It is a always nice to see more characters added to the Marvel’s Avengers’ roster, and it is especially nice of Square Enix to give some love to Hawkeye, who was surely missed on A-Day when the base game launched in August of this year. This first free downloadable content features Hawkeye’s protégé, Kate Bishop, as an additional character to play, master, and customize. If you liked my pitch, let’s talk about what we found in the Taking AIM operation.
When we first boot up the game, we notice that we can access operations that take place after the events of the main game. You have access to all the Avengers from A-Day and Miss Marvel and can take on missions with other players, via player lobby, or with AI companions. Story-wise, we are reintroduced to the resistance against AIM and are introduced to our faction leader: Maria Hill, voiced by Jennifer Hale. I’m always excited for Jennifer Hale, who you might remember played Female Shepherd in Mass Effect and Bastilla from KOTOR, but alas, she is not the focus of the DLC.
We are not immediately introduced to Kate, but we accidentally run into her while investigating the Tachyon storms that have been emerging. She suddenly develops a personality as soon as she reveals herself on the comms. She is just as snarky and confident as Tony Stark himself, and she never lets up. She has a few moments of agency, but she is not-stop jabbing with the wit (and maybe not so much gab). After her recruitment mission, we take control of her and can test her out.
She is really fun to play as, being both a katana and bow carrying gymnast, self-described as slammin in purple. Not only that but she rocks the aviators. She does not have a whole lot of variety in cosmetic skins in my opinion, but that could change. I think she shines best when it comes to the actual combat. Here is a list of her skills with descriptions attached:
- Blade Dancer’s Strike – A melee combo move that breaks through enemy defenses, slamming them into the ground and leaving them vulnerable to attacks.
- Blink – Teleport towards nearby ledges or poles. Teleporting to a pole will trigger a swing, while teleporting ledges will trigger a quick vault over or onto nearby ledges.
- Smoke Screen Arrow – Perform an evasive bow attack, firing an arrow that creates a cloud of smoke and inflicts additional stun damage to enemies inside the smoke.
- Decoy – Throw a miniature hologram projector that displays a hologram of the wielder, distracting enemies from attack actual heroes.
- Tranquilizer Arrow – Quickly switch to the bow and fire an arrow that applies the Snared debuff (making them easier to interrupt).
- Demolition Blast Arrow – Enabled after any Signature or Power Attack, fire an arrow that attaches to surfaces with a time-delayed, proximity explosive that launches targets into the air when detonated.
- Warp Arrow – Fire an arrow that teleports the wielder on impact. Teleporting to the arrow creates a quantum explosion that deals damage to all nearby enemies, launching them into the air.
Some of the abilities are more passive than others, and I actually performed Blink by accident. It’s just as noticeable as doing a cartwheel when dodging to the side. Subtle, but very cool. I’ve incorporated most of these abilities into my playthrough, and they work very well together. I dislike Decoy, because it is limited to who it attracts. I would not recommend using it in a boss battle. Otherwise the other skills just flow well in concert with each other.
Since Taking AIM is entirely focused on Kate, her character profile obviously comes to the forefront, so much that the game feels as though they are forcing the spotlight on her. Rightly so, it’s her story. I enjoyed her witty banter with Tony Stark, but it got old fairly quickly. I personally felt that I was signing on to play as an Ironman/Black Widow hybrid. Outside of the campaign story missions, she is just another face in the roster. I’m sure others would have preferred we just get Hawkeye, and I wonder how the developers with differentiate the two going forward.
I think the selling point of Marvel’s Avengers is their cast, which contains characters we already know and love from the franchise. They are not expanded on as much compared to the likes of Ms. Marvel or Kate Bishop. If this is the approach the developers want to take when introducing characters, I don’t mind an anthology of Avengers as the join the ranks; I would only ask for a fair shake for everyone so that they can also get their fifteen minutes of fame.
Check Out the Marvel’s Avengers Operation Taking AIM Kate Bishop Trailer:
For more information, please visit: https://avengers.square-enix-games.com/en-us
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I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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