Marvel’s Avengers – Campaign vs Avengers Initiative Differences

When you first start up Marvel’s Avengers you’ll be presented with two options: Campaign and Avengers Initiative. One is meant for singleplayer and the other is meant for co-op, but what are the major differences between the two. If you want the intended Marvel’s Avengers experience, then you should select campaign before jumping into the Avengers Initiative, but you can ignore the campaign entirely if you only want to play with your friends. These are the main differences between the Marvel’s Avengers campaign and Avengers Initiative modes.

What is Campaign?

The campaign is the singleplayer Marvel’s Avengers story that follows Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, as she attempts to reassemble the Avengers after a catastrophic event known as A-Day forces them to disband. Most of the missions revolve around singular heroes, and you can only play them by yourself. There are some missions where you can play with others, but the campaign is a primarily singleplayer affair. Here’s the mode’s official description from Square Enix.

“The original Avengers story that follows Kamala Khan as she sets out to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

The campaign will last roughly 12 hours if you focus solely on story missions, but you can increase your playtime by tackling War Zones, Drop Zones, and other optional missions. These can be played with other players, but they’re best saved for the Avengers Initiative mode unless you need to level up your heroes or obtain new gear. The multiplayer missions in the campaign are few and far in between, so it’s not a great idea to gather a group of friends with the express purpose of experiencing the story together.

What is the Avengers Initiative?

The Avengers Initiative is the online portion of Marvel’s Avengers. It takes place after the events of the campaign, but you can jump straight into it from the main menu. The Avengers Initiative contains spoilers for the Avengers campaign. These spoilers are very light and likely will not ruin the campaign for you if you decide to go back and play it another time, but don’t start the online mode if you want a completely unspoiled campaign experience. Here’s the mode’s full description from Square Enix.

“The Avengers Initiative is at the heart of our expanding world, where you can jump into online co-op. Here you can continue to hone your team while playing through an interconnected series of stories, missions, and personal hero arcs. The Avengers Initiative will evolve over time with the free addition of new heroes, villains, regions, and gear, for years to come.”

This mode features online missions like War Zones, Drop Zones, and Villain Sectors. Each of these missions involves a full team of four heroes, so you can play them in multiplayer. You can either find random players through matchmaking, invite your friends to play with you, or play with AI companions in this mode. All vendors and factions are unlocked from the beginning, each playable hero is unlocked right from the get-go, and you’re free to grind to your heart’s content. Even though you can ignore the story entirely, the campaign is great and you should definitely play it eventually even if you choose to start the Avengers Initiative first.

Differences Between Modes

The main difference between Campaign and the Avengers Initiative is the number of players. The campaign is intended to be a singleplayer experience, while the Avengers Initiative is the multiplayer component of the game. You can access some of the same missions in both modes, like certain War Zones and Drop Zones, but the campaign will force you to play solo missions frequently. The Avengers Initiative is the best mode for multiplayer, while Campaign is the best for solo players. The Avengers Initiative also takes place immediately after the campaign, so there will be spoilers if you jump into the online mode without finishing the story. The campaign shows the Avengers slowly rebuilding to the state they’re in during the Avengers Initiative, but you can skip all of that and jump straight to the online part of the game if you only care about beating up bad guys with friends.