Marvel Rivals Brings the Fight to the Holidays

Com Marvel Rivals ready to deploy, it seems that Marvel doesn’t need a cinematic blockbuster to totally own the holiday season. Marvel Rivals is shaping up to be a wild ride of team-based PvP shooter action bursting with heroes and baddies galore, and it’s out on December 6th. The game is free-to-play, and Marvel and developer NetEase have already won hearts and minds with the news that every hero will be unlocked and playable for free at launch.

Crucially, if the gangbuster round of press previews from Gamescom in August are to be believed, the game is very good indeed. To find out how we can help the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda ward off the latest overpowered threat, Intel Gaming Access snapped on some spandex and performed a flawless superhero landing next to Weikang Ruan, the Lead Technical Designer on Marvel Rivals at NetEase Games.

Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 team shooter that invites you to fight with your own custom squad of Marvel super heroes and villains. There’s a feast of characters to work with, from big hitters Hulk and Captain America, to less obvious picks including Psylocke and, improbably, Jeff the Land Shark. Different character combinations will unlock powerful Team-Up skills to help you take out the trash across destructible and evolving maps based on recognizable Marvel locations. “The game is perfect for Marvel fans who love fast-paced action and tactical team play, as well as competitive multiplayer gamers looking for a fresh and evolving experience,” says Ruan.

Tons of destructible stuff is something we expect of this type of game, but it still requires a huge amount of clever work from the devs to make it happen without compromising silky smooth performance. “One of the biggest challenges we faced while developing Marvel Rivals was utilizing Unreal Engine 5’s Chaos Destruction and Lumen Global Illumination Systems to create fully destructible environments,” says Ruan. “These features added immense visual depth, but also placed significant demands on both CPU and GPU performance. To address this, we worked closely with our technical teams to optimize how destruction effects were handled in real-time, ensuring that we could maintain high performance even during intense gameplay moments.”

There were also a few hero-specific needs that placed additional technical demands on the dev team. “Another major challenge was implementing Doctor Strange’s interactive portals, which essentially required the GPU to render two separate scenes at once,” says Ruan. “Combined with UE5’s advanced visual features, this created a substantial performance bottleneck. We overcame this by leveraging Intel^Ⓡ X^eSS to reduce GPU load, allowing us to maintain visual fidelity while ensuring that the game runs smoothly.”

The kind of performance boost delivered by Intel^Ⓡ X^eSS AI-enhanced upscaling is becoming increasingly important with games that demand ever more from the PCs they run on. “PC performance is crucial to Marvel Rivals because it ensures smooth, responsive gameplay, especially during fast-paced battles with complex visual effects and destructible environments,” says Ruan. “High performance allows players to fully immerse themselves in the action without lag or frame-drops, which is essential for competitive PvP.”

While the team will never stop finessing the game’s performance, Ruan does have some advice for PC players to help themselves to get the most out of Marvel Rivals from the get-go. “To achieve optimal performance, we recommend using the latest Intel CPUs and GPUs, which are designed to handle the game’s demands efficiently,” says Ruan. “Additionally, Intel’s X^eSS technologies can significantly enhance performance, boost framerates, and improve visual fidelity, ensuring a smooth and highly immersive experience for PC gamers.”

As you’d expect, NetEase are promising regular post-launch updates to Marvel Rivals, with new heroes, maps, and challenges. “We have exciting plans, including regular updates with new characters, maps, and seasonal content,” says Ruan. “Players can look forward to fresh challenges, evolving gameplay dynamics, and ongoing support to keep the game engaging and fun for the long term.” Suit up—the holidays are coming.

Wishlist Marvel Rivals on Steam