[EXCITING MUSIC]
ANNOUNCER: From the beginning, Marvel's Avengers
has been about creating the ultimate Avengers
experience for fans.
And as fans, we know that Avengers stories usually
leave the door open for more: more members,
new stories, and larger worlds.
If more is what fans expect, then why not give it to them?
This is an inside look at Marvel's
Avengers, presented by Intel.
And in "Episode 4," the Avengers Initiative expands.
The Avengers Initiative is the continuing
story that takes place after the Reassemble campaign--
--where you and your friends can team
up to take on challenges against enemies
that threaten the world.
The Avengers Initiative is an open canvas
for Intel and Crystal Dynamics to add new features
and evolve the gameplay.
We left a lot of flexibility for us
to add content after launch.
We can ship new levels without patching the game.
We can tweak all sorts of things in the existing War Zones
that are out there.
As a fan I think the Avengers Initiative gives us
an excellent opportunity to expand the hero roster
and bring iconic enemies and locations for players to enjoy.
What I'm most excited about is playing
new characters and storylines like Clint
Barton and Kate Bishop.
Pretty early on, we decided we wanted to include Kate Bishop
just because she was an interesting and unique take
to Hawkeye.
So Kate Bishop is a skilled archer, gymnast, private eye,
all-around awesome.
Kate's an important Avenger because she
brings a lot of character and style to the story.
Ooh, OK.
I have so many questions.
But I like the energy!
So let's just turn this thing on before I overthink.
NICOLE MARTINEZ: Kate's mission in "Taking AIM"
is to figure out what's going on with AIM and Tachyon,
but also to try and track down her mentor, who went missing.
Are you working for S.H.I.E.L.D. now?
It's uh, complicated.
Where's Clint?
That's complicated, too.
Comics that really influenced us for Kate
were My Life as a Weapon for her relationship with Clint Barton,
and then her solo run that was just called Hawkeye.
In Hawkeye, especially, Kate has a bit of an attitude
but it's always fun to be around her.
You see that in the way that characters interact with her
and how she deals with her private investigation cases.
We talked a lot about Kate and Clint
being kind of a one-two punch, a double feature
because we were so inspired by My Life
as a Weapon, which has Kate and Clint
working together, seeing him mentor her
into the next Hawkeye.
Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye,
is Kate Bishop's mentor and one of the core Avengers.
NICOLE MARTINEZ: World-class archer,
expert swordsman as well.
Shortly after the events of A-Day,
Nick Fury drops off the radar.
And Clint Barton is important to our story
because he is in search of Fury to see what he's been up to
and if he's in trouble.
NICOLE MARTINEZ: So Maestro is a key part of
the "Future Imperfect" story.
We were inspired by the Future Imperfect comics for Maestro.
And like any good Marvel villain,
he has his reasons for doing what he does and he didn't
become a villain overnight.
You never ventured beyond the storm,
[PANTING GROWL] you coward.
Each time we bring in a new character
it comes with new mechanics, new interactions with the world.
Everything is different.
It's another entire vertical slice of the game
that we're adding on.
In a sense, it's its own game and we have to make sure
that that looks and feels intact with the rest
of the experience.
When we were developing the two Hawkeyes, Kate and Clint,
we wanted to make sure we found ways to differentiate them--
GARY SNETHEN: --with different heroics,
different submechanics, while still
maintaining the same basic feel of the weapon types and so on.
When developing Clint, obviously we
looked at all of the different versions of the trick arrows
he used in the comics and other media.
A couple of the iconic examples are the boomerang
arrow that he has.
His time as Ronin was also another big inspiration
to give him a sword.
A lot of Clint's skills revolve around shooting an arrow.
We developed a lot of trick arrows
for him to use, even more so than Kate.
Even the melee ones eventually branch off to firing arrows.
For Kate we looked at really utilizing her quantum tech,
whether that's using it for melee to dash in and attack,
or whether that's using it for the quantum
arrows for her ranged gameplay.
We looked at the Young Avengers where she uses the Kree
Composite Soul Bow, and that bow,
she is basically just drawing back
a string of energy and firing off energy projectiles.
The thing I really enjoyed about developing Kate and Clint
was having them be the first step
on that promise of bringing new heroes
and gameplay to the Avengers players.
And now, just like a comic, we're
able to expand on that with new heroes, new villains,
new stories within our own universe.
There's going to be new characters in the future
as well.
There's new biomes that we can add
to expand the variety of War Zones that are in there,
and there's new mechanics and new features that we can add,
as well as new unique game modes like HARM Room for PC.
So the collaboration with Intel has been fantastic.
We added the higher-end water tech,
we added advanced heroics, we added better armor destruction,
and now we're continuing with Intel
to add the HARM Room for PC, which allows you
to combat a whole large array of enemies
and push the limits of your PC.
The HARM Room is the Holographic Augmented Reality Machine,
and it is the virtual reality training
room that the Avengers use in order to hone their skills.
The reason that we did this HARM Room is because it puts
two features together that we developed early on in the game:
Armor Destruction and Heroics.
If you want to get better at fighting a certain class
of enemy like Synthoids with Iron Man,
you can set that up in this mode, and insane numbers
so that you can really challenge your skills
and become a better player.
There are eight enemy sets and eight group sizes.
There's different hazards.
Electricity, Toxic, Fire, Frost are some of the hazards
that you can set up in this mode, too.
So you can also enable buffs for your character.
Some of those buffs are Double Damage or Reduced Incoming
Damage or even Invincibility.
Playing as Hulk in this is insanely fun.
I turn on Double Damage and Increase Armor,
and you really end up feeling like a super Hulk
when you play this mods.
You can create an experience that you can't find
in the game, and you end up able to push your CPU on PC
with these custom experiences.
At Intel one of our goals is to really push
the experience for PC players, and I think
the HARM Room really does that.
So we launched the game back in early September,
and the effort on the team has not stopped at all.
I take a lot of pride in the work that we've done together.
It's kind of a dream come true.
ANNOUNCER: Marvel's Avengers is committed to providing
a unique and heroic experience.
As players continue to train, team up, and save the world,
they'll discover that what they've seen
is only just the beginning.
Keep a lookout for new characters,
conflicts, and stories to emerge in Marvel's Avengers.
We'll see you at the War Table.