MultiVersus: a fighting game for those not interested in fighting games

I’ll be honest, I’m not interested in fighting games, and I’ve played such games only a few times, and then only at parties after the third beer, when no one pays attention to your clumsy moves, and determining the winner is not important at all. Why then did MultiVersus get me so hooked? Maybe because this game is designed for people who are not interested in fighting games.

You don’t need to be a fighting game expert to start playing MultiVersus and have fun. At first, simple and special blows, even horizontal ones, will be enough for you. Then, during matches, or (without obstacles) in the quiet of the Laboratory, you can figure out what does this or that blow in different conditions that depend on the direction of movement, whether you are in the air or not, whether you have accumulated strength or not, and so on. For complete nerds, there is a class on advanced tactics.

MultiVersus is a platform fighting game, so your task is to push the opponent “overboard”. As long as they or you received little damage, it will be quite difficult, because such a character does not bounce away very far. The more damage they receive, the “lighter” they become, and the easier it is to push the out of the arena. But the ringout can also be carried out against a completely fresh opponent, the main thing is to strike in time and correctly direct it, say at the moment when the already knocked out opponent returns to the ring. The rings in the game are different, some dynamically change from your actions, roughly speaking, you blow them to pieces, so tactics must be adapted.

All characters present in the game are divided into tanks, fighters, assassins, magicians and support characters. The main difference between them is the balance of close fighting and outfighting and yes, the presence of support techniques. Before starting a match, fighters can be slightly modified with passive skills, some of which are common to different characters, some of which are unique.

All the characters of MultiVersus are characters from various cinematic or animated franchises of Warner Bros., DC Comics, HBO, Turner Entertainment and Cartoon Network. It features Batman, Harley Quinn, Superman and Wonder Woman from the DC universe. There’s Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes cartoons, Shaggy and Velma from Scooby-Doo. Steven Universe and Garnet from the animated series Steven Universe. Finn the Human and Jake the Dog from Adventure Time. Arya Stark from Game of Thrones. Iron giant from the cartoon of the same name. Tom and Jerry (both go as one character) from… Tom & Jerry. And even basketball player LeBron James from the 2021 film Space Jam: A New Legacy. Rick and Morty (as separate characters this time) from Rick and Morty are planned to be added before the game’s release on August 26, 2022 (and we’re currently in Open Beta). The only non-licensed character is Raindog (a very nice support, by the way), who was invented by Player First Games themselves.

That is, you get it. At Player First Games, there are almost endless opportunities for MultiVersus development, LoL is no match for it. These characters already in the game are not even 1% of the characters that can be added to the roadster based on the various franchises belonging to the Warner Bros. family. DC and Game of Thrones alone are enough for a dozen seasons. The main thing is that the characters differ in skills and fighting styles.

So far, the authors have succeeded. And while we have some questions about the balance of Superman and Bugs Bunny, there’s a good chance it’s not an imbalance, it’s just me not knowing how to play against these characters, and someone has thoroughly studied all of them.

Currently, there are four types of matches in MultiVersus – one-on-one (essentially a test of the knowledge of the chosen character); in 2-on-2 teams (the most common and probably the most interesting type of competition); 2 on 2 against bots (not interesting, besides, the bots here are evil and do not make mistakes); and all vs all for 4 players (very chaotic but fun). Matches in the game are fast, in 2 on 2 matches the game goes up to 4 ringouts and takes 2-5 minutes. And the most important thing is that MultiVersus is a humorous game, so defeats here are not sad, and the characters try in every way to cheer you up.

Of course, as in any free-to-play game, MultiVersus has a Battle Pass, which you have to buy for special currency and cosmetic items, which do not affect the combat abilities of the heroes in any way. That is, the monetization here is gentle and does not interfere with enjoying the game at all. We’ll see what happens next.

MultiVersus started very well on all services where it appeared. There are enough players online, and you don’t have to wait long for the next match. About 2 million players have already tried the game on Steam (the current estimate is 89%). At the time of the start of the Open Beta (July 27), the game climbed into the Top 5 Steam with an indicator of 153 thousand online players. In 10 days, the indicators dropped a little, but are still very good, the daily maximum is about 100 thousand players. Given how often players with Epic Games Store, PlayStation, and Xbox icons are found in matches, it can be assumed that the launch of MultiVersus was successful on other platforms as well.

So if you’ve never been into fighting games like me, give MultiVersus a try, you might like it too. It’s a really well-made, light, and fun game. Just what you need to distract yourself a little. See you at the arena!