Marvel Heroes and Major Patch Review

Marvel Heroes Review

Marvel Heroes has been out for just over a week now and the first major patch along with its quality of life changes has arrived.

Marvel Heroes is a free to play (F2P) MMOARPG brought to you by the creative mind behind Diablo and Diablo 2, David Brevik. What does an MMOARPG actually mean? Think Diablo 2 but with hundreds of players running around in the same world and this time, instead of playing as a Sorceress, Amazon or a Barbarian, you’re playing as bonafide Marvel super heroes.

Marvel Heroes mixes the cannon of the Marvel Universe and that old-school ARPG feeling perfectly. You’re moving quickly through large packs of enemies getting loads of loot and generally being a boss. There are 21 different characters with their own skill trees and abilities and getting a group of different heroes together to plough through content is very satisfying.

As a free, fun and easygoing game Marvel Heroes is very easy to recommend but as time goes on its flaws begin to show.

Free to play or Pay to win?

As a new F2P player you can choose from 5 of the different 21 currently available characters. Storm, Daredevil, The Thing, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye. Other characters can be purchased through the store or found as drops in-game although it’s best not to bank on finding the one you want as drop rates are low.

Boosts, storage space and costume changes that change the cosmetic appearance of your character are available for purchase but by no means are necessary to play through the game. In fact, one of the greatest things about Marvel Heroes is that all of the content in the game is included in the free package. If your favourite hero is included in the starter package or you’re happy to throw $10 to $20 the developers way you will be able to experience almost everything the game has to offer.

Overall the package is very generous but what seems strange is that it is the most devoted players will not pay more as expected but get utterly charged through the nose. While some characters cost a mere $5 to buy, a character like Spiderman with his most expensive (and best looking) costume will set you back almost $35. Spider man and Iron man will cost you a hefty $70 and god forbid you want to try them all as there are no bulk packages available.

Storyline and Endgame Content

Playing Marvel Heroes through the storyline with some friends is a truckload of fun and is engaging enough to keep you playing. You will explore areas like the Avenger’s Tower and the X-men mansion and fight famous Super Villains in locations recognisable from both the comics and movies.

Once you have finished the storyline at about level 25, the previously foreshadowed issues become apparent. The post game, high level content can only be explained as lacking. Of course there are better items to find and higher levels to get but there is simply no gameplay variety with all of the options being a rehash of content from the storyline.

Other necessary features we take for granted in always online games are poorly implemented or simply absent. Things like a looking for group feature, customisable chat, the ability to inspect other players and a concise quest log are all strangely missing and for a game that takes many of its queues from World of Warcraft and Diablo 2 it’s surprising that Marvel Heroes has not learned from the mistakes of its predecessors.

Marvel Heroes has been built upon a strong foundation of features that will lend itself to becoming a great game over time but at this stage of its infancy it struggles to compare to other ARPGs that have had a long period of time and many major patches to add content and otherwise smooth out the experience.

Changes in the patch  (1.10.0.186)

Gazillion, the company developing Marvel Heroes, has done a fantastic job listening to player feedback and implementing changes fast.

The first major patch for the game has become available only one week after the games release fixing a laundry list of issues and adding features to the game. Some of the inclusions in the patch include:

– Guilds, or as they are known in Marvel Heroes, Supergroups

– An increase in the effectiveness of defence for all characters

– Extensive Bug fixes and character balance changes

– Automatic grouping for endgame content

– A “significant” increase to the likelihood of finding heroes in-game

Final Thoughts {rating}

It’s becoming more and more commonplace for games to be released in an unfinished state and polished up later with content patches. Marvel Heroes has certainly falls into this category and has a dedicated team working on building a brighter future but there’s nothing to stop you from jumping in and having a little fun right now.

Bonus Viewing: check out an interview with David Brevik one day before the patch by Twitch Personality “Archon the Wizard”  here http://www.twitch.tv/archonthewizard/c/2412157