The developers behind Marvel’s Avengers gave a breakdown of Captain America’s shield and how they approached the iconic weapon. Over the past few months, small sneak peeks of Avengers gameplay have made their way out into the world. Now, Cap’s role in the team is getting a closer focus than ever. IGN sat down with Vince Naoli, the lead combat designer for the game, to talk about how each member of the team manages to stand out in the upcoming title. For Crystal Dynamics, getting each Avenger to feel distinct is a major focus. Gamers have seen hero shooters and other online-focused games have a rough time when all of the heroes feel similar. Standing out in a crowded sea of titles is just the first step toward having a healthy game. The heart of the team is no different in that regard.
“Throwing the shield is obviously so iconic and needed to feel so special,” Napoli explained. “His shield throw actually has its own built-in ranged combo. It’s a unique characteristic the other characters don’t have, which is that his ranged attack actually works like a combo.
Comics fans know that watching Steve Rogers toss that shield is exhilarating because it communicates how well he knows the weapon. Without a single word, the toss communicates that Cap has been using this singular weapon for a long time. That shield is absolutely formidable in the hands of Captain America.
“So perfect timing as you catch it and throw it will increment his throws and create different throws and reactions on the enemies. He also has a special counter kickback, which is when you use his charge throw, after it hits the last enemy, if you can time the kickback ahead of time, he’ll jump up and kick the shield back and meet it as it’s returning and he’ll kick it back out and hit once again all the targets that you were able to target with his charge throw.”
The main question that Napoli said that the team posed to each other was how to distinguish that real shield mastery that Captain Americademonstrates in the comics.
Napoli asked, “How can you really feel like you’ve mastered the shield throw, what layers can we do where there is some amount of practiced and learned ability to the point where you actually do feel like an expert Captain America player?”
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