Friday 14 June 2013

Marvel Heroes, a trip of recognition with some serious flaws


DISCLAIMER: While the format seems like a review, keep in mind this is just my opinion, and above all it is my first piece ever written on the blog.

 

 

Marvelous Memories


This game was released on Steam a short while ago. I am a huge Marvel fan, I own many 80ies and 90ies issues of Spider-man , Wolverine, X-men, Avengers, Iron Man and Fantastic Four comics. 

While I haven't actively followed comics in ages, I have truly enjoyed last decade in the cinema. Many superheroes have found their way to the silver screen. Marvel had many movies released the past decade, the pretty amazing Spider-man films of Sam Raimi, the X-Men movies, as well as fantastic classic characters like the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor being united in last year's blockbuster movie Marvel's The Avengers. While it is debatable whether they are good transitions, one thing is for sure, these characters have been introduced to many new people. 

But with great fame comes great license milking. While there are plenty of comicbook games that have proven themselves to be more than competent, there is a lot of mediocrity out there as well. Gazillion Entertainment's Marvel Heroes is a Free to Play action RPG blended with a MMO. Is Marvel Heroes an apt title that does the Marvel license justice or is it nothing more than a cash cow, like many licensed videogame titles seem to be?

Marvel Heroes: Brevik's diamond in the rough or "Fuck That Loser" after all?


With a heavy focus on Action and looting, the game can be best described as a Diablo clone that you play with a lot of people on the same server. This is not too strange as the lead developer of the game is no one less than David Brevik, who was responsible for Diablo I and II. For dungeons and other kinds of instances, you can choose to either team up with 4 other heroes, or be brave and go in yourself. When I played the game I did a mix of both, and I can say that the balance seemed to be alright with most of the enemies, however, if you do intend to solo all the way through, expect some heavy resistance by a select few bosses.

Iconic but not much customisation


The good thing about Marvel Heroes may at the same time be its greatest flaw. This is not a MMO like many other. You have no option to create your character, as a free to play game, it will offer you 5 characters to choose from, you can get recognisable heroes such as blind super-vigilante Daredevil, Thing from the Fantastic Four, Storm of the X-men, the Scarlet Witch and bow-pro Hawkeye. If you want to play any of the other heroes, you will be faced with two choices: pay or be lucky for a drop. The heroes have their iconic looks, if a little sterile, but they are recognisable. When I was playing I recognised nearly all voices from their previous outings in other games.The problem here is their iconic looks, they look like this, and will not change once. like in other loot-hungry Action RPGs, you would expect your character to get cool outfits, have nice shoulderpads. Not here, Iron Man looks like Iron Man, Hulk is Hulk. The only way of customising your look is either with artifacts that you can get lategame, or with character specific cosmetic costumes bought in the cash shop. While there is also a chance of those to drop, the chance is small. While it is hard to blame the game for this, I did lose some incentive to play further, nor did I have that "damn this new epic piece of gear makes me look like a total badass" feeling.

The Story


The story in a nutshell is pretty simple, but tries to be deeper than it actually is. Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom has obtained the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube and if you have seen the movies Captain America: The First Avenger and Marvel's The Avengers, you know bad stuff happens if it falls into the wrong hands. It is a weak excuse to go and beat up iconic villains such as The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Madame Hydra, M.O.D.O.K. , Magneto, Kingpin and many more. Most of it is told through "motion" comics, which is a bit disappointing because the initial intro is very well presented for a game like this.

The cash shop


Like many Free to Play games, Marvel Heroes has a cash shop. After I went through the introduction I quickly decided to be determined and made the step to pick my favourite Marvel superhero. I wanted to play Spider-Man. And this is the kicker: If you want to play well known characters like Deadpool, Iron Man or Spider-Man, you will have to churn out $20, which translates into €15. Other lesser known heroes are cheaper, ranging from $9 to $12. In my opinion, the prices are a little overkill, given the amount of heroes there are. I will show it with a picture that I took the liberty of borrowing from Zam's The Free Agent, who has also shown his concern about this matter more indepth should you be interested in it, I am merely here to rant about the game in general!

 
The cash shop offers Heroes, Costumes, various booster items, as well as pets and lucky fortune cards. I have not been lucky with fortune cards, but let me know if you have been! 

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a... action RPG character can.


Getting that out of the way, I finally picked Spider-Man, and started my journey through the game, the feel of the combat and physics feels a bit similar to Diablo III rather than Path of Exile, but it still lacks a bit of punch. My character had all his trademark abilities and had a lot of funny lines. Your character levels up and gains power points everytime, you can put those  in 3 different talent trees like many other games of this genre. While it seems interesting at first, there is a lack of customisation in it in the sense that none of the builds actually feels unique. Respeccing can be done through paying for a Retcon Device in the cash shop, or you have to be lucky for a drop, or you get it from a select few quests.


Endgame


After about 17 hours of getting through all 9 chapters, I finally completed the main story at level 25.
After finishing it I was presented with various quests, which are an incentive to play further: the endgame. The intention of the developers is good; I commend them on introducing it this explicitly. However the way endgame is presented is simply boring. You are offered the Green Terminal, and can use this to grind various instances that you played before, except they are harder this time around, and you do not get automatically grouped up like you did in the main game, so if you want to group up, you better have some friends willing to play this game as well. These lead to red terminals, which are more dangerous versions but with supposedly better rewards, and there are purple ones that are challenge modes. 



I have not tested these two other terminals, I knew that this game was not for me. I have no incentive to mindlessly grind without my character getting changed or without anything to look forward to, nor do I have any incentive to level my character up to 30 (and further?) other than seeing what my ultimate is. As a game to play for fun, I actually had quite some fun as Spider-Man, and I look forward to perhaps playing it with another character, I still had the Thing to level up. As a MMO game or die-hard action RPG, where endgame and longevity are an important element, it falls flat on its face. While David Brevik and his team may have planned more in the future, the content that is out right now is simply not enough to keep me entertained, Terminals feel like an easy way out.

The Good

  • Iconic characters and recognisable comic book lore.
  • Recognisable voice work, some cool soundtracks.
  • Fun combat as well as abilities (it is repetitive but such is the nature of the action RPG genre)
  • Teaming up with other people is easy.

The Bad

  • Environments look a bit sterile.
  • Lack of customisation for your chosen character, uninteresting builds and loot does not show.
  • Cash shop can be a huge turn-off for many people who wish to start playing as their favourite Marvel character.
  • No actual incentive to play the endgame.

The Bear's Verdict


A fun game to play through once, but content-wise it just is insufficient currently. Time will tell whether new content will improve it or it will be a title that will be forgotten. You may be better off playing X-Men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance on your console if you can get a hold of any of these. While I did not regret buying Spider-Man, I have no will to play it further for now. If my mood changes, I will certainly inform you in the future.