Marvel’s Avengers is finally getting its long-awaited next-gen upgrade with the release of PS5 and Xbox Series X ports of the game today, along with a new Hawkeye DLC. Jeremy Renner’s marksman will join Kate Bishop in a post-launch story that will take place outside of the main campaign in a new location called the Wastelands and will see her looking for SHIELD Director Nick Fury. The DLC, titled Future Imperfect, will also include a story chapter with the older version of Hawkeye from the Old Man Hawkeye run of comics.
The DLC will be a part of what Square Enix is calling the Avengers Initiative, a series of updates to the game that will add more playable heroes, HARM challenge rooms, Warzone missions and more. It’s expected to continue throughout the year with more updates to the base game, including a second major post-launch campaign that will pick up right where Kate Bishop and Clint Barton’s Operation Taking AIM left off.
Earlier this week, the studio released a new War Table deep dive that went into details about the new DLC. For those who missed it, the War Table episode covered how Hawkeye’s DLC will be separate from Kate Bishop’s and that he’ll have his own in-depth story mission chain that can be played solo or co-op. He’ll also bring a new villain into the mix that players will have to face.
In the DLC, players will take on a future version of Hawkeye in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by Kree that’s full of “post-human” mutates. The younger version of the hero will be teamed up with Kate Bishop to search for Nick Fury and stop the events from ever happening. The DLC will also introduce a new character called Maestro, an alternate timeline version of the Hulk with Bruce’s brains and a twisted version of his strength that will be hunting the two marksmen.
Fans have speculated that Maestro could be a recurring villain in the future, but nothing has been confirmed yet. As for the DLC itself, Square Enix said that it will introduce three Heroic Ability upgrades – a nightstorm arrow, recovery arrow support and his ultimate, which will be a drone-like shot that can swarm enemies. It’ll be available to unlock when the DLC launches on March 18th alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X ports of Marvel’s Avengers. It will be a free update for all current-gen console owners of the game. This includes anyone who had upgraded their console to the new model with their existing saves, characters and progression. They’ll get to experience the next-gen improvements which will include higher resolution graphics, a more stable framerate and better destruction.