I'm not at all a fan of the latest Marvel Rivals meta, but I've been drawn back into the third-person shooter thanks to a very unique and special experimental mode recently added to the game by NetEase.
If you've missed out on the news, the limited time mode in Marvel Rivals is called Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol, and it's like an entirely new game on top of the existing hero shooter that's currently at the top of my shit-list as far as how playing it makes me feel.
Ever since the season 2.5 update, Marvel Rivals has been more frustrating for me than anything else. The over-abundance of flying heroes like Ultron and Storm, along with new ridiculous team-ups like the one for Peni Parker and Rocket Raccoon, has the game feeling more like a chore than a joy. But with Ultron's BMP mode, I'm finding reasons to boot it up again.
Auto-battlers, or Auto Chess as the game type has come to be known, are not for everyone. Games like Teamfight Tactics, Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Super Auto Pets, and Backpack Battles scratch a certain itch in that you're playing the game, but you're not. You're relaxing and doing minimal work, but also watching numbers get bigger and enemies go boom. You kind of either like it or you don't.
I, for one, love it. I can't say the same for some of my teammates in the Rivals variant, like the one guy who said something along the lines of "how long does this take," and "I feel like I'm losing my mind" as the match wore on.
In UBMP, you build your own team of heroes from a pre-selected pool of existing characters and set them out on the battlefield to fight against other players. Along the way, you collect upgrades and buffs for your characters to help them win auto-played fights against one another as you watch from above as an Ultron drone.
You can also use your blaster to chip away at enemy players, plus heal your own teammates, and damage the other team once per round, so it's a bit more active then some other auto-battlers. But the fun comes in the strategy of picking a team comp, choosing who and what to buff, and where to place them each round.
I think you should give the mode a shot. If you need some extra encouragement, there are a couple of rewards to unlock along the way, including a spray and two emojis. But for me, I've just been enjoying playing the mode as a way to get my Marvel Rivals fix without greatly increasing my blood pressure after I solo tank for the ninth game in a row while trying to level up my battle pass.
Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol is an experimental mode, so it may be iterated on in the future. For now, this version will only be available until June 23.
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