I’m a big marvel fan so when I heard there was going to be a game, well I had to try it. I downloaded it through Steam yesterday and booted it up this morning. I think I might have played it for about an hour so lets get some impressions down. Just a brief post, I would need to play it longer to be able to write a proper review I think. However, thoughts change over time so I might as well write what I’m thinking now, so that I can compare that with how I feel later. It’s like with swtor, I loved it at first, and it was only after playing for a while that the gloss started to come off.

I had read a couple of really negative reviews beforehand so I wasn’t expecting much. I booted it up, watched the opening cinematic and then was faced with a choice of which hero I wanted to start with. There were six options I think, I wondered if I should pick Daredevil or The Thing as they were listed as melee, and well I am a melee player. In the end though I picked Storm as she is my favorite or joint favorite x-men. I then started to play and was immediately struck by how similar it was to Diablo 3. One quick google later and I discovered why, the man behind Marvel Heroes was the man behind Diablo. I’m surprised blizzard haven’t sued to be honest, everything works so similarly to that.

Now I wasn’t a big Diablo fan, I got bored, even playing with friends couldn’t keep me interested. I may get bored of Marvel Heroes but after an hour of play, currently level 5, I’m enjoying it quite a bit. As I said I read some very negative reviews so I’m pleasantly surprised that I like it so much, I definitely am having more fun than Diablo, but that’s the setting. I do love Marvel and all the cinematic, and the plot lines, and the familiar faces, are bringing out the fangirl in me.

It’s not all rainbow and sunshine. I can appreciate the criticism from people that seeing the same heroes running about is a bit strange. As I write this I’m afk at The Avengers tower and I can see two The Thing’s, two Daredevils, another Storm and that running about. On one hand this is odd as they are the same people so do you really want to see them? On the other hand there is only so many customization options so it’s easy to run into NPC’s or other players, in other games, that look just like you. Also seeing other players does make the game feel more alive than in Diablo, where it’s just endless streams of mobs.

Another criticism is the points system for the talents. There’s sort of three specs listed and I don’t really understand whether they are specs, where I should put my points, whether I can change my points later, what each ‘spec’ is good for, or anything. There’s also stats on gear and I don’t know what is good for my character. These criticisms come from someone that has played games like this before, I know that there is a right choice, someone new to the genre will equip whatever has the highest numbers and pick what they like best and not worry about it. Thinking about it now I’m not sure blizz explains in game about stats, they have a brief description on specs, but the old talent trees came with no explanation as to what was good and bad. You need to go outside game for that and right now I can’t find any resources, hopefully they will appear when the game isn’t so brand new.

I can’t find a friends list, I didn’t choose a server or anything, so if I wanted to play with a specific friend I’m not sure how I would do that. Oh and having just typed that I found the friends tab which looks spookily like some of the menus in swtor, though I guess there’s only so many ways they can dress the interface. It’s billed as an MMO but really it plays just like Diablo which isn’t? So I’m not sure where the MMO aspect really comes into it. In terms of how the interface looks it’s like Diablo and swtor melted together and you get something that reminds you of both. I’m not really sure of much with how it works, here is where knowledge of the genre kind of lets you down, you know there are things you should know, so it makes it harder to just go with it and play.

Anyway I’m having fun right now which is the main criteria of a game. I do occasionally feel the itch to play something other than Warcraft. It’ll be interesting to see how this game develops. As it’s f2p some things are locked off for the shop, like hero choice. I’m happy enough with Storm though I can’t deny that I wouldn’t have liked to have played as Iron Man, or Wolverine, or Black Widow etc. etc. Apparently you have a chance of hero’s dropping from mobs, I got Hawkeye earlier and I’m only level 5. You also have this in game currency, called credits which is the name for currency in swtor (you know I should google and see if swtor people worked on this), and it remains to be seen whether you can buy store stuff with in game gold. In some f2p games you can, and in others you can’t. I’m not sure what the max level is for hero’s or where the story takes you. You know it’s nice, sometimes I miss the early days of Warcraft where everything was new and exciting, so being back at level one, with the unknown stretching in front of me, yeah it’s pretty cool.