Marvel's Avengers co-op has no join-in-progress
Marvel's Avengers has a bit of an outdated approach to online co-op.
Marvel's Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics has been answering some leftover questions, and detailing practically how everything is going to work in the full game.
Recently, the developer confirmed the general content of the game's day one patch, and now, we get to learn more about Avengers' mission structure, co-op and a few of the limitations that will be there at launch. In the latest blog post, Crystal Dynamics revealed that the game does not allow join-in-progress, at least at launch.
In other words, you'll need to assemble your team before you launch into a new mission. Any players who drop out will be replaced with AI bots, as we've seen in the beta. This is a particularly strange omission for a 2020 co-op game, but seeing as the developer ended the sentence with "at this time", we may end up seeing it in a patch down the line.
On the subject of matchmaking, the post confirmed that the system will prioritise matching players of similar Power Levels. Given that only one version of each hero could exist in a team, Avengers will offer three separate options designed to make this process faster.
You can match into a specific War Zone by selecting it, as we've done in the beta. There's also the quick match option, but you'll have to decide whether you want to stick to a specific hero, or are open to playing as anyone if it means getting into a game quickly.
The blog post also clarified scaling and difficulty for players who aren't all within the same Power Level range. Regardless of any disparity that might exist in Power Levels between players, Avengers will unify the value across the entire team, and use that to determine enemy power.
Interestingly, however, picking higher or lower difficulties will not limit your matchmaking options. Difficulty, it turns out, is separate for each player, so one player could have it set to the highest while another plays at the lowest in the same match, and the enemies they each run into as well as the rewards they get will all be based on their chosen difficulty.
Hit the link at the top to read the full thing. Marvel's Avengers is out September 4 on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia. Catch up on our Avengers launch guide for pre-load details, unlock times and more.