New MMO Marvel Heroes Has Its Fair Share of Problems (And Nearly None of Them Were Caused by Dr. Doom)

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Last weekend I had the chance to play Marvel Heroes, an MMO that combines Diablo-esque play with a litany of characters from the Marvel universe. It'll be free-to-play right from its June 4th launch, complete with an in-game store bursting at the seams with premium content like extra characters, costumes, and powerups.

I really enjoyed playing Marvel Heroes at first, but unfortunately it didn't take long for the veneer to fade. Fans of Marvel comics (even just the movies to be honest) may be thrilled to play what's been described as a much improved version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but for poseurs like me who merely have vague and/or nostalgic interest in the characters this game leaves a lot to be desired. For instance...

The story might have nothing to do with you.

The story of Marvel Heroes should be one of its selling points, since it was in the very capable hands of Brian Michael Bendis, an award-winning comic book writer who has deep roots in the Marvel universe. Cutscenes are done as fairly stylish motion comics, and I bet that they assemble into an altogether good whole.

The problem is that after raiding an enemy base with a team made up of heroes X, Y, and Z, your motion comic story scene has a good chance of starring heroes A, B, and C instead. I may as well just watch the cutscenes strung together on YouTube after release, for all the difference the story makes. Now given the number of heroes and the possible combinations, having cutscenes done in this style to match every conceivable team is an utterly insane expectation. But come on, throw me a bone here. Insert a separate scene that is specific to my character in that situation. Give me some indication of what they think or where they fit in. In a game where players are playing as stock/predefined characters developers really need to make those characters' personalities and their impact on the world stand out, otherwise it's quite hard (in my experience) to really feel connected or immersed in what's happening as the player. I'm not going to give a shit just because Scarlet Witch probably would.

Sharing an area with duplicate heroes is jarring, while instanced areas are few and far between.

Remember that time that Storm and 5 Iron Mans (Iron Men?) beat the shit out of Electro? I suppose it's very possible that that could happen, knowing the limits (or lack thereof) of modern comics, but that was one of my first experiences in Marvel Heroes.

And it was kind of weird.

The characters you would expect to be popular (especially given the game's timing) are, and their overabundance is a fact of life that the game seems to ignore. This wouldn't be a big deal if so much play time didn't take place in open areas and not in instanced dungeons like you might expect (given the game's inspiration.) The open to instanced area ratio is actually incredibly low for a game in this style, and many of the dungeons are tiny little areas where you kill a small cluster of enemies and head back out in a matter of minutes. This has been one of the biggest disappointment of this game. Compared to the tutorial level, where you pass through a unique, interesting, and well-designed instance, everything you do after seems to fall flat. However I only made it to the 3rd area, Madripoor, which follows Hell's Kitchen and New Jersey (seriously, Jersey) so it's absolutely possible that this changes in later levels... But I'm not holding my breath.

Voice-work can make or break a character.

There have been a lot of really strong Marvel adaptations both on television and in theatres, and maybe that's colored my expectations on this issue. Robert Downey Jr. doesn't voice Marvel Heroes' Iron Man, but like most characters he has a totally adequate stand-in who captures the essence of the role as much as you could hope for in a free-to-play MMO.

But honestly, I could never ever play as Ms. Marvel. She has a few too many dashes of valley girl in her banter, and practically every time I was sharing an area with someone playing as her I had to put some distance between us to preserve my sanity. She is exceptionally grating which is a shame because her powers seem pretty damn fun. There's a similar issue with Spider-Man -- they've leaned very hard into that whole teenage boy side of his character, so much so that he's like nails on a chalkboard. I swear his voice even cracked during a line in one of the cutscenes. This is truer to his character than Malibu Marvel Barbie, but it also means he's another really fun-looking character that I wouldn't even touch on a dare, all because of the voice. If you decide to play Marvel Heroes, do yourself a favor and search YouTube to see (and listen to) some footage of your preferred characters before committing, otherwise you may regret it.

Developers played favorites with the characters, and it shows.

Who would win in a fight between Thor and Jean Grey/Phoenix? If you look at Marvel Heroes' stats for each of them, the outcome seems like it would swing hard in Thor's favor. She has a mere 14 points scattered across 6 categories, and he has a whopping 22. Even Black Widow, who has guns and zero cool powers, has an edge over Phoenix-imbued Jean. Doesn't that seem kind of... Off?

I'm not in a position to claim to know how inaccurate or accurate these stats are to the comics, but in terms of making a multiplayer game with these characters, it's not a great plan. Balancing characters is absolutely crucial. Even outside of a PVP environment, it was not fun to play as Storm pushing thugs around with her incredibly monotonous and uninspiring powers alongside Iron Man who could just blasted everything to shit without limit. My friends were levelling up and getting cooler and cooler powers, while I was getting three different ways to dodge. In a lot of cases it felt like some characters were a designer's pride and joy, while others were just chores -- and when your favorite character is someone else's chore, that's not fun for either of you.

