‘MultiVersus’ Has Fun Gameplay, But a Lot is Holding it Back
MultiVersus is Warner Bros. version of Smash Bros. And while the gameplay is solid, too many other layers muddy the waters.
MultiVersus is a game that I’ve been really excited about for a while now. The idea of getting to play characters from such a wide selection of IPs seemed great. And it is!
MultiVersus has quick and responsive controls, tight gameplay, and overall a really solid game. However, there is a lot going on behind the gameplay that might turn some people away.
I’ve been playing MultiVersus for about a week, during the open beta, so I have a good handle on the mechanics. Let’s start with the new standard in gaming, The Battle Pass.
Battle Pass Progression is Incredibly Slow
Matches in MultiVersus are the best of the 3 games. Each game you play earns you about 5 battle bucks, or whatever they decided to call it. You’ll notice I’m on Tier 6 on my battle pass and I need another 325 to get to the next level.
The game wants you to complete quests, which grant 100 battle pass points. However, you can only do 6 quests a day. So, once you’ve completed those 6 quests, there’s not much reason to keep playing, if you are hoping for progression.
But the battle pass is all cosmetics, so I, like all gamers, desperately want and need every cosmetic item I can get my hands on. But there’s more to level up in MultiVersus.
Character Levels and Perks
Each character levels as you play them. These levels grant a few cosmetics, but the real advantage is Perks.
Each character can equip 3 universal perks and 1 character-specific perk. These perks grant additional damage, more health, lower cooldowns, faster dodges, and all kinds of things. At first, I was worried this was a pay-to-win sort of thing. And, they sort of are. However, I view them more like Team Fortress 2 weapons. You start with the basic weapons but can start to unlock more as you play.
It doesn’t take terribly long to unlock the Perks and you eventually gain the ability to buy Perks with gold, which you’ll have tons of. Assuming you don’t want to buy more characters.
Is MultiVersus a Cash Grab?
I don’t know why I do the things that I do, but during my time playing in the beta, I only played Taz. I’m not sure why. So, imagine my surprise when I opened the game after the official release only to find Taz locked. I had to spend my in-game currency to be able to play Taz. I had the gold, so it wasn’t a big deal. But it did make me reconsider my objections that some people are worried this game is going too heavy into cash-grab territory.
There’s Too Much to Remember
I’m a smart guy. I went to school. I can understand things and stuff, but MultiVersus has way too much to remember and keep track of.
The Glossary section has 3 full tabs of terms to remember. There are different status effects, different keywords, attack types, and all kinds of terms they want you to keep track of. Obviously, you won’t need to know all of them right away and any fighting game with a large roster is gonna have effects you won’t understand at first.
But this is a good example where it feels like the designers wanted to make sure each character felt so unique they went a little too hard. Obviously, it’s great that each character is unique, but the opposite-of-silver-lining of that is that they have had several unique keywords and status effects to remember as well.
Final Thoughts
During the beta, I was strongly considering buying the Founder’s Pack. It gave a bunch of in-game currency, special cosmetics, and things like that. However, I told myself to wait until the day before and see if I still felt the same.
While I do like MultiVersus, a lot and I will keep playing it, I don’t see myself spending any money on the game. It feels like that’s what the game wants me to do, by locking off characters, making progress so slow, and also because the highest level Founder’s Pack was $100.
All signs point to MultiVersus really hoping I spent big, and that is enough to keep me from wanting to.
