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| I am GROOT! |
When I saw Marvel Heroes going Free-to-Play in June 2014 I was initially a bit apprehensive. As you already know, I'm a bit wary of games that use the Free-to-Play model (as that often means Pay-to-Win mechanics lurk beneath the surface), not to mention there were mixed reviews on its store page on Steam. A fellow contributor on this blog, who is a fan of oldschool comics, decided to give the game a shot and consequently I have taken the plunge as well. While I haven't had much of a chance to play multiplayer with my mate, I still ended up playing the game with some other players, meaning the levels aren't instanced just for your party like it was in Diablo. Anyway, I've played the game for about an hour now, so what's it like so far?
What I like
- The Marvel universe: This is a pretty obvious drawcard. The game has managed to license the use of many of the characters from the Marvel universe. There's over 50 playable characters with hundreds of other characters too.
- Free-to-play: Obviously you can't go past the price which is absolutely free. Sure you can use real money in order to purchase higher-level items later on but I believe they're all obtainable by grinding if you so choose.
- Very much like Diablo II: For anyone who has played hack 'n' slash action-RPGs like Diablo II, you'll feel right at home when playing this. It's probably no surprise considering ex-Blizzard employee, David Brevik, had a big influence on Diablo's development. The tech trees look similar, the inventory looks similar, you have a personal stash, there's health and mana bars, need I go on? But...
What I don't like
- Very much like Diablo II: This is also the game's weakness. It doesn't really offer anything new in terms of gameplay so depending on how you sit with Diablo II's gameplay this game can get boring really quick or you'll be loving its retro feel.
- Voice acting: This is a minor quibble since most of the voice acting is pretty good and even authentic (Stan Lee as himself, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulston and even Steve Blum as Wolverine - he voiced the cartoon version of him). However, where they were unable to get authentic voice actors sometimes they've got actors that just don't sound the part. While I love Keith David as an actor he'll always be Captain Anderson from Mass Effect to me or one of his many roles on TV and film. He does not have the right voice (IMHO) for Nick Fury. I reckon they would've done better with Anthony Aroya who I thought did a really good Samuel L. Jackson impersonation in The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
Verdict
So far the game is a bit of mindless hack 'n' slash fun just like Diablo II was, and there's so much loot to collect. Will it be worthwhile playing once I complete the story? Probably not but I'm willing to pay the price of admission ($0) to find out.[ LINK: Official Marvel Heroes 2015 website ]
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