MultiVersus: Bring Back My Beta

MultiVersus, after a year long open beta, was taken offline for some major development reworks. On May 28th, MultiVersus relaunched with a proper “full” release. I played the game for around 2 months during the open beta, before eventually dropping off. I liked a lot of the game, and thought with some minor tweaks, it could be really fantastic. But, after jumping in to play the game once again, I find myself disappointed. 

There’s, unfortunately, a lot to critique here. I still quite like this game, but after a year to refine and adjust the game, I wanted it to be even better than before. The game in its current state is arguably worse. I’m still planning to give it a fair shake though and see if Player First Games can listen to its community and salvage the situation. At the same time though, I do think it has squandered a lot of goodwill in how it’s transitioned from the open beta to this release. 

Before we dive into the nitty gritty, let’s zoom out a little. MultiVersus is a free to play, online platform fighter blending together characters from various Warner Brothers IPs. This includes characters like Bugs Bunny, Shaggy, Superman, and Arya Stark. It’s quite the eclectic mix of characters, and there’s some franchises represented that I quite adore. Its closest, and most obvious, comparison is Super Smash Brothers. 

This comparison is certainly earned, but the open beta had a few interesting tweaks to the formula. Super Smash Brothers is normally played as 1 vs 1 matches, whereas MultiVersus recommends 2 vs 2 matches as its game mode. The matches were structured the same, attack your enemy to deal damage, which increases the distance characters are knocked back by attacks in order to knock them off the stage. 

How the gameplay felt was really what set MultiVersus apart. Super Smash Bros is a quick game, but matches in MultiVersus felt even more frenetic. The movement speed was quick, and aerial combat allowed for 2 jumps, 2 dodges, and 2 specials, almost double the aerial options present in Super Smash Bros. The character kits were varied, with some characters focusing more on supporting their partner in a 2 vs 2 match rather than dealing damage themselves. 

It all added up to some rather interesting gameplay, but the match making, hitboxes, and net code were areas where the game seemed to be lacking. Between these issues, and a lack of new content and characters, the player count slowly began to dwindle in the months leading up to the open beta being taken offline. The development updates given during this time seemed promising and I was excited to see how this game could be improved and made even better. 

After finally getting my hands on the game again, it’s been more than tweaked, it uses a new engine, and has essentially been built again from scratch. Character kits have been adjusted, the support class, which focuses on supporting your teammate in battle, has been scrapped, and the gameplay feels significantly different. The whole game feels slower, in movement speed, attack speed, and dodging, it all feels a touch sluggish compared to the beta. 

Now, this could be a good thing, it might make the game feel more deliberate, less dodge heavy or twitchy. But, between server issues in online matches and character abilities causing obvious lag, it just doesn’t feel great to play. Many people have also complained about the camera being too zoomed in, I haven’t found myself bothered by it. I can see it being an issue for certain characters who need a more holistic view of the battlefield though. 

In some very odd changes, there’s a few features and options that are just not present in this rerelease. You can no longer swap the neutral and side attack buttons, turn off team colors (blue team gets a blue tint, red team gets a red tint, it looks ugly.), or view your stats after a match (damage done, ringouts, etc). Possibly the most glaring, is the inability to use characters you haven’t purchased in offline modes, severely affecting local tournament play, and giving players no way to test characters before purchasing them. 

Which brings us into the monetization. Sigh. I worked in game development on a mobile free to play gotcha game, I’m no stranger to the fact that free to play games have to incentive players to spend money. However, I can’t bring myself to defend the ways they’ve changed the monetization in MultiVersus, it straight up sucks. The currency used in the open beta for purchasing characters was converted into a few cosmetic items based on how much you had. 

The money you earned playing the game, likely to unlock fighters, was not converted into the new currency to unlock fighters. Players who had large amounts of gold that they were saving, for whatever reason, were essentially punished for it. I was holding onto some gold myself, and now I wish I could have spent as much of it as I could. I had no way of knowing of course, but it just feels like such a disservice to players who enjoyed the game. 

Fighters now use a new currency that must be earned from scratch, and the price for fighters not in the beta is doubled. If you don’t want to grind for this currency, which is limited by daily missions I might add, you can pay (at least) $10 to buy the character outright. A smash DLC fighter costs around $5.99. These are also US prices, so for this poor Canadian I’m paying even more. There’s also reports of players missing characters and skins they previously had access to in the beta.

This feels downright scummy at times. Converting the currency we had previously into things that can’t be spent on new fighters, while simultaneously raising the prices AND making this new currency harder to acquire in the first place is outrageous. Players are angry, I am angry, and we have every right to be. 

Which really makes this all sting, is that I still like this game. Some of the previous issues, hitboxes, lack of content, and netcode (when a match works) all feel much better. I wish the game was a little bit faster, but when it all comes together it’s still pretty fun in its current state. But between technical issues, monetization changes, and gameplay changes, it’s really difficult to be excited about MultiVersus. 

I truly do hope that this can be remedied, if the developers listen to the community, and implement some smart changes, or at least show us they’re willing to meet in the middle, this game could still be great. After a year of development though, this feels a bit like a slap in the face. The changes made seem to be poorly considered, and squanders a lot of goodwill that the community had. 

I’ll ride this wave a little longer, but if they can’t course correct soon, MultiVersus will have the opposite legacy of a game like Cyberpunk 2077. MultiVersus started strong, and seemingly got worse. It’s not easy to rebuild a game in a new engine, and the gameplay can be tweaked and refined, but these monetization changes just suck. As it is now, bring back the beta, this is not the MultiVersus I grew to love.