The first season of the open beta was promising, the second season was disappointing, and the launch of the final version did not do much to improve the level of disappointment towards the game. The first season of the final version brought four new characters. Three were well known characters that fit the fighting genre. The Joker from DC Comics was the main draw, and the character that personified the "Puns and Villainy" subtitle of the season. He was voiced by Mark Hamill, joining his Batman: The Animated Series colleague Kevin Conroy who reprised his role as Batman in one of his final performances before his death at age 66 on November 30, 2022. The other two fighters that fit the fighting game genre were Jason Vorhees, the villain of the Friday the 13th series, and Agent Smith, the villain of The Matrix and its sequels. The final fighter was completely out of left field. That character was a Banana Guard, one of the dimwitted and useless supposed protectors of the Candy Kingdom in Adventure Time and some of its spin-offs.
The most disappointing part of the release of the new characters was the way they were obtained. While the beta had a balanced path to get the characters, through points obtained through normal gameplay, one of the most popular characters of the bunch, Agent Smith, was locked at the end of a season track path. This broke the balance, making the premium players have an advantage over those playing solely as free-to-play. It made the game feel like more of a cash grab than it ever had before. Personally, this made me quit the game completely, and judging by the drop-off of players, I was not the only one.
The game also felt lacking compared to the beta. The game was remade in Unreal Engine 5 versus the beta which used the fourth version of the Unreal Engine. This was surely a factor in the long period of waiting between the end of the beta and the final, however, the engine upgrade was not enough to make the wait worth it. This is especially true as game modes in the beta were absent in the final release. The free-for-all mode was missing at launch and was added later in the first season, whereas the ranked mode was missing completely.
Multiversus Season 1: Puns and Villainy was another huge disappointment after the lackluster release of the second season of the beta way back in November of 2022. The addition of the Joker, played by the oft-cited as the best animated Joker performance of all time, Mark Hamill, was not enough of a draw to make the final version of MultiVersus worth the wait. Only four new characters were added, which was one less than the promising first open beta season. The fact that one of these new characters, the Banana Guard was way out of place as a fighter in the game didn't help matters. On top of this, one of the most popular chacaters, Agent Smith, was locked behind a prize track. Add in the fact that the final lacked the ranked mode from the open beta, and you are left with a very flawed final product.
Final Verdict:2½ out of 5
| MultiVersus Season 2 (Open Beta) Review | MultiVersus Season 2 Review Coming Soon |
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