Blade Slices Into Marvel Rivals: Season 3.5 Promises More Than Just Fangs and Shotguns
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 is bringing the vampire-hunting action with Blade, plus new team-up abilities, a crackdown on toxic players, and a mysterious new game mode – sounds like NetEase is keeping things interesting, eh?
Right then, Marvel Rivals players, brace yourselves because NetEase is chucking a whole load of new goodies your way with Season 3.5, landing in August. And the headliner? Blade, the Daywalker himself. Finally!
Now, I know what you're thinking: “Another season, another character.” But hold your horses, mate, because this ain't just a simple skin swap. Blade's been kicking about as an NPC since Season 1, so seeing him finally become playable feels like they’re actually listening to the fans. Plus, NetEase promises he'll be a proper Duelist, mixing shotgun blasts with that iconic Ancestral Sword. And his ultimate? Sword of Dracula? Sounds like they’re letting him loose to properly carve up the opposition. Fair dinkum.
According to IGN South Africa (cheers to Michael Cripe for the scoop!), Blade's story goes something like this: Dracula locked him up, Wakanda patched him up, and now Shuri’s recruited him to face off against Hela and Knull. Dramatic, innit?
But the update doesn't stop at pointy teeth and shiny swords. Oh no. We're also getting new team-up abilities. Some existing ones are getting the boot (RIP Guardian Revival and Atlas Bond), but we're getting Duality Dance (Adam Warlock & Luna Snow) and Vibrant Vitality (Mantis with Groot OR Loki – now that’s a weird combo). Existing team-ups are also getting expanded – Iron Fist joins Chilling Assault and Star-Lord joins Rocket Network. Seems like NetEase is trying to shake up the meta a bit.
And because nobody likes a toxic teammate, NetEase is also cracking down on bad behaviour with "Operation: Shield the Community." Custom text chat filters are on the way (you can mute specific words – genius!), and they've apparently been monitoring in-game voice chat since late July. The hammer's also coming down harder on rage quitters in Competitive modes, with longer bans and bigger point deductions. Seems fair enough, doesn't it?
Finally, we're getting a new game mode called Resource Rumble and a Throne of Knull map later in August (around the 22nd, apparently). NetEase is being a bit cagey on the details for now, but they’re promising a gameplay deep dive soon. It’ll hit Quick Match first before making its way to Competitive, so you can get your practice in without the pressure cooker.
All in all, Season 3.5 looks like NetEase is sticking to their guns with that two-month release schedule. They’re promising more characters and frequent updates based on player feedback. Whether they can keep it up remains to be seen, but for now, it looks like Marvel Rivals is getting a healthy dose of fresh blood (pun absolutely intended). Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sharpen my virtual stakes...
Tags: Marvel Rivals, Blade, NetEase, Season 3.5, Hero Shooter
Original article: IGN South Africa