Marvel Heroes is the fresh new Marvel MMORPG by Gazillion Entertainment. Well, not that new, and certainly not that fresh.
Now, I came into this expecting an ARPG. After all, the “about this game” blurb on the website proudly touts,
Neat. And hey, it’s from the guy who made Diablo and Diablo 2! How bad could it be? Well, the answer to this question involves me wondering whether the guy got a lobotomy over the last few years, so… bad.
The game offers a starting lineup of 5 heroes - Storm, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Thing, Scarlet Witch, and . Any of those sound particularly interesting to you? There’s the one who hasn’t been in a good movie since X2, the lamest avenger (in his comic book costume, which looks absolutely ridiculous), the one whose movie was almost a decade ago and bombed hard, the one… Okay, seriously, who’s even heard of Scarlet Witch who hasn’t been a big Marvel buff? I knew of her, but that was mostly from Cracked.com articles about her boning her brother. This is like if a DC comics MMO offered… Actually, I can’t think of a good comparison, because there really aren’t many DC characters that spring to mind who are quite as forgettable as Scarlet Witch. Plastic Man, maybe? Martian Manhunter?
Boredly, I decided that given the tiny info blurbs, I might as well start as Hawkeye. Okay. So I load up the game, and it immediately drops me into a linear hallway filled with dudes, with a short backstory blurb. The story is in typical Marvel comics style; take from that what you will, but keep in mind that by the end of the first mission, I had been introduced to no less than two evil organizations I knew absolutely nothing about (although I’m sure comics buffs would know) other than that they worked for Dr. Doom.
Gameplay-wise, I noticed something in the first mission that got… a little disturbing. I had two skills to start, and I ended up breezing through literally all of the first three levels not using anything other than basic attack. Not a good sign for an ARPG. There was not a single moment (beyond one close call in a Taskmaster boss fight - hey, there’s a character we’ve all heard of before :rolleyes:) where I really had to think tactically within the first hour and a half of gameplay, and I didn’t notice too many spots where the game left much room for tactics at all. “Here are enemies”, it would say. “Do what you want, I’m gonna go fuck around with the party system some more”. It basically all came down to shooting them down at range, and occasionally avoiding a telegraphed ranged attack. Once I unlocked the electric arrow upgrade that let me stunlock several enemies at a time, all challenge and engagement was pretty much gone. Almost all of the enemies within the first hour and a half were pretty much the same, too - random goons, either with their fists or with guns. Apart from the rare boss fight, that was pretty much it. By comparison, within the first hour and a half of Path Of Exile, a competing (and better in every regards) ARPG, you encounter zombies, local projectile-spitting giant insects, insane people throwing rocks, water elementals, an aggressive species of flightless bird/reptile, a skeletal version of said species, giant crabs, small leech monsters, larger, spell-casting leech-monsters, skeleton archers of three different flavors, goatmen, dogs that ignite the ground around them when they die, phantom pirates, and monkeys that fling what I sincerely hope are rocks at you.
So the gameplay is kinda unimpressive. How about the MMO part of the MMOARPG? Well, after the tutorial level, I was transported to a central hub map. There were various characters to interact with, a crafting system which seemed at the time to be utterly useless (the only items craftable by then were certain health and attack potions), a shop, and the path to the next mission. It’s worth noting that the hub area is quite large, and it’s never really clearly defined what does what, so you may spend quite a bit of time wandering around trying to figure out who to talk to. So then you go to the next story mission… And suddenly there’s three of you. And a half dozen of <insert generic other hero here>. Huh. You know, I’m starting to think there may be a flaw in this genius idea of having an MMORPG where the playable characters are all instantly recognizable, unique beings. What’s more, I didn’t ask for any particular party or to be grouped with anyone, I just kinda… was. By default. So here I am wandering around this dilapidated town with countless other marvel heroes, beating up random bad guys (or, more often than not, watching them get beat up as I approach). Interesting. Of course, this party system is not without its flaws. I was in once instance as a level 6 Hawkeye, and there was a level 23 hulk. What he was doing in a noob instance was beyond me, but halfway through the level, the game cut to a cutscene that I’m fairly sure wasn’t supposed to play until you had finished the level. All around me in the GUI throughout the level I was hearing things like “DOC OCK DEFEATED”. Gee game, that sounds like it was fun. How can I get in on things like that? :rolleyes:
So how about ARPG progression? You know, stat out your character, check out dropped loot, customize your setup? Well, let me draw the comparison again. In Path of Exile, any character can, in theory, run any equipment in the game for any class and use any skill. The skill tree is limited only in distance (i.e. if you want to play a character focused around the Blood Magic passive skill, you could do it with any class, it’d just take longer to achieve as a Shadow than, say, a Marauder), and skills are limited solely by the stat requirements they hold. Same with items - if you have enough int (procured through skilling your character), your strength-based marauder can equip that high-level int-based Occultist’s Vestment. You can also craft and improve your weapons with various orbs.
So… How 'bout this game? Leveling is straightforward. Your character gets skill points as they level up, and you can put these points into various skills that unlock at various levels. And… that’s it. That is all there is to it. The selection of skills is pitiful, there is almost no requirement to skill in any particular direction (as there are no directions), and it’s pretty much not worth even mentioning. Gear? Each character has class-locked gear, which drops at random and has some of the laziest stats I’ve ever seen - it’s basically all either pure stat points, or +X points to some skill your character has. Crafting is, as previously mentioned, a joke, and even better, the few things you could transfer between characters become character-locked and worthless the moment you put them on.
So I got bored of Hawkeye and decided to try out another hero. Maybe Daredevil. And then I tried to find a way to change character… And couldn’t. I could not figure out how to select a new character. The login screen immediately goes from me entering my username and password to the game dropping me into the hub area as Hawkeye. Not that it particularly matters; all of the good heroes are behind paywalls. To quote the “about” page:
Ha. Ha. Ha. You dicks. Every one of those characters is purchase-only. How much could they cost? Well, trying to buy Spider Man, Deadpool, or Iron Man will set you back a paltry $20 bucks. Yeah. “Play for FREE”. Fuck you too.
So, in summary:
- Lousy gameplay
- Crap GUI
- Very hard to wrap your head around the non-gameplay aspects
- Expensive to enjoy
- MMO aspects are buggy, incomplete, and take away from the experience
- Enemies uninspired
- Crafting all but non-existent
- Leveling incredibly lazy and boring
…Ugh. Before playing this, I was burned out on Path of Exile, having played 4 characters to the upper 70s. But the flaws in Path of Exile are mostly superficial (minor bugs, crafting system fairly unbalanced/not worth it, certain bosses being rather hilariously over- or underpowered), or can be explained away on account of it being an open beta (desync, glitches, patches, most of what I mentioned earlier, leveling becomes a chore past 75 because they haven’t finished all the end-game content yet). The flaws in this game are not superficial, are not excusable, and make it one of the most unimpressive major developments I’ve played in quite a while. I didn’t even get into the samey, oversized, padded level design or just how lazy the boss design is, or any number of other gripes. Crap game. Steer clear.