Marvel’s Avengers DLC pack will feature War for Wakanda, where gamers can fight as T’Challa, aka Black Panther.
Hannah MacLeod and Scott Walters, members of Marvel’s Avengers development team, spoke with the website Comic Book Resources and shared some details about the game’s scale and what they are looking to accomplish by adding Black Panther to the gameplay. When asked why they chose the character over other heroes, this is what they had to say.
“I think the biggest thing that we wanted to focus on is that T’Challa comes with an entire nation. There’s a lot more to him that he wanted to get into in terms of Wakanda, and so we wanted to take the time to really do that justice,” says MacLeod. “From the story side of things, it was always looking at how the characters fit into the overall arc in terms of the Kree invasion, not just from a fangirl’s or a fanboy’s standpoint. We listen to the fans, and we have our own priorities there. T’Challa is just so iconic that everybody wanted to figure out a way to make it happen.”
As for the gameplay, how does it hold its own amongst so many other characters? Walters explains this in-depth. “In terms of his role in combat, T’Challa is very much about buffing and debuffing both players and enemies. He still has the light combo, heavy combo, range attack, heroics, etc. — on paper, he’s designed to be one to one in that sense,” he mentions.
“For those fans that really want to get the most out of Black Panther, though, you want to learn the nuance of the skills, the rotation in which to apply them, how to maintain all of those buffs and debuffs to be most effective. There’s also obviously a level of customisation that we offer through our heroic upgrades to our mastery skill tree and through the gear perks to really tailor and fit T’Challa to your playstyle while still filling that specific role.”
War for Wakanda, which includes Black Panther and the Wakanda biome, will be available for free on all platforms on August 17. I recommend the entire interview at CBR to find out all the little details that helped this DLC pack come together.