Marvel Rivals is kicking off its first official season, “Eternal Night Falls” bringing substantial changes to the game including hero adjustments and new content. With sweeping updates including a new rank the development team seems eager to address concerns while adding new life to this action packed multiplayer.
Season 1 Launch and What It Includes
Marvel Rivals' first season kicked off on January 10 2025. It introduced several significant changes including the debut of the Fantastic Four team members along with sweeping updates to existing characters.
New Heroes
Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman were released at the beginning of the season, with Human Torch and The Thing coming during the second half. These additions offer new dynamics to battles while testing the new combinations between characters.
Map Additions and Doom Match Mode
Season 1 also introduces a couple new maps. These locations are in areas inspired by iconic locations. “Midtown and "Sanctum Sanctorum" come to the forefront early on with "Central Park" to come in the next part of the season. All will allow users to immerse themselves into the many areas of marvel while playing their favorite heros. Also included is the new mode of "Doom Match" which will see between 8 and 12 players facing off against each other.
Ranked Reset
With a brand new season also comes an adjustment to player rankings. The new ranking includes the "Celestial" which offers higher tier game play for skilled users as it sits inbetween the Grandmaster and Eternity ranks. Current players rankings will drop seven divisions meaning that many will start fresh from season 0.
Hero Balancing and Adjustments
Season 1 of "Marvel Rivals" came with an emphasis on balancing characters as multiple heroes have had both nerfs and buffs. This will offer all players an interesting new way of combatting each other.
Key Nerfs
Characters like Hawkeye and Hela have seen their power levels reduced. Some of the most notable changes was that "Jeff" had adjustments made to their ultimate that will offer more counter plays in specific battles.
Notable Buffs
Captain America and Venom were given more options to charge in battles and assist team mates which increases their viability to help the team win a specific match. Wolverine and Storm also had some increases in their abilities to help create a more diverse range of characters for high skilled play.
New Cosmetics and The Malice Skin
“Marvel Rivals” has now added new cosmetics including a battle pass and unique skins. With this has come the Malice skin , for Susan Storm, aka The Invisible Woman. It depicts a dark version of her and has created some interesting debates amongst viewers.
How To Acquire the Skins
Skins such as Malice can be bought in game either alone or in a bundle via in game currency called “Units”. In addition to buying certain costumes also come in limited time offerings.
Community Reaction
Some find it as something new and fun, with others thinking it was not in the appropriate tone due to that being the depiction of Susan during a trauma in her past. This difference in views creates an interesting new viewpoint of players to also explore.
The End of Marvel Rivals Mods
The first season updates also included technical changes that ended all modifications for player created content as the new patch included an "asset hash check". The new check does not allow for custom skins for any players and has taken them all away for now while making a change in how all users can engage.
Effects of the Change
The new changes has disabled mods as it does an extensive file check. Those modifications also went against the terms of service and can get user accounts banned. This technical upgrade also comes at the same time as premium skin sales as it ensures no free alterations to the game that can impact revenue.
Community Reactions
Players did take it in various ways from sadness about not having unique and exciting alterations with humor as well as frustration about having mods not being available. Also discussions around how much the focus should be on the core gameplay over graphics was mentioned as a key component. These conversations make this moment a very good reference on how users take change.
Performance and Experience
Those that found a lot of the mods were also not just for unique style but more for performance, were also upset that a change like this would limit options for higher end gameplay and unique settings. With the elimination of said methods it would create an uneven playing field for some viewers which became a point that had some attention.
Key Takeaways
- "Marvel Rivals" Season 1 launched with new content such as "The Fantastic Four," game modes, and map locations with a major overhaul of characters via nerfs and buffs.
- The season brought about the controversial Malice skin and the addition of an all new Celestial tier to competitive gameplay.
- New technology to scan files changed how mods could impact gameplay and many adjustments to in-game abilities were created for the player base.
- The “Start Today” initiative encourages better decisions to help with quality gameplay while creating an inclusive culture amongst all involved with “Marvel Rivals”.
- The shows emphasis on balancing performance with style in terms of new in-game items gives new perspectives to users.