Gazillion's Marvel MMO - F2P, Play as existing Marvel characters only

[tazelbain]

There is one generic story line, it get repetitive pretty quick. The combat is Diablo style, so very clicky.

[Pezzle]

There is no immersion to speak of.  The story is pretty much a :skip:

Happily, objectives are easy enough to understand so you can ignore all the quest dialogues.  The game fronts for a giant cash shop.  The good news is, you can have lots of fun just smashing stuff.  Kill things, get loot.  You do not ever have to spend a dime on the game, but I think the starting characters are pretty poor, except storm? 

I spent the money, got Juggernaut and have a game that I can play for 5 minutes at a time if I want.  The game can be really fun, but it does not sound like what you are looking for.

[Pennilenko]

Don't forget to mention that you can buy all playable heroes with eternity splinters which are a type of dropped currency in the game. This means the came can be completely free and if you play enough you can get every character for free.

[Pezzle]

That is certainly possible, I do not know how viable it is though.  Most characters are 400? splinters or more?  At level 41 I have under 100.  I play to enjoy face stomping, will not grind that hard for splinters.  The business model is of course to push you into purchases, so whatever.  I knew what I was getting into.   

[Threash]

So after SWTOR I'm jonesing for more of a story-based experiences -- since you fully inhabit Marvel characters, what's the degree of story immersion in this? Could you play it SWTOR-like, just doing each character's storyline and not really worrying about the MMO aspects? Also, is the combat nice and twitchy, or is it more of a DIKU-y tab-targeting, mind-your-cooldowns affair?

As much as i enjoy this game it is not at all what you are looking for.  The story is exactly the same for each character and it is unsurprisingly comic book levels of bad.

[dd0029]

There's only one story and it's ok at best. I did kind of like the motion comic "cut scenes" in between acts.

This is a third person ARPG ala Diablo, so twitchy. There's no tab targeting.

[Mattemeo]

This is definitely one of those games where the story very much plays second fiddle to the gameplay. The draw is mostly how well they've translated a whole slew of Marvel characters into smart archetypes but no one character ever plays exactly the same as another, and there are multiple viable builds for most. The story is just fluff to give you a reason to kick ass and take names, really. I honestly never thought I'd enjoy an ARPG so much, especially one where I'm not even playing my own characters, but the game has masses of personality and sits very firmly on the right side of F2P.

[Lantyssa]

And what's amazing is that most of us were exceptionally skeptical when it was first announced.

[Threash]

It was pretty shit when it came out though, they have completely turned this game around.

[Typhon]

It's just so impressive how they continue to refine everything they put out.  The quality of the game has improved so much over the last year from JUST a quality of life perspective it's amazing.  At the same time they release new heroes and (less frequently, but still) new capability/content.  I can't think of a single other development house that does QoL and feature release in tandem. 

And for the new stuff they release, it's like they actually adhere to the 1) release new features as soon as possible, 2) get feedback, 3) iterate new feature once or twice till release complete methodology.

Just a really top notch development house (which was not apparent when they launched).

[Furiously]

It's just so impressive how they continue to refine everything they put out.  The quality of the game has improved so much over the last year from JUST a quality of life perspective it's amazing.  At the same time they release new heroes and (less frequently, but still) new capability/content.  I can't think of a single other development house that does QoL and feature release in tandem. 

And for the new stuff they release, it's like they actually adhere to the 1) release new features as soon as possible, 2) get feedback, 3) iterate new feature once or twice till release complete methodology.

Just a really top notch development house (which was not apparent when they launched).

Their release cycle is crazy, so it's easy to forgive them for the things that break weekly.

[Threash]

Unless that thing is midtown monday 

[Nevermore]

I've heard there will be more Mondays.  Rumor has it, once a week!

[Fordel]

Lies!

[Threash]

Swagneto looking good.  Edit: whiners

[Pezzle]

Cannot handle a white costume Magneto :/

[Nija]

Are you trying to crash everyones browser? Link those unoptimized pieces of shit. Or use gifv or something.

