Marvel Rivals Season 2 has been out for almost a week and a half now, and it seems to have landed well with people. While the standout has been the rapid adoption of Emma Frost and her tendency to kill players all too willing to get choked, what has me returning most is the latest map, Krakoa. The X-Men’s island, with its twisting corridors of trees, high-tech rooms perfect for sudden one-on-ones, and portals that drop you right in the heat of battle, has already been responsible for some of my most high-intensity moments in the hero shooter. However, Krakoa has been at its best for me when I have no one to fight.

Let me set the scene: I’m getting ready to play as Storm, my go-to character since I first heard the hero shooter was surprisingly good, in the new map. I kinda know Marvel lore, sometimes. I’ve watched the entire MCU Infinity Saga and some of what’s after, read a handful of comic runs online and off Barnes & Noble shelves throughout the years, but I’d be no good for deep cuts or anything on the newer side. Krakoa and I only had a few brief brushes with each other before I stopped keeping up with Marvel. A few facts break through the haze of memory: it’s for the mutants and lets any mutants become a citizen once they’re transported there, it’s very protective of mutants generally, it made space for a denied (but heavily implied) throuple between infamous love triangle James, Scott, and Jean, and, most alluringly, it’s gorgeous. And when I first spawned into Krakoa, that last fact became the only one I could think about. 

Moving and teleporting around the map turns out to be joyfully hectic during combat, adding a nice array of new tricks like luring players into portals to get jumped (a trap I’ve only been at the end of thus far), but funnily enough the match became the distracting part after a while. I wanted to look at the statues and flora without getting shot, slashed, exploded, or swallowed, or yelled at for stopping in the middle of a game with a countdown, so I decided to head into Custom Match. For fun, I added only team AI allies of the X-Men and no enemy AIs. And then, when the match started, I didn’t leave the spawn room. I took my sweet time looking at the cupboards full of cups, the waterfall bathed in sunlight, and the orange-purple gradient landscape of Krakoa’s horizons. Then, when I left the spawn room, it felt like I was meeting the island for the first time again. 

Marvel Rivals has always been lauded for how good it looks, but the mutants’ island is a testament to the lengths gone in making these kill-or-be-killed arenas come alive. When my attention wasn’t interrupted by Magneto flying around, or fighting Johnny Storm when I added an enemy AI to see all three maps in one go, I sat in the spaces I had been running through. The furniture in Krakoa looks great when not destroyed. I love how open each area is for easy coming and going. The little tree beings are adorable, especially when they wave at you. The statue of Storm constantly has wind blowing around it, and the statue of Emma Thee Frost is surrounded by white-leaved trees. I realized the statues of Professor X and Magneto are across from each other almost in a line on the map, with the former hidden behind a waterfall and the latter shadowed by a red-leafed tree. I even noticed the dragon blushes and does a little shake from atop their perch.

By far the most pleasant surprise happened after I realized I could and should turn off my UI for this photo tour. The moment I did, I realized I had to go back and take several of my pictures over again. It was amid these better recaptures that I started looking at how the water moved in the distance, realizing that I could hear the waves crash on the rocks. Then, Storm suddenly spoke one of her voice lines, and it echoed. Not a long one, but an echo nonetheless. In a place that I had no business being during a quick match (heart forbid a competitive one), for lines that come unprompted, there was an echo. I tested it out in a few other spots, and it doesn’t work for every ledge. Just at the spot where you could unabashedly stare at the sun and the illuminated water. A spot for enjoying Krakoa. 

I recommend anyone take the time to walk around Krakoa, the other maps of Marvel Rivals, another hero shooter, or any game that rewards you for being in a rush. It’s a lesson as old as games, but spaces will find a way to surprise you when given the time. Before you do that, here are a few other screenshots I took on my digital excursion: