14 DAY TRIAL // 
The premise of taking on the role of your favorite superhero and then proceeding to smash villains into smithereens in an action role-playing game setting is one that holds universal appeal, and that’s exactly what Marvel Heroes is banking on.
Marvel Heroes suffered from a less than stellar launch, having been criticized by fans for restricting a lot of content behind paywalls and for being very expensive, compared to regular paid-for games, in addition to having repetitive and uninspired gameplay.
Developer Gazillion had two choices, either grabbing the money and running, or getting to work and improving the game. Fortunately for us all, they chose the second option, and since last year a host of updates have been released for Marvel Heroes, improving each and every aspect of the game.
The re-release of the action role-playing game, dubbed Marvel Heroes 2015, marks an entire year of hard work that has transformed the game into something much more than what it was at launch.
Making a massively multiplayer online game on such a scale is a massive undertaking, especially considering that having an already popular universe as inspiration is a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, you gain an instant boost in notoriety and appeal, but, at the same time, you have to live up to people’s expectations, which is not always an easy feat to pull off, especially when it comes to superheroes and making them seem as powerful as in the movies / shows / comics but also balanced, so that all players enjoy a leveled playing field.
The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from a multiplayer action role-playing game, you click on stuff until it dies, and as you level up you gain more and more abilities to employ, all of them drawing on the lore of your chosen hero.
Besides offering more consistency to the grind and being able to unlock your favorite superheroes, the game has also gotten a very nice addition in the form of the Omega System, which offers progression options beyond the level cap of 60.
Having something to play for after hitting max level is very important to a game’s longevity, and the infinite progression system (more options will be added over time) makes playing the game purposeful even after hitting 60.
The system itself is pretty well designed, allowing you to unlock various passives and planning your route through the skill trees, and even more so considering that it’s shared across all your heroes, so leveling up an alt will also end up helping your main, and you won’t feel punished for not always playing with your “best” char.
Another welcome addition is in the form of shared quests, aiding players who are looking to play in parties to tackle the equivalent of legendary quests, which are still available as a solo endeavor.
But the biggest thing to hit Marvel Heroes is the addition of raids, exclusive end game content that allows ten superheroes to band together and take out a supreme evil, in the form of the Norse fire giant Surtur, for now.
A lot of other various quality-of-life stuff has been also added to the game, but the most important thing to take out of the entire process that led to Marvel Heroes 2015 is the fact that Gazillion is determined to make the game even better, and they are succeeding at it.
While there are still some issues to work out, such as PvP still feeling a bit wonky, and skill trees feeling a bit lackluster and prone to making the game feel a tad repetitive, the overall experience is greatly superior to what it was a year ago, and it seems prepared to take on the competition in the ARPG field.
There are, however, some issues regarding spamming abilities, not having a global cooldown sort of effect, and having your attack interrupted every time you cast something, while not having an exact cast time on the spell’s tooltip, which I found a bit annoying.
I would have liked the game to feel less spammy and to offer more tactical options in the form of crowd control abilities and powers that require a certain cast time or that have bigger impact and cooldowns that you have to manage, instead of just being spirit dumps.
In addition to this, many abilities seem copy-pasted and very similar across several characters, but then again they make sense from a lore point of view, and there are over 30 superheroes, so it’s hard to mark it down as a negative.
In any case, the game feels very dynamic and there are a ton of things to do, it’s hard to get bored with it, and the recent inclusion of raids has just made its end-game even better, offering a wealth of content for players to pursue in the ongoing quest for loot.
There is an issue on which I am torn between the traditional MMO way to do things, where each piece of gear is visually distinct, and in the end you get to personalize your in-game character, proudly displaying your achievements through the things you’re wearing, and the way Marvel Heroes does things, which is staying true to the comics.
All the pieces of gear that you equip have no impact on the appearance of your character, which makes the grind seem a bit futile, considering that you’ll look the same from level 1 up to the end, and you can only buy additional costumes in order to alter your look.
While that makes very much sense considering the iconic look of the source material for the characters, it might put off loot hoarders and fans of the transmogrification feature that’s available in other MMOs, being unable to have the time you put into the game reflected in the appearance your gear.
The gear itself might also seem underwhelming, because, while the game rewards you right from the get-go with skills bonuses and the like, not imposing that you have to get to the end-game in order to have nice stuff (a great idea), it doesn’t offer too many exciting or creative options once you do get there.
There is also a ton of polish in the game, a bunch of fine touches such as heroes throwing quips at each other when they meet in a hub or out on the playing field, or taunting bosses and delivering cheesy one-liners when they defeat one. Then, if you’re a fan of the comics, you’ll no doubt feel the added level of immersion, as all the characters in the game act congruently with their personalities and are pretty well voice-acted.
The polish is also apparent at the visual level, there’s a ton of doodads just laying around and populating the environments, and the best thing about them is that they’re semi-destructible, meaning that you can just throw grenades around to cause property damage and break stuff, which adds to the feeling that you are an overpowered wrecking ball.
The Good
- Marvel superheroes
- A lot of stuff to do
- Frequently updated
- End-game raids
- Free to play
- Friendly community
The Bad
- A bit repetitive
- A lot of grinding
- Gear doesn't change appearance
- Expensive if you want everyone
Conclusion
From Wolverine to Spider-Man and Cable, all the heroes you wanted to be when you were a kid are made available, with more to come. As an added bonus, you can unlock all of them without ever paying anything, which makes for the best kind of free-to-play experience, where you never feel constrained to do anything, and any money you spend only translates into cosmetic or quality-of-life upgrades, without unbalancing the game in any way.
There’s also a bunch of stuff to do once you finish the main storyline, so you won’t be stuck wondering ‘what now?’ once you get to the end. You’ll always have several options available, which is very important in an action role-playing game, since any kind of content variety greatly boosts the value of the time spent with the title, which by its genre definition relies a great deal on repetitive gameplay.
