Why Marvel Rivals’ lack of a role lock feature is good for the game’s longevity
As a third-person hero shooter, Marvel Rivals has quite the path before it finds its footing as a live service title. Yet for all its ups and downs, the game’s lack of a role lock feature is a step in the right direction when it comes to player expression.
Players are still figuring out the best strategies in Marvel Rivals
Though it has a Competitive mode, Marvel Rivals mostly focuses on having fun in a casual setting. The game is very unbalanced at the moment, and while this may dissuade people from trying it, now is probably the best time to hop on.
Marvel Rivals’ launch is when both casual and professional players are learning the ins and outs of the game’s systems; leading to multiple strategies and team compositions. Since certain metas will inevitably pop up once the initial experimentation phase is over, people may find it more liberating to play now, while no one knows what the best plays are.
Marvel Rivals’ casual nature frees it from the trappings of a competitive game
This is where the game’s lack of a role lock feature shines. By removing a set team composition like the two Tank, two Damage, and two Support hero system in Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals opens up more avenues for experimentation. For example, a single team can be made up of one Vanguard (Tank), four Duelists (Damage), and one Strategist (Support) while another team can be comprised of three Vanguards, one Duelist, and two Strategists. In a situation where equally skilled players fight with different hero class numbers, both teams will find there is no clear winner.
The game’s imbalance is what makes these team compositions viable. A Strategist like Jeff has the healing potential to keep the entire team alive by himself. A Duelist like Psylocke has two ranged attacks, as well as two Psy-Blade Dashes and a Psychic Stealth invisible mode that allow her to get out of sticky situations with ease.
The purpose of a role lock feature is to create a sense of balance. Adding the feature to Marvel Rivals could limit NetEase’s ability to stabilize the game. If Marvel Rivals were to follow in Overwatch 2’s footsteps and implement the 2-2-2 role lock system, this would force the developers to tone down a Strategist like Jeff to increase the play rate of the other Strategists. As there has yet to be a perfectly balanced hero shooter (the addition of more playable characters and a large roster being the main causes), Marvel Rivals seems to be content with going all-in on the genre’s unbalanced nature.
More heroes and Team-Up abilities give Marvel fans what they are looking for
NetEase Games already stated that more free playable heroes will be coming to Marvel Rivals. This means more abilities and Team-Up attacks for players to experiment with, all of which will add to the game’s learning curve and overall imbalance.
Based on its launch state, it looks as though Marvel Rivals is following in Team Fortress 2’s footsteps instead of Overwatch 2’s. The game seems to be more focused on letting players control their favorite Marvel heroes instead of pigeonholing them into set roles that they may or may not want to play.
NetEase Games will have to tweak some of the more overpowered and underpowered aspects of Marvel Rivals to keep players happy, but this doesn’t mean that adding a role lock feature should be the immediate answer. The game is doing exceptionally well based on its player count across all platforms, and this is without any balance patches (not counting the past pre-launch builds of the game). Marvel Rivals isn’t the most original hero shooter, but it has the potential to lean towards casual fun while other competitors focus on the sweaty competitive side of things.
