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I’ve always been the primary gamer in my household. My husband can count the games he’s played on one hand, whereas I can’t even do that for games I’ve played this month. And when it comes to the types of games we play, there’s almost no crossover… until recently.
During the height of the COVID pandemic, my husband and his friends got really into Call of Duty: Warzone. Prior to this Warzone obsession, I’d rarely even seen him pick up a controller. Sure, he owned the Xbox, and yes, he played enough Skyrim to keep up with my sweet roll references, but that was about it. Needless to say, he was not very good at Warzone when he started, and I got to hear plenty about how teaming up with certain friends dragged him into lobbies far above his skillset.
Though I enjoyed seeing him get back into gaming, Warzone feels miles away from the games I gravitate toward. My gaming did and still does tend toward cozies and RPGs, and my few memories of shooters are… not pleasant.
Needless to say, the allure that keeps my husband hooked on Warzone escapes me, especially since he spends most of the time shouting at teammates and enemies alike. In fact, I might have said you’d never tempt me to get anywhere near online play for anything remotely resembling Warzone. But then, Marvel Rivals happened.
I’m a massive Marvel nerd, despite the recent rockier years. And when I checked out the Marvel Rivals character roster, I was impressed with the number of female heroes and villains. As someone who grew up without much female rep in games, knowing I could play as Scarlet Witch from day one had me hitting download.
I quickly realized no amount of chaos magic would help me be any better at a game that is, in many ways, a shooter with superpowers for bullets. I managed to convince one of our friends to join me, but even his quick healing tactics couldn’t keep my death count down. Soon, I found myself biting back similar shouts to those I’m used to hearing when my husband plays Warzone.
Related: All Major Voice Actors & Cast List for Marvel Rivals
It is amazing how frustrating a game like this can be. If the person playing Doctor Strange would just use his portal more, if the Punisher would just stop one-shotting me… then, maybe, I might be able to use Wanda’s chaos magic to my team’s advantage and actually snag a KO or two. Maybe.
And let’s not get started on how useless skill-based matchmaking is during a game’s opening weekend when almost everyone is brand-new. Some of those teams had their strategies on lock, whereas others were about as clueless as I was.
In the background of my Marvel Rivals matches, I could hear my husband’s Warzone-related outbursts. While I managed not to shout into my headset, it was a close thing. All that time slowly walking back to the battlefield only to be immediately killed by Iron Man? Profanities could ensue, indeed.
And yet, I kept coming back.
Even after my friend and his healing skills left the battle, I found myself logging in for one more match. In that moment, I finally began to understand how a game can be equal parts infuriating and addictive, the draw of that “just one more match” feeling that maybe, just maybe, the next battle will be the one where I finally see my hours spent translate to skill.
I’m not going to be grabbing a second Xbox controller to load out for Warzone alongside my husband any time soon, but I do have a new appreciation for why he would keep playing a game that reduces him to rage quitting when cozy games like Stardew Valley exist.
Marvel Rivals is available now on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S.