Marvel Rivals Zombies Fighting the Undead Horde Conquering
The Marvel Rivals have recently launched an entirely new PvE experience: The Marvel Zombies. Your mission is almost simple: You and three other heroes must fight through hordes of the living dead, power yourselves up, and at last confront the Scarlet Witch, Queen of the Dead. Jumping into the mix, I put in 10 hours polishing my skills across the seven difficulty levels and chasing that precious spot on the leaderboard. The journey has been victorious, frustrating, and entertaining with some truly broken hero builds along the way.
First Steps Prelude to Nightmare
It was a couple of hours spent on easier difficulties mostly getting acquainted with the gameplay loop of fighting waves of zombies, building up Moon Power, and using it to buy earth-shattering upgrades between rounds. The main mechanics feel like a heavy lift of classics like Left 4 Dead but with a distinct and somewhat flashy touch by a certain superhero ability.
The first few minutes with Blade felt great. His lifesteal makes him a self-sufficient beast, able to deal massive damage to hordes without a healer. Other heroes like Thor and Jeff the Land Shark, in the very beginning, felt much less famous and underwhelming next to the attack of Blade. But with upgrades, as we will see, everyone can turn into a killing machine.
Nightmarish Beginning Very Serious Difficulty Advanced
After hitting through hard and extreme, we started playing on Nightmare difficulties. This is where the mode really begins to show teeth. By this point, there are just too many zombies on screen; special infected are more dangerous, and teamwork is no longer permitted. The performance was, however, still impressively optimized by the development team.
At this point, strange and hilarious things began to occur during our runs. At his maximum size after using his skills, Jeff became bigger than a beluga whale, which was a sight that never got old. We also encountered the constant bug which allowed Blade's ultimate name "Vengeance Inspector's Name" to be triggered without him moving and thus root him in place. Initially, this was a challenge-turned-lucky-strategic advantage, as he was then able to safely damage from range.
Hero Assessment Apocalypse Meta
After hours of testing, a clear meta began to take shape. Certain heroes are better suited for this mode based on their unique kits and upgrade paths.
The Unholy Trinity Essential High-Difficulty Picks
- Blade: The king of Zombies, no contest. Build into attack speed, lifesteal, damage, and spin attacks. He becomes an unkillable, self-healing whirlwind of death necessary for keeping Nightmare 4 alive.
- Punisher: Super high-output damage dealer. For headshot damage and magazine size, he becomes a machine for shredding sentinels. Downside: not very mobile; crazy glass cannon that must keep repositioning all the time.
- Magik: Otherwise known as an underdog, she is an absolute goddess of crowd control. Multi-spin sword attacks can hit everything on the map from one spot. She shines in the late game once her full build is online, but she's very squishy; thus, it requires good positioning.
Honorable Mentions Niche but Mighty
- Thor: Starts off feeling weak, but with attack speed and damage upgrades, he's a monster that can wipe whole waves and chunk bosses.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Don't expect any jägerbombs up there. It's the survivability that Jeff brings in excellent in distracting enemies and reviving teammates exactly what is required in highest-difficulty runs.
The Wall Nightmare 4's Brutality
Everything before was a warm-up. Nightmare 4 is really in a category all on its own. The difficulty spike from Nightmare 3 was off the charts. Zombies hit harder, special infected can one-shot you, and you start off with less points to upgrade with. My team and I slammed our heads on this wall for hours.
What was learned primarily is an early-game strategy has to change completely. Instead of going all-out for damage, you fast invest in max health. Unless you have it, you're instantly one-shotted by green gunk and charging zombies, making lifesteal builds useless. Surviving the first four rounds to get more upgrade points should be the ultimate goal.
Even after this change in strategy, it became a bloody nightmare. One slip and you're dead. That last boss fight with Wanda (and on round 20 two Wandas) required almost seamless coordination and damage and almost nonstop moving to avoid her truly devastating attacks.
Final Verdict Is Marvel Zombies Worth All the Grind
After ten hours of hardcore gameplay and another solo run that finally got me onto the leaderboard, it was safe to say Marvel Zombies is a great addition to Marvel Rivals. It presents a PvE experience that is chaotic, demanding, and truly entertaining, testing one's skill and strategic thinking.
Pros
- Crazy and Terribly Fun: Nothing like mowing through armies of zombies as any of the heroes.
- Very Replayable: A coming back is warranted, as there are seven difficulties with different hero builds.
- Deceptively Deep Strategy: Winning at higher difficulty requires particular builds, team comps, and strategies.
- Excellent Performance: Game handles turmoil quite steady frame rate.
- Great for Team Play: Great mode to play with friends.
Cons
- Brutal Difficulty Spikes: The jump to Nightmare 4 feels really unfair and frustrating.
- Hero Imbalance: Some heroes like Blade, for this mode, seem much stronger than the others.
- Gameplay Bugs: Certain gameplay issues such as Blade's ultimate getting stuck.
- Repetitive Objective: The central game loop doesn't change much with the last 10 waves.
