I played this online with some friends watching last night. I was really hoping the console release here would consolidate "the game" to some solid chunk where I could just shell out a reasonable total for a collection of established characters. That is decidedly not the case. All characters (except Jason and Agent Smith) can be purchased with "experience"-based funny money, but after playing for a half hour, I was only 66% of the way to buying one character. The alternative is buying playable characters with "gleamium", and the exchange rate appears to make every character roughly $10 each. There are approximately 25 playable characters. Do the math. There are also premium skins for characters, and they appear to cost like $10 each, too. And there are at least three separate "missions" available to earn experience-money that all are based on "play the game on different, consecutive days" with at least one only granting its final prize after 14 continuous days of play. And you have to use the money-money gleamium to buy the "battle pass" to get Jason Voorhees... and, as best as I can figure from the information provided, the only thing you are getting with the battle pass is Jason. Like... that really stretches the definition of "battle pass" for me.
Anyway, the whole thing seems predatory as hell. I was prepared for some level of microtransaction nonsense here, but it is overwhelming and all-encompassing. I swear there was not a single "cosmetic" item in the in-game store that did not have an attendant fomo timer informing you when this costume or emote would stop being available. I am nearly mad at the fact that this preying on kids/teenagers when Smash Bros "complete" is over there with nearly 100 characters for $80. The whole transaction universe for Multiversus is 100% based on "I need it now" spending, and, gee, I wonder which age demographic is hugely vulnerable to that rapaciousness.
And I played the game with the four free characters available (Shaggy is default unlocked, everyone else is on a timer). It feels generally unbalanced in its weightiness, and a little too over reliant on every "hit" being an event. As a weird side effect, it makes the whole experience feel more like an entirely menu-based mobile game where they are trying to hype you up for just playing rock-paper-scissors. It's not terrible, and it "feels" better than Nick All-Stars, but is still... Not great.
Anyway, I deleted it from my PS5 after giving it a go. I really do not want to support the game further in its current incarnation. I can really only use the word "predatory" to describe it.