[Threash]

New code: BONANZA

[Mattemeo]

Cannot handle a white costume Magneto :/

I like it. I certainly prefer it to the old-school MAGENTO, MASTER OF MAGENTA look.

[Threash]

Heroes are 25% off + get one free, i think today only.

[Cadaverine]

25% off and BOGO ends tomorrow at noon PST.

[Furiously]

Change your password.

[Fordel]

Well that's cryptic.

[Nevermore]

In the next big patch (Magneto patch in early December), we're trying a new thing that allows new players to mess around and test all the heroes on the starting screen until level 10. At that point they get to pick any hero they want to make their "main", but they keep the progress they made on the rest of the heroes.

So, if you happen to not have some of the starting heroes, you will actually be able to play them up to level 10.

We're going to put this into test center fairly soon.

That sounds very nice for new players.  I know I'd have loved it when I first started.

[Threash]

Apparently you will get a free pet if you login on saturday, so don't miss that.

[Mattemeo]

Pure speculation that it will be a BAMF as a: X-men related and B: according to Doomsaw, 'Christmas-y'. BAMF = mini NC = elf...? Either way, new shiny! Want!

Also, I love this game. I bought Iron Man Classic Armor costume last week. Today, without even sending a request ticket, I got 25% Gs back and a free costume box. Now if only I could make the contents of the box be as awesome as the service that provided it, I'd be set.


As for try-a-starter-hero-for-10, it'll give me a chance to see how Black Panther, Rocket Raccoon and Scarlet Witch play, as they're the starters I'm most interested in and haven't got.

[Typhon]

It's is very cool, but also will be a little misleading as many heroes don't come into their own until they get the higher-tier powers.

[Threash]

Pure speculation that it will be a BAMF

Looks like datamining proves you right

[Threash]

Well NM, patch notes say it's a remote controlled x-men plane.  But the BAMF icon is in the game anyways.

[Threash]

new code: XGIVING

[Lantyssa]

The Bamf comes from the new fortune card.

[Mattemeo]

Here are a couple of BAMF gifs:




Not quite the BAMF I'd imagined as it's a little on the cherubic/toddler-Kurt side, but it's awfully cute anyway.

[Mattemeo]

If the numbers on TC are true, combat/hybrid Psylocke builds just took a considerable nerf beating.

Kirisute Gomen 5645-8468 to 5396-8094
Falling Lotus Strike 11270-16904 (3522 tick) to 10158-15237 (3693 tick)
Katana Typhoon 17981-26971 to 18646-27968
Assassinate 27662-41493 to 20832-31247 (HUGE NERF)
Ethereal Butterflies (ult 4) 6351-9527 to (ult 2) 6109-9164
Psionic Assault 3069 to 3263
Psionic vortex 5845-8767 to 8221-12331
Psionic Bow 30045-45068 to 35544-53316
Crossbow construct 6784-10176 to 9498-14247
Psycho Blast 24732-37098 to 25143-37715

Inexplicable buffs to powers no one uses or wants to use, Assassinate (y'know, that skill you spent 47 levels getting to) has had a straight 25-40% nerf, Butterflies are distinctly less deadly now.
No idea why Gomen has been cut, since everyone seems to use Psi-Strike that I talk to.

On the other hand, Gambit (who I already thought was strong as hell) has received top-ups across the board. Squirrel Girl has gained more DPS from casual rotation powers but dropped some damage in big hitters like Squirrel Presents and Acorn Artilery (glad I dropped Presents now, it was boring anyway). Ms. Marvel seems to have dropped DPS in straight melee tagged skills and gained DPS in area tagged skills, so Cosmic Haymaker is nerfed (BOO) and Crashdown Strike is buffed (YAY).

More here

[Threash]

Don't take the TC numbers very seriously yet.

[Mattemeo]

I know. Nothing's concrete till it hits live, anyway (and even then it's subject to change as they go through each hero individually). I'm just somewhat curious as to what parameters they used to create this bizarre 'mass-balancing'.