machine learning powered gaming to millions of players across more than 300 games.

By downloading the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.6.2 driver, users can unlock the new AI upscaling suite on existing RX 7000 series desktop graphics cards.

(The driver can be downloaded here.)

The update drastically sharpens image reconstruction, delivers far superior temporal stability, and keeps motion ghosting to an absolute minimum. That’s across a massive library of supported titles.

Beyond optimized frame rates out of the gate for those two blockbusters, the release packs vital architecture stability improvements and bug fixes for the broader Radeon ecosystem.

Huynh added that AMD is actively engineering lightweight machine learning models to expand FSR 4.1 optimizations to a wider base of gamers. More details are to come.

Moreover, the driver for the FSR 4.1 upscaling technology will deliver day-one support for two highly anticipated releases: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations.

if you are wielding an RDNA 3 desktop rig or an RDNA 3-powered handheld, like the ROG Ally X or Lenovo Legion GO, simply open up the AMD Software suite, get the update, and test the new AI tech.