"Good players" will likely have to spend money.

In Marvel Heroes, your equipment effects your stats but not your appearance. Your appearance is effected solely by your costume, but costumes aren't solely cosmetic either. You'll eventually need to craft upgrades for your costumes to give yourself an extra advantage or specialization, for example dealing more damage or buffing your defenses. This means that a serious player will want several costumes, each specialized for different kinds of roles or encounters. Most characters have a few different costumes available to them, though there are some exceptions: Iron Man has about a dozen costume options, Rocket Racoon has one (probably because Rocket Racoon doesn't have a new movie out. Also, who the hell is Rocket Raccoon?) Now, you can apparently craft costumes once you reach a certain level with your crafting, and costumes can drop in world (maybe?) but by far the easiest way to get them is to buy them from the in-game store. Costumes aren't cheap, nor are they priced uniformly, and some cost even more than full characters.

For players who want to be especially versatile, you'll need multiple characters too. When you start playing for the first time you pick one character from a very limited list, and any others that you want to play have to be purchased for your account. This is pretty shitty news for die-hard fans of a particular character who will have to pick someone they couldn't care less about unless they're willing to open their wallets to the tune of an estimated $6 to $20, depending on the character in question (assuming that the cash shop will have a standard $10 for 1000 G exchange rate.)

I can't stress this enough: There's no such thing as a free lunch, or a free game. People worked on this and they deserve to get a good return on it, and that's worth remembering. It can be incredibly hard for free-to-play games to strike a healthy balance between making a profit and exploiting their players, but I think Marvel Heroes could stand to lean away from the latter just a little more than it currently does.

Okay okay, I'm being very critical of Marvel Heroes, but I do think there's something to it. If you're a true fan of these characters it's absolutely worth trying. Alternately, if you're just looking for a fun free-to-play game I'd say there are definitely better alternatives out there (even within the superhero genre,) but all said Marvel Heroes still wasn't a bad way to spend the weekend -- I just wish it was a bit better.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

"I'm not in a position to claim to know how inaccurate or accurate these stats are to the comics."

I am. I was a big X-Fan back in the... ummm... let's not talk about that. Anyway, Phoenix was my favorite.

Jean Grey as Phoenix beats Thor. She beats all the Avengers. At the same time, including all the obscure alumni you've never heard of. Phoenix, unchecked, beats the Universe. Or more accurately, eats the Universe (What If, issue #27).

When she is one with the Phoenix Force, she is Kind of A Big Deal, cosmic-scale badass goddess.

She's a really bad character to put into a game. Either you nerf her down to levels that aren't true to the character, or just give her an "I Win" key. Even comic writers have to go to amazingly convoluted lengths to explain why she doesn't just use her "I Win" key for every epic battle, diabolical trap, or to make a mint turning household trash into gold.

Jean Grey as Marvel Girl would be in the right power range. But nobody remembers Jean Grey as Marvel Girl (and it's probably just as well).

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I had/have copies of the Marvel Super Heroes tabletop RPG, so I also know capabilities.

A fully Phoenix powered Jean Grey is a powerhouse. Class 1000 power. It even ups her base physical stats enough rival low powered heroes like Captain America in base strength and endurance. Imagine a redheaded woman who looks like a supermodel bench pressing 800 pounds. While some cosmic entities like Eternity, Death, and the Beyonder are probably more powerful, she's right up there with Celestials, Galactus and his Heralds, Elders of the Universe. She's fully capable of taking down Gladiator, the Superman Expy of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, singlehandedly. (His name is "Kallark")

So yes, having a Class1000 I win key is bad for a game.

Now non-Phoenix Jean is more reasonable and every once in while she doesn't have access to the Phoenix. But still, even without those powers she's very formidable. Her power levels as Marvel Girl have varied over the years but even a low-powered Jean is not someone you want to mess with.

As for Ms. Marvel being a Valley girl, neither Ms. Marvel had that personality though the Danvers version could be a bit flamboyant at times.

It's nice they have Storm's Mohawk costume... though I favor her White and the "I have a Halle Berry haircut" version. They even have the Silver Centurion Armor for Iron Man. No Captain Universe Spidey or or the Red-Gold Phoenix or movie inspired black outfit for Jean Grey though

What bugs me most about this game is that even though it's developers have openly stated it was inspired by Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which isn't a bad game,and has action centric combat like SOE's DCU... there is no console version.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Major Carol Danvers, USAF, CIA, NASA, SHIELD? Fer sure.