Marvel Rivalshas revealed everything that’s coming in the first season, including three new maps for the online multiplayer game. Since its launch last month,Marvel Rivalshas already made quite an impression on the hero shooter genre. It’s quickly become one of the most popular multiplayer games on the market, and that popularity is only due to increase with the advent of its first round of content updates inMarvel Rivals: Season 1.
Like most live service games,Marvel Rivalswill receive regular updates to add new features and content to the game. This time around, players will seefour new playable characters- The Fantastic Four, to be exact - becoming playable in-game over the course of the first season. Besides that, there’ll also be a new Battle Pass with winnable skins, and three brand-new maps to play on. Here’s everythingMarvel Rivalshas revealed about its three new maps: Sanctum Sanctorum, Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, and Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park.
Sanctum Sanctorum Brings Doctor Strange’s Multidimensional Mansion To Rivals
Multiversal Mayhem
Of the three maps revealed forMarvel RivalsSeason 1, Sanctum Sanctorum is likely the one we know the most about in the pre-season period, thanks to a Map Reveal trailer uploaded by the officialMarvel RivalsYouTube page. Along with Midtown,Sanctum Sanctorum is expected to be released during the first half of Season 1, sometime between its January 10 start date and mid-February. It features Doctor Strange’s earthly headquarters, located in downtown Manhattan and, at least from the outside, appearing to be a very normal (if very expensive) piece of real estate.
But walk through the front door, andthings start to get a little weird. Pots and pans float around the central kitchen island, while tentacles lash out from a chained-up fridge. In a grand conference room, a section of wall juts out, revealing a small hidden library, while a balcony overlooks the scene; beyond it, a grand staircase makes for the centerpiece of a spacious foyer.
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In the study, some bookshelves hover above the ground - perhaps these can be used for platforming. And in parts of the house,the roof has been almost completely torn off, revealing a dark, starry rift beyond and causing the hallways to buckle under the weight of an alternate reality.
Sanctum Sanctorum is split between narrow, claustrophobic passageways, and large, open spaces. With its many columns and twisting corridors, there are plenty of places to take cover. There will be plenty of opportunities for luring enemies into deadly ambushes, and plenty of chaotic, whole-team battles in the more open spaces, like the grand hall or the conference room. Its exact release date remains unknown, but considering how much of it we’ve already seen,it’ll probably be the first of the new maps inMarvel RivalsSeason 1.
Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown Takes Players To The Avengers Tower
Modern Vampires Of The City
Like Sanctum Sanctorum,Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown is expected to be released during the first half of Season 1. It’s unclear whether it’ll be released alongside Sanctum Sanctorum. Either way, all three maps are central to the season’s story, which revolves arounda vampire invasion of New York, but the effects appear to be most strongly felt in Midtown.
As the name implies, the Midtown map covers a highly fictionalized recreation of a few city blocks in Midtown Manhattan.Its centerpiece is the Avengers Tower, which features prominently in character trailers for the new season, with Mr. Fantastic spreading himself thin in a 2v1 against Iron Man and Captain America just outside the Avengers' front door.
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Besides that,Midtown features narrow lanesin the form of city streets, lined with crumbling buildings and abandoned cars. Balconies create excellent vantage points over some avenues, while ducking into subway stations or open-air cafés might provide a little extra cover. Parts of the ground beneath Grand Central Station have collapsed, revealing a dilapidated subway system below.
Midtown is mainly designed to be used for Convoy matches, and it shows; its narrow lanes lend itself well to that kind of moving objective, forced confrontation gameplay. Again, it’s expected to be out during the first half of the season, so almost definitely before the end of February.
Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park Features An Urban Oasis
But There’s Little To Say About It Just Yet
Of the three new maps,Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park is the most secretive, at least for now. There’s very little in the early Season 1 trailers that can definitively be associated with the New York City landmark. It’s expected to be released in the second half of the season, likely somewhere between late February and mid-March.
The first season ofMarvel Rivalswill end on July 08, 2025.
That said,there is one detail in the Season 1 announcement trailer that could provide a hint about what the Central Park map will look like. In the very last shot, The Fantastic Four assemble within the ruins of a burnt-out, tree-lined area near a body of water, surrounded by what’s clearly the Manhattan skyline. Where else could that be if not Central Park? They then charge towards a castle with the silhouette of a vampire looming over it in the distance - likely a stylized version of Belvedere Castle, a Gothic-inspired castle right in the middle of Central Park.
We can gather a few things from this: first,Marvel Rivals' take on Central Park will likely see it in ruins, like the rest of the city in Season 1. Next,Central Park may be the headquarters of the vampire invasion.
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Honestly,it’s easy to see how Central Park could inspire aMarvel Rivalsmap; it has tons of labyrinthine walking paths that could easily be reconfigured into clear-cut lanes, and tons of wide-open spaces for giant free-for-alls. Structures like the Reservoir, Bethesda Terrace, The Met, and The Obelisk make for great landmarks, easing along teammate communication and, in some cases, providing a degree of verticality.
That’s just about everything to know about the Season 1 maps for the time being, but more information will almost certainly be revealed throughout the coming months. Keep an eye onMarvel Rivals' social media channels for further updates on what’s coming in its new characters, Battle Pass, and maps.
