If you're not playing Marvel Rivals with friends, you're not getting the best of it

Loading in for my fifth Marvel Rivals session of the night, I have accepted that Rocket Raccoon will have to be my main. No one else seems willing to play support roles – aka Strategists – I note, as my lobby fills up with Hulks, Storms, and Iron Hands aplenty. My brief Marvel Rivals preview session at Gamescom did not prepare me for its finer points of tension, from the rush to claim favored heroes in the pre-game menu to, failing that, having to flick through the remaining Marvel Rivals characters on the hunt for one that sounds even remotely intuitive. Cue a cycle of experimentation and swift, graceless humbling at the hands of my suspiciously talented enemies, and I found myself completely hooked.

I'm still getting the hang of NetEase's Overwatch-like hero shooter, so yes, the meta totally escapes me. But with my equally inexperienced friend chatting to me over comms, laughing at the mayhem before us, I've discovered that Rivals can actually be pretty chill if you roll your eyes, lean into its absurdity, and try to be the kind of player you'd hope to play with.

Squad up

Maybe it's because I play in quick bursts rather than a marathon, but there's loads to love about Rivals when you're not being griefed by teammates and semi-pro enemies alike. It's colorful, it's fast-paced, and you have very little time to be frustrated about dying (or being "knocked out," apologies) because you'll respawn in about five seconds. All of these elements factor into how much fun Marvel Rivals is when simply used as a digital hangout space.

That's not to say I don't pull my weight. I certainly do my best in every 6v6 mission, and even if I don't get as many final hits as others, I'm certain most of my teammates are thankful for Rocket Raccoon's plentiful healing bubbles. While playing the game, I keep a watchful eye on all my fellow players' health bars – not just my voice comm buddy's – to make sure none of them feel excluded from our little twosome. But between my attentive healing duties and shooting the shit with my friend, I immediately notice when we are playing with a crew of solo queuers.

I've encountered these brave souls in the past, most often in Dead by Daylight: gamers who set out on a mission to play online multiplayer games totally on their own, sometimes able to put in the work as a teammate, but most often, they're just out for themselves. The notion of soloing a game like Marvel Rivals is a baffling one to me. You can play a pretty selfish Dead by Daylight game and still not come across as actively ruining another's experience, but watching four solo Duelists march headfirst into enemy territory is another level of recklessness.

Seeing so many of these instances has me thinking over all the reasons people might play an online multiplayer game. Is it to feed your competitive streak? Are you like me and just want to hang out with far-flung friends? Or maybe you're driven by the singular goal of ruining everyone else's nice time and pumping your own score sky high, teamwork a total afterthought?

I think the lack of consistency behind player intentions is a big reason why I've never been much of an online gamer. With the exception of Dead by Daylight, Phasmophobia, and a brief stint with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, I much prefer to play single player games and avoid the toxicity altogether. That said, I'm a lot more forgiving of Marvel Rivals than I am of many other hero shooters. This could be down to the novelty factor, with it having only launched a month ago, but I think I'm just loving how totally unserious the game is at its very core. It's about comic book characters playing capture-the-flag, after all; why wouldn't I use Marvel Rivals as my own personal hangout zone, solo queue martyrs and tunneling tanks be damned?

I have no idea how long I'll stick around as a filthy Rivals casual, but for the time being, I think I'll make myself at home. It's a refreshingly silly switch-up from my usual fare, which mostly consists of the best horror games or the sweeping narratives of Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Marvel Rivals is showing me a new way to play and enjoy video games. And you know what? I'm grateful for it, chaotic bully squads and all.

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