MultiVersus

If you've played a Platform Fighter before than you're well acquainted with the feeling of playing Super Smash Bros. for the first time. So many of your favorite characters, in an atmosphere filled with a level of fun that you only dream about today.

In comes MultiVersus, a Next-Gen Free to Play Take on the Platform Fighting Genre to reignite your passion with another set of ever expanding characters whom you love. Designed from the ground up with Competitive Gaming in mind. It's like it's 2001 again and I'm at my local Game Shop on a Saturday afternoon queued up to take on the whole city with my BFF Ness.

But let's get into why I feel like this;

Character Selection

Being able to play as a favorite character is so important in any game. Seeing characters like Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman & Velma really got me interested long before the Technical Alpha began and even more excited now that we are in Open Beta with so many more Character's on the way. (No Leaks Here) winky face

On top of having a wide selection MultiVersus was built from the ground up for competitive play in a Teams setting (2 v 2). Which gives each character a distinct role to play in a match between Tank, Support, Bruiser, Assassin & Mage.

Tank: As a Tank you take the brunt of the damage and protect your teammate while also being significantly harder to deal damage to and eventually ring out. But don't let their Tank status fool you, if you ignore them too much they are fully capable of hitting you so hard you forget the entire match.

Current Tanks available are: Wonder Woman, Superman & Iron Giant

Support: These characters have abilities like Shields, Movement Enhancers and even Damage Heals. They're great at helping zone out an enemy player as well, but once again they'll ring you out if you're not careful.

Current Supports available are: Steven Universe, Reindog & Velma

Bruiser: The quintessential Damage character. They hit and they hit hard. Very straight forward with a lot of variety.

Current Bruisers available are: Shaggy,  Batman, Taz, Garnet & Jake

Assassin: Similar to the Bruiser the Assassin is all about dealing damage, however, with a bit more risk involve. Assassin's are our Glass Canons they are fast and deal high levels of damage, but as a consequence they take higher amounts of damage in return. (14% more to be specific.)

Current Assassins available are: Finn, Arya & Harley Quinn

Mage: A ranged specialist you say? The Mage is here. They'll zone you out, they'll hit you from afar. Close to being a Jack of All Trades, feel very High Skill High Reward.

Current Mages available are: Bugs Bunny & Tom and Jerry

Character Progression

The ability to level up each individual character is something that I never thought I needed, it feels like a great reward of "Mastery" and is important in unlocking your characters Perks which change the way your Move Sets interacts within itself or a team.

I see this making New Character Releases really fun and interesting as we move into the future of the game.

Game Modes

Outside of having a fantastic character selection you need to have solid Game Modes to back that up. Fortunately Player First Games has done their research and in the Open Beta we have a lot going on for a Platform Fighter. While the game was developed around the idea of Teams (2 v 2) we see plenty of others going on. Hopefully with the first Season beginning at the beginning of August we will see Ranked unlocked as well but for now we have lots to do.

1 vs 1: You'll see a lot of 1 v 1 from players who are familiar with Platform Fighters as 1 v 1 in games like Super Smash Bros. are essentially the competitive standard. While MultiVersus' Balance is focused around the Teams (2 v 2) play, players not unlike myself will find themselves enjoying a ton of 1 v 1 balanced or not balanced the challenge is great regardless.

Wins are based on an optional Best out of 3 if agreed upon by both parties.

Teams: As we've mentioned previously this is Player First Games' chosen mode of focus. 2 v 2 core game play. This is a unique and fun experience that really lets to enjoy how well designed these characters are in regards to Teamwork and overall game play. If you have a friend or just enjoy Team oriented game play you'll be stuck in this mode for hours, it's very unique.  

Wins are based on an optional Best of of 3 if agreed upon by both teams.

CO-OP vs AI: Fairly self explanatory, a great place to practice your 2v2 against Bots if you're not feeling comfortable against other players.

Free for All: A classic straight forward 4 person beat 'em up. This is a recreation of all the fun you used to have with your friends in the living room playing with your friends. It's absolute Mayhem of the best variety.

Monetization (Battle Pass)

Being a Free to Play Game we have to talk about Monetization. In order for this game to continue it's development and support it does need to make money. Player First Games has chosen the Free to Play Route with a Supporting Battle Pass and Premium Currency (Gleamium) for purchasing Cosmetic Items. (i.e. Skins, Emotes, Stickers, etc.)

Personally I feel that Free to Play games can be done well and I think PFG is on the right track for that using a system very akin to Riot Game's League of Legends Monetization.

Gleamium

Gleamium current runs at an average of $1 USD for 100 Currency which is pretty standard in F2P Games. However this does lead to many cosmetics feeling a little pricy with Legendary Skins running 2000 Gleamium ($20 USD) not unlike many other F2P Games with similar Monetization.

While there is currently no sign of being able to Earn Gleamium from Playing the game, I do hope that even if it's a slower track that PFG adds Gleamium as a Free Track Reward through the Battle Pass allowing players to save and earn some of these cosmetics through pure play.

Founder's Pack

Founder's Packs can be tricky and PFG is definitely in the middle of some criticism in regards to these, however full disclosure I purchased the Premium Founder's Pack and I'd like to share why and how I feel it's value worked out for me.

As we mentioned above Gleamium is worth roughly 100 per $1 USD. For myself the value was broken down into two things, Monetary and Cosmetic.

Monetary Value is an Easy "Yes" .
30 Character Tokens - ($8 USD/Character) | $240
3 Premium Battle Passes - ($10 USD/Pass) | $30
2500 Gleamium - ($1 USD/100) | $25

Total Monetary Value: $295
Actual Cost: $100

As you can see in terms of Monetary Value it was a full on steal. In regards to Cosmetic Bonuses I can see why people feel as if it has less value. But for me, having even just some small Non-Skin Cosmetics is a pretty cool reward for supporting a game so early on.

I particularly like the Unique Nameplate only available to the Premium Pack.

All in all, personally for an Open Beta with lots to come from New Characters, Stages & much much more. This is one of the best Open Beta F2P Titles that has launched in recent years and if you couldn't tell from the first paragraph, I highly recommend it. So highly that you'll be able to see me playing it on Twitch on a fairly regular basis.

Great Game.