“Armed and dangerous!” is probably what fans of “Overwatch 2” heard when “Marvel Rivals,” developed by NetEase, first released on Dec. 6.

“Marvel Rivals” is a new team player vs. player shooter game that centers around characters from the Marvel universe, falling into the same genre as “Overwatch 2,” its main competitor. The game follows common tropes within the genre, such as dividing roles into tank, DPS and healer, known in the game as vanguards, duelists and strategists respectively.

Almost three months after its release, the game is still running strong, successfully retaining its early fanbase. The second half of season 1 released on Feb. 21, adding new content like an additional map, according to Sports Illustrated.

The game’s success is in part due to the way it is designed. In particular, the decision to make all characters free-to-play, and therefore accessible to everyone, is a major improvement over other team-based shooter games. 

I started off confused about which characters I wanted to play. Since there was such a wide variety, the game let me explore my options before settling down on a couple favorites.

When I was first playing, I swapped between characters erratically, noticing how each one felt both unique and powerful in their own way. Some characters had special movement mechanics while others had novel voicelines, and all the characters’ movesets connected well to their powers and stories. 

The freedom to pick any character is also part of the reason why the game feels so balanced: no character is designed to be more valuable than another.

Additionally, the game’s longevity is assured by the constant addition of new characters. The Fantastic Four were added after the game was released, and “Marvel Rivals” already has a large set of heroes they plan to add within future updates. 

By keeping players, especially Marvel fans, on their toes about new characters, the game keeps their player base excited and engaged. Personally, the game has me hooked on the possibility of characters such as Deadpool or Ultron being added to the game. 

Even in all its glory, “Marvel Rivals” is not perfect. A problem players have faced since its release is the overwhelming number of and demand for duelists.

“Marvel Rivals” is doing its best to tackle this issue by ensuring they release new non-duelist characters, like The Thing and Invisible Woman. However, it is still incredibly difficult for me to play the characters I want to.

For example, I enjoy playing Hawkeye, a duelist. However, I almost always end up picking characters like Loki or Peni Parker, a strategist and vanguard respectively, since the rest of my team is too stubborn to switch.

“Marvel Rivals” also falters when it comes to graphics optimization, forcing my computer to operate at Hulk-strength to run the game. Although players can manually adjust settings to alleviate some of these processing issues, it is still irritating to deal with choppy gameplay induced by an overemphasis on high-quality graphics.

“Marvel Rivals” is like a well-timed Winter Soldier ultimate: it hits the right spot again and again, and it just won’t stop. Describing the game and its consistent success as anything but legendary is an understatement, and despite running into a few problems, it seems “Marvel Rivals” will continue to take up the spotlight of the gaming world.