Marvel's Avengers takes a closer look at next hero Kate Bishop, due in December
And a peek at Clint Barton's campaign.
Crystal Dynamics' video game spin on Marvel's Avengers might not have done the numbers publisher Square Enix was hoping for, but those players that did join the ride have a bunch of free content to look forward to in the coming months, starting on 8th December with the arrival of new hero Kate Bishop, who's now been given the full reveal treatment in a new video.
Kate Bishop, the other Hawkeye, joins Marvel's Avengers as part of its first season of post-launch content. This continues the base game's story in new chapters referred to as Operations, each forming part of a "interconnected narrative that unfolds and evolves" as new content is added, and each potentially adding new playable heroes, villains, biomes, and more.
The first of these story additions, Operation: Taking AIM, sees Kate Bishop - a "world-class archer and adept swordsman", voiced by Ashly Burch - searching for mentor Hawkeye (the Clint Barton version), in a journey that eventually leads to a conspiracy involving Nick Fury, time travel, and a new enemy known as the Super Adaptoid.
First introduced in Tales of Suspense #84, the Super Adaptoid was programmed to defeat Captain America by copying the Avengers' abilities. Using this original story as inspiration, Crystal Dynamics' video game incarnation has access to all the Avengers' powers and even comes as an Omega Threat variant encountered in a multiplayer-only version of the boss fight.
Crystal Dynamics notes that Operation: Taking AIM will feature its own unique rewards, and a more challenging late-game version of Kate's final mission - unlocked once her campaign is complete - which offers players a chance to earn still better rewards.
As for Kate's herself, while she shares some commonalities with mentor Clint, she's equipped with her own Heroics and Finishers, and blends quick and agile swords strikes with unique quantum-powered special abilities. Quantum Shift, for instance, is used to teleport away from enemy attacks and strike from behind to parry, while Kate's Blink abilities enable her to double-jump, air dash, and traverse ledges using short-range teleportation.
Unsurprisingly, she's also armed with a wide variety of unlockable and upgradable bow skills, including rapid-fire three-shot Razor Arrows, Scatter Shot Arrows (used to fire multiple arrows at once), Explosive Arrows for staggering enemies and breaking through defenses, plus Smokescreen Arrows, which cause high stun damage to anything within their smoke cloud.
Elsewhere, there's the Decoy Support Heroic, which spawns a hologram replica of Kate to distract enemies with quantum energy arrows, and After Image - used to swap places with the decoy and remotely detonate it, doing significant quantum damage in the process. Warp Arrow, meanwhile, is an Assault Heroic that teleports players over long distances while triggering a large quantum explosion that lifts enemies into the air, and its Worm Hole upgrade creates portals that allies can use to teleport across the battlefield to reach Kate.
Rounding things off are the Quantum Overdrive Ultimate Heroic, which provides unlimited energy to fire the bow with "explosive results", and a unique range of cosmetics for Kate - including emotes, costumes, takedowns, and nameplates - some of which can be earned through gameplay, while others are purchased with real money.
All Kate's abilities get an airing in Crystal Dynamics' 9-minute deep dive video above, and there's also a tease of cross-play and a glimpse of Avengers' next helping of story content, the Clint-Barton-focussed Hawkeye Operation: Future Imperfect, due out early next year. The previously announced next-gen version of Marvel's Avengers should arrive in the same time frame, and will be a free upgrade to current owners on both platforms.