By Adam Smith on October 22nd, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
When X-Men: The Last Stand crammed in all the mutants it made for a crowded frame and some of Marvel’s most uncanny were rendered as little more than computer-generated blobs of colour. Free-to-play multiplayer online ARPG Marvel Heroes also appears to subscribe to the ‘more actually can be more’ philosophy, but hopefully to greater effect. The huge selection of characters could work in its favour, because rather than being forced to share the screen together, more heroes means more choice. Closed beta signups continue. Another trailer below, more convincing than the last. Have you spied your favourite hero yet?
I’ll probably be Spiderman because I love Spiderman. Does that make me exceedingly dull?
22/10/2012 at 15:19 bitbot says:
I read it as X-Com: The Last Stand and when looking at the image exclaimed “What?! The snake men are back?”
Is this a sign I’ve been playing too much XCOM?
23/10/2012 at 06:53 yurusei says:
There is no such thing as “playing too much X-Com”
because there’s hardly much to play with anyway…..
22/10/2012 at 15:24 DaftPunk says:
” EAT SOME LASERS! ” o.O
22/10/2012 at 15:36 Wulf says:
Nnnot quite.
“Eat hot lasers!”
And that character is actually Rocket Raccoon. It seems like someone at Gazillion is out to steal my heart with their knowledge of obscure characters. Or it could have something to do with the resurgence of Guardians of the Galaxy (which is getting a new comic series, a film, and a bunch of other things).
So yeah.
22/10/2012 at 21:39 Choca says:
Rocket Raccoon isn’t that obscure nowadays.
I hope they put in Star Lord, Groot and the rest of the squad.
23/10/2012 at 02:18 ouuibax321 says:
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22/10/2012 at 16:03 Wild_Marker says:
So… I’m still confused about this. Is it basically Marvel Ultimate Aliance made into an F2P MMO?? If so, I am SO on board with it (well, so long as the F2P model doesn’t stink).
Also, story by Brian Michael Bendis? Yes please.
22/10/2012 at 19:04 Baines says:
It looks like Ultimate Alliance, but the guy in charge has always referred to it in terms of Diablo.
As for Bendis, I’m not sure why he’s a draw. Yes, his name is on some of Marvel’s biggest events and books, but Marvel’s events have been terribly organized, plotted, and written since before House of M. And Marvel’s biggest books tend to sell regardless of the writer’s quality. Bendis’ best work has arguably been with lower power characters and settings. (Fraction has a similar issue, where he’s good with comedy and certain characters, but terrible with large scale events and large casts. But Marvel put him on X-Men for a poorly plotted run, where Fraction couldn’t keep track of more than three characters at once, and had him write the rather poorly written Fear Itself.)
It could be worse though. It could have been written by Loeb.
22/10/2012 at 19:58 celozzip says:
i don’t care as long as he isn’t writing the dialogue…
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?365784-Why-do-people-dislike-Bendis-s-dialogue
23/10/2012 at 02:27 jamsxn656 says:
Damn, I don’t really care what I hero I am. I just wanna beat up sentinels. Think I’ll pass on the closed beta though. Little too burned out on ARPG’s to enjoy it right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdslYouhZVM
22/10/2012 at 23:57 mckertis says:
>>It looks like Ultimate Alliance, but the guy in charge has always referred to it in terms of Diablo.
What did you think Ultimate Alliance was ?
>>Marvel’s events have been terribly organized, plotted, and written
At least i can actually follow them, unlike all the Crisis This and Crisis That.
23/10/2012 at 06:18 Baines says:
Ultimate Alliance was X-Men Legends with more non-mutants. X-Men legends was a team based (you had four characters, even when playing solo) overhead camera beat ‘em up with loot, levels, and a sometimes glitchy engine with sometimes buggy powers.
To be fair, there was arguably a bigger difference when the first Legends game was created.
And it wasn’t built for a mouse and keyboard-based control scheme. That’s a bigger difference than people generally think.
22/10/2012 at 16:05 Arglebargle says:
To answer your question: Yes. But it could have been worse…..you could have chosen Wolverilla.
22/10/2012 at 16:06 DestructibleEnvironments says:
Can someone explain the raccoon person at 20 secs in? And the goddamn T-Rex around 47 secs?
Hulk and a T-rex, yeeeeeeeeessssss. My inner (Or outer) child is crying with joy.
