This review was written before the game released
Even though the devs and the bootlickers are insistent that the whole time the game was in beta phase, the game was not marketed on Steam as being in early access or having it said anywhere on the store page that this was an open beta.
The fact that so many people are leaving reviews, comments, forum posts etc. stating they didn't know it was still in beta is quite evident of the fact that they didn't do a good job of communicating that.
What "beta" has battle passes, seasons, tournaments, gets awards and all manner of monetisation included in it?
When the game first properly released on here, I myself was convinced that once the new characters and other content started getting added, that that was the end of the beta.
Because really, think about it.
Normally, when a game is in beta, the devs don't just shut the game down for half a year to "finish" it. They only shut the beta down after the full game is complete. Hence, the game technically in the eyes of many, did release and should've been labeled as full release, as that is what it was being treated as.
And even besides that, there was never any mention anywhere here that the game would be closing down for half a year.
I'm sorry, but this is a really scummy tactic and the devs should've been transparent with the community about this especially, considering the game not only sold founder packs up to $100, but also was riddled with microtransactions, battle passes and all the other nonsense that live service games nowadays carry...
That of course, people bought because there was no mention anywhere that any of this would be yanked away from them at the drop of a hat. Oh, and by the way, these people cannot get refunds for anything they bought, either.
And don't tell me they "said" this anywhere, because if they really gave a ♥♥♥♥ about the players knowing this, they would put the information somewhere accessible instead of "somewhere on their website", hidden away in a corner.
Multiversus itself is an alright game. Not the Smash Bros killer that everyone and their grandmas touted it to be, but fair enough for what it was mechanically and conceptually.
The movement felt kinda floaty, the hitboxes aren't the best.
Servers could range from being serviceable to downright atrocious, not to mention the broken matchmaking that makes no sense.
All the stages felt bland and uninspired despite them being based off of existing properties, were for the most part just empty platforms with a different colour backdrop and not much else besides that.
The music....I guess it exists.
The thing about Multiversus is that it didn't try to do anything new or mindblowing, trying to reinvent the wheel - and sometimes, that's ok. But if you're not going to offer anything new, you need to make the metaphorical reinvented wheel the best you can make it.
The character selection wasn't bad, and they kept adding new characters, but the amount of grinding you would have to do to get even one more character was not worth it, and felt tailored that way to incentivise paying for them.
I get it, the game has to make money somehow. But I'd rather buy a game that has a roster that I can unlock through actually playing rather than grinding for endless hours just to get one more character.
The character rotation was a neat idea and allowed you to use a character even if you didn't own it, but still didn't detract from the fact that the monetisation got progressively worse and worse over time.
Another problem is that instead of trying to focus on fixing the issues that the players were complaining about, they just putting out new battle passes, icons, cosmetics etc. because somewhere along the line, monetisation was being prioritised over actual gameplay.
And gradually, content droughts would appear that would make players drop off the game and that inconsistency, along with all the other problems I mentioned, is what shaved the playerbase down to minimum after the initial hype of the game died.
It is a good guess to assume that the reason why they are shutting the game down to "fully release" it is simply a ploy to generate interest again after a long silence, because the dwindling player numbers weren't generating enough money.
While I do believe initially the game was made with good intentions, I cannot in good faith recommend this game to other people, especially given how they treated the playerbase that supported them from the beginning.
Whether this game will actually return as they say, or will end up with "complications" that will be the nail in the coffin, we have yet to see...
Either way, truly a shame.
The fact that so many people are leaving reviews, comments, forum posts etc. stating they didn't know it was still in beta is quite evident of the fact that they didn't do a good job of communicating that.
What "beta" has battle passes, seasons, tournaments, gets awards and all manner of monetisation included in it?
When the game first properly released on here, I myself was convinced that once the new characters and other content started getting added, that that was the end of the beta.
Because really, think about it.
Normally, when a game is in beta, the devs don't just shut the game down for half a year to "finish" it. They only shut the beta down after the full game is complete. Hence, the game technically in the eyes of many, did release and should've been labeled as full release, as that is what it was being treated as.
And even besides that, there was never any mention anywhere here that the game would be closing down for half a year.
I'm sorry, but this is a really scummy tactic and the devs should've been transparent with the community about this especially, considering the game not only sold founder packs up to $100, but also was riddled with microtransactions, battle passes and all the other nonsense that live service games nowadays carry...
That of course, people bought because there was no mention anywhere that any of this would be yanked away from them at the drop of a hat. Oh, and by the way, these people cannot get refunds for anything they bought, either.
And don't tell me they "said" this anywhere, because if they really gave a ♥♥♥♥ about the players knowing this, they would put the information somewhere accessible instead of "somewhere on their website", hidden away in a corner.
Multiversus itself is an alright game. Not the Smash Bros killer that everyone and their grandmas touted it to be, but fair enough for what it was mechanically and conceptually.
The movement felt kinda floaty, the hitboxes aren't the best.
Servers could range from being serviceable to downright atrocious, not to mention the broken matchmaking that makes no sense.
All the stages felt bland and uninspired despite them being based off of existing properties, were for the most part just empty platforms with a different colour backdrop and not much else besides that.
The music....I guess it exists.
The thing about Multiversus is that it didn't try to do anything new or mindblowing, trying to reinvent the wheel - and sometimes, that's ok. But if you're not going to offer anything new, you need to make the metaphorical reinvented wheel the best you can make it.
The character selection wasn't bad, and they kept adding new characters, but the amount of grinding you would have to do to get even one more character was not worth it, and felt tailored that way to incentivise paying for them.
I get it, the game has to make money somehow. But I'd rather buy a game that has a roster that I can unlock through actually playing rather than grinding for endless hours just to get one more character.
The character rotation was a neat idea and allowed you to use a character even if you didn't own it, but still didn't detract from the fact that the monetisation got progressively worse and worse over time.
Another problem is that instead of trying to focus on fixing the issues that the players were complaining about, they just putting out new battle passes, icons, cosmetics etc. because somewhere along the line, monetisation was being prioritised over actual gameplay.
And gradually, content droughts would appear that would make players drop off the game and that inconsistency, along with all the other problems I mentioned, is what shaved the playerbase down to minimum after the initial hype of the game died.
It is a good guess to assume that the reason why they are shutting the game down to "fully release" it is simply a ploy to generate interest again after a long silence, because the dwindling player numbers weren't generating enough money.
While I do believe initially the game was made with good intentions, I cannot in good faith recommend this game to other people, especially given how they treated the playerbase that supported them from the beginning.
Whether this game will actually return as they say, or will end up with "complications" that will be the nail in the coffin, we have yet to see...
Either way, truly a shame.