(Image credit: NetEase)

Marvel Rivals is a fun game, but there’s a problem. It’s a problem you can’t even see – which in itself is sort of the problem. For all the (pretty understandable) comments levied at the game for its impersonation of Overwatch, this is one thing Overwatch inarguably did better: body shapes and character silhouettes.

It might not seem important at first glance, but those physiques are one of the most essential factors in any hero shooter, and Marvel Rivals’ discipline in this area isn’t just slipshod: it’s getting worse with every update.

Clear and present danger

Like many multiplayer shooters and certainly most hero shooters, the battlefield of Marvel Rivals tends to be busy. Lunar boomerangs ricochet off tacky New Age jewellery while skull-pattern murderers sling pink smoke bombs, neon webbing spills over the arena, and we’ve barely started. Arrows are in flight, hulks are hulking out, and a burgundy soccer mom is floating above all of this and threatening to blow herself up if her demands are not met. In normal circumstances this situation should be mentally overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Not when characters have clear silhouettes.

This is a trick almost as old as multiplayer itself. Even more important than the colors a character wears, their outline is what your brain notices first, and comprehension immediately follows. Without that attempt to meet you halfway the game risks getting immediately frustrating, as you can’t process what you’re looking at fast enough to make an informed choice about how to murder it.

(Image credit: NetEase)

In some respects Marvel Rivals is good at the silhouette game. For example, Hulk, Venom and Thor are all large tanks, but still have very distinct shapes. Hulk has a small head, making him pointy at the top. Venom is hunched with little legs, making him into an upside-down triangle. Thor is basically a rectangle, with a fluttering cape to further draw the eye. All great, no notes.

But as you get further into the roster of Marvel Rivals characters, things start to get tricky. Winter Soldier and Punisher are both middling-sized men in dark clothes holding guns in front of them, and now it’s getting harder to tell at a distance. Likewise, Wolverine and Black Panther have similar movements and builds that make their rough shapes indistinct, not helped by both of them moving in fast pounces that make them difficult to track with the eye. Still, Logan’s ugly jacket being coloured like a tropical fish does help mark them apart.

But clarity takes a hit again once you reach the bulk of the women in Marvel Rivals. After all, the men come in all shapes and sizes, from the lithe and acrobatic Spider-Man to the regal bearing of Magneto. But if you told me that Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Mantis, Magik, Psylocke and Luna Snow were all built off the same wireframe model, I’d absolutely believe you. And Dagger and the new Marvel Rivals Invisible Woman are the real offenders: both hourglass figures in white jumpsuits with long, blonde hair, slinging small, glassy projectiles that heal allies and hurt foes. Most would struggle to separate them in a police line-up, let alone in the frenetic chaos of a dozen demigods trying to kill each other.