22/10/2012 at 16:10 Dominic White says:
That’s Rocket Raccoon. He’s in Marvel Vs Capcom 3, too, and is kinda ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Raccoon
As for dinosaurs, they’re just all over the goddamn place in Marvel-world.
22/10/2012 at 16:13 Wild_Marker says:
“Rocket Racoon” sounds too much like a Megaman Boss
22/10/2012 at 16:47 Wulf says:
Heh, answered the Rocket Raccoon thing above, too.
As for dinosaurs… they’re basically everywhere in comic books, period. I mean, even the Champions roleplaying game had loads of them, and thus, of course, so does Champions Online. It’s not a comic book reality if it doesn’t have dinosaurs.
Even Kirkman realised this, which is why Super Dinosaur happened.
22/10/2012 at 16:11 Wild_Marker says:
I’m assuming T-Rex = The Savage Land
23/10/2012 at 01:03 innociv says:
I was hoping it was an indication of custom characters. :(
My favorite thing in the Super Hero MMOs is making my own totally unique hero.
Sigh~
22/10/2012 at 16:12 Screwie says:
“Have you spied your favourite hero yet?”
Still nope. :/ (She-Hulk, by the way.)
22/10/2012 at 20:51 MikoSquiz says:
No Squirrel Girl?
NO SQUIRREL GIRL?!
22/10/2012 at 21:43 LionsPhil says:
Look, there’s superpowered, and then there’s utterly game-breakingly powerful. They’ve got to draw a line somewhere.
22/10/2012 at 21:49 Choca says:
Squirrel Girl is actually playable in the game :D
She’ll probably one-shot Doom at the end.
22/10/2012 at 21:41 Choca says:
She Hulk was pretty awesome at some point, she’s sadly not that big these days.
I’m hoping for Iron Fist myself.
22/10/2012 at 16:24 Didero says:
I still think it looks stupid when for instance the Hulk is bashing against some dude, and the guy just doesn’t react at all.
Combat should be more than decreasing the HP value until it’s 0.
22/10/2012 at 16:48 Wulf says:
Yeah, but it’s basically like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I can forgive a lot if it’s as fun as that game was. And that game had that exact drawback, too.
22/10/2012 at 16:48 phelix says:
Unfortunately, combat which is not HP-based is rather hard to implement, and will also screw up balancing when used in multiplayer.
22/10/2012 at 17:35 Didero says:
I’m not saying having a number for health is bad. I just mean that if my character punches some dude, I would like that dude to at least acknowledge it, by flinching or something.
22/10/2012 at 17:00 ffordesoon says:
I require it. NOW NOW NOW
22/10/2012 at 17:33 Freud says:
I was under the impression that this was more of an ARPG (super hero Diablo) but now they are saying MMO. I’m confused.
22/10/2012 at 21:13 Choca says:
Any game with persistant online pretends to be a MMO these days.
It probably has some kind of multiplayer central zone/hub and then team based gameplay (kinda like Path of Exile).
23/10/2012 at 08:39 Groove says:
That’s what I was thinking. From what they’ve shown this is in no way possible an MMO. It’s an MO I guess, since it’s Multiplayer and Online, maybe the Massively part is just because they hope a lot of people will play it, does that count?
22/10/2012 at 19:53 Lemming says:
The idea of this (Marvel Diablo with choice of characters rather than loads of different abilities), is pitch-perfect. But from what I’ve seen in the footage, things look a little off. The Heroes don’t seem to have ‘oomf’ when they fight and the idea of lots of custom abilities makes me nervous.
My ideal:
1) Have tons of heroes with 3-4 abilities each + a standard attack.
2) Have the abilities be decently powerful from the start to feel heroic (masses of mobs powerful players = good. weaker powers for fewer foes = bad).
3) Have upgrades build on those existing abilities to make them even more powerful, as the levels get higher.
4) If you must add abilities, make them specials that work as combos with other specific heroes.
5) Keep the momentum of masses of mobs going throughout.
6) Have big bosses that need teams of heroes to take down.
Sadly, the vibe I’m getting doesn’t seem to promote any of those things.
22/10/2012 at 20:30 zhanba2 says:
http://ppt。cc/6o1x
22/10/2012 at 20:35 CVraden says:
Damn, I don’t really care what I hero I am. I just wanna beat up sentinels. Think I’ll pass on the closed beta though. Little too burned out on ARPG’s to enjoy it right now.
23/10/2012 at 04:20 utharda says:
Look if it gets Stan Lee and that Gillen bastard to move out of my basement I’ll buy it.