Next Tuesday marks the relaunch of MultiVersus on Xbox consoles (and other platforms), bringing the free-to-play brawler back to market for the first time since June of 2023. Ahead of the relaunch, we had a chance to go hands-on with the PC version recently, allowing us to sample all the new features that are being added to MultiVersus 2.0.
And there are a lot of new features! Amongst other things, MultiVersus is switching to Unreal Engine 5, adding new characters (including Jason Vorhees and Agent Smith) and stages (including Dexter's Laboratory), implementing rollback netcode for a smooth online experience, and introducing a new campaign mode called "Rifts".
It's the latter that we've been spending most time with recently, and it's been a fun ride so far! Rifts are split into multiple chapters where you'll progress through the (admittedly barebones, but functional) story as you take on different types of battles. You can play this mode entirely single-player if you want, but co-op is supported as well.
There are branching paths that you can take as you progress, with the goal of getting to the final stage and defeating the boss - the first one being The Joker. Along the way, you'll encounter various types of minigames as well, from smashing targets to playing jump rope, and even trying to memorise the sequence of various playing cards. This variety really helps to keep things interesting along the way, and makes for a fun campaign experience.
As things stand, there are only two campaign chapters available at launch, but more are visible in the chapter select screen, so we expect the Rifts mode to be expanded greatly post-release. The online portion of MultiVersus is naturally still the main focus (and based on our limited tests, it seems to work really well), but Rifts is something we can see ourselves returning to again and again - simply for some casual PvE gameplay.
Of course, the big plus point here is that MultiVersus is entirely free to download and play, so you'll be able to make your own judgment when the game relaunches for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on May 28th, 2024. We've been having a great time with the preview version (thanks WB Games!), and we're looking forward to the full release.