Marvel Rivals Is Adding A 'non-combat Map' Where Players Can 'hang...

Marvel Rivals season 5 is shaping up to be a big one.

Marvel Rivals season 5 is set to go live on November 14, and yes, Gambit and Rogue—Mr. and Mrs. X, as Guangguang, aka creative director Guangyun Chen, describes them—are finally set to take their place in the lineup. But more interesting to me is the addition of a new map based on New York's Times Square, which will be a "non-combat map" where people can just hang out and be cool.

The new map is notable to me because Marvel Rivals is a game that is explicitly about not being cool with your fellow costumed crusaders: Blade, you'll recall, can hack his opponents into itty-bitty pieces in an outburst of violence that looks like it belongs in an Elden Ring boss fight. As someone who doesn't play Marvel Rivals I thought at first that I was misunderstanding what was happening, but no, Guangguang is quite clear: No fisticuffs in Times Square!

"Season 5 brings you the grand debut of New York's Times Square," he said in today's pre-season 5 update video. "This is a non-combat map that can host up to 100 players. Hang out, dance, watch videos, read books, and let your imagination run wild.

"We've seen so many fun, friendly meets up in the Doom Match 'Sanctum Sanctorum' map, so we wanted to give everyone a dedicated space for socializing, relaxing, and sharing cool moments outside of battle."

I think it's a great idea, and it brings to my mind thoughts of Arc Raiders: It's a very different sort of game where PvP combat is optional, unlike Marvel Rivals, but the way so many players have opted to give peace a chance bears a thematic similarity to this non-combat map. Shooting each other is fun, yes, but sometimes it's nice to just chill out a bit, maybe compliment someone's outfit or talk about the wild adventure you just had—especially when shooting each other is literally all there is to do otherwise. I wouldn't want to be doing it all the time, or even most of the time, but it sounds like fun as an occasional diversion, especially if NetEase maintains the map with content and activity updates.

And yes, you can even do the Spider-Man Pointing Meme:

So that's the big hook here for me, a weirdo who enjoys not shooting at people in my multiplayer shooters. The bigger response among fans, perhaps predictably, is centered around the looming arrival of Gambit and Rogue, in particular the fact that Gambit is a strategist, Marvel Rivals' support class.

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Source: PC Gamer