Image credit:NetEase / TheGamer

Marvel Rivals gets its first ever PVE mode when the zombies arrive on October 23rd

Flogging a dead Hawkeye

· Rock Paper Shotgun

Marvel Rivals is finally getting a PVE mode, pitting five of the game's 42 stylish and bizarre, caped or capeless crusaders against... zombies. Ah, zombies, the real heroes of any videogame looking to phone in a quick co-op wave attack mode (while dabbling in a little cross-promotion). The AI and character design are supposed to look basic, stoopid. The experience is supposed to feel like punching a bucket of porridge, you ass. These are brainless shamblers, not the Sinister Six.

I'm probably being unkind to the developers at NetEase. If I'm being unkind, it's because I'm still recovering from the cadaverous bro bonding and despairing puns in the opening 2 minutes 14 seconds of the announcement trailer. Do yourself a favour and skip to 2 minutes 15. I'll summarise the rest below.

In Marvel Rivals' zombies mode, Thor, Blade, Magik, Jeff the Land Shark and The Punisher slice, bash and blast prancing crowds of corpses enroute to a battle with named zombie Namor and the Queen of the Dead, aka Scarlet Witch: Romero Edition. Each hero's abilities have been tailored to suit the new mode. Blade handles crowd control with bouncing moonblades. Jeff can do an underwater charge, parting the ghouls like the Red Sea. Magik can go berserk as her Darkchild alternate, Thor can turn himself into a walking shock turret, and Punisher has guns again.

It's billed as an old-fashioned procession of swarm fights and boss battles. I get the faintest whiff of Left 4 Dead from the footage, but that's likely pure projection. The mode launches on 23rd October, and while it's obviously noteworthy that such a big game is going PVE, I suspect this will distract you for approximately fifteen minutes before you shrug jaded shoulders and resume the process of reducing Human Torch to spent kindling.