It's been a while in the making, but Gazillion Entertainment has released the Marvel Heroes MMO into the wild. I've spent about 15 hours playing this game at time of writing this review, and I can tell you I'll be playing more, but I'm not sure for how long.

A disclaimer before you read on too much further: I've been a Marvel Comics fan for over 35 years, so I expect a lot from a Marvel MMO and, as a show of faith, I forked out $200 for the Ultimate Pack months before launch.

How Does Marvel Heroes Work?

Marvel Heroes is a Free-To-Play MMO, and the very obvious (and valid) comparison that can be made is to Diablo - particularly its style of gameplay. It's an isometric game navigated by clicking the mouse in the direction you want your character to move. None of this is surprising given Gazillion Entertainment's President is David Brevik, former Blizzard North co-founder who worked heavily on Diablo and Diablo 2. The similarities with Diablo move far beyond that though - as a Diablo 3 player, the whole interface is essentially the same, power-ups are similar, as is gear and inventory. None of this is a bad thing in any way - it's all tried and tested stuff that works well and ensures you get into the action without spending too long orientating yourself on the interface. It just took some of the excitement out of that initial hour or so for me, although some will say it's usually more of an exercise in frustration than excitement when learning a new interface.

Getting Started

Once you've downloaded the client from MarvelHeroes.com, you choose the hero you'd like to start with. There's a decent selection with a good mix between the genders and types of powers. If you've bought one of the more-expensive packs then you have even more to choose from. For each character you can also buy alternate costumes from the in-game store. There is no cost to play unless you're unhappy with the base set of heroes or you want to change costumes or buy some cosmetic items or experience boosts on the store. I was amused to find that although I'd purchased an Ultimate pack giving me access to all heroes, my absolute preference was Daredevil, who is one of the basic-roster ones anyway.

Playing The Game

Once you've got your character, it's time for the first cut-scene explaining the story-line. The cut-scenes are lo-fi, comic styled ones and I liked them a lot. As you progress through the story there are some great scenes - I love the Taskmaster Institute video, it's been a highlight for me so far.

Like many isometric games you use your mouse to move and fight - your left and right mouse buttons get plenty of love. You live and die by your health and spirit levels. Spirit is used when deploying any non-basic fight moves and your health bar declines with every hit you take and doesn't replenish in any way unless you use a Med Kit, pick up a piece of gear with health regeneration or one of your foes drops a health blob to walk over. Sound familiar?

The mini-map does well to ensure you know which direction you're going whilst still giving you plenty of scope to explore. Fights are fairly fluid and there are enough different animations to keep things pretty interesting. There are some good spontaneous comments by NPCs to add to the atmosphere, and graphically I like a lot of the areas I've seen so far, though like any isometric game there's always a little bit of a same-same feel in some areas.

Boss fights are fun but generally challenging as the dozen or so I've done all have some unique fight mechanics that take some working out. That said, I've only died once when fighting bosses (with a healthy reliance on med kits), so it's not too arduous either.

All MMOs depend on social features to a large extent and Marvel Heroes has the bases covered. The event bosses (like Venom as pictured) are good fun, though once you get more than half a dozen heroes fighting it all becomes a clicking blur, with your enemy very difficult to pick out on the fray.

Beyond the main storyline, a few more play options appear once you've completed eight chapters. There are repeatable missions and end-game PvP is in development. Crafting is also a key component and allows you to create a range of items from materials that you pick up when fighting. There's little that's particularly innovative but these features are all key components of MMOs hoping to have some longevity. Which leads me to...

Is It A Keeper?

I'm not convinced that Marvel Heroes has the 'replayability' to keep me engaged over a long period of time - unless Gazillion releases fairly-regular content updates. For me, I really struggle with how similar everything is to Diablo 3. I played the whole D3 storyline through (on normal mode only though) and really, really enjoyed it. But since then I've never been back. It looks like I'll do the same with Marvel Heroes. I'm very much hoping to be proven wrong.

Other Bouquets and Brickbats

The game seems to run fine of relatively low-spec machines i.e. I'm running the game on a 3+ year old iMac with Boot Camp and aside from the odd stutter in the cut scenes and entry into new zones, it's been fine.

On launch you will get driver error messages if your drivers are up to date.

I do like the option to donate loot to a vendor to gain vendor experience that leads to them offering more gear for sale.

I know it couldn't easily be avoided but I dislike the immersion-breaking aspect of picking up gear and it not changing your appearance. It's a unique challenge for a game involving costumed superheroes, but it still grated with me.

It's early days but there's been some serious issues with frequency of server maintenance periods and the patch updates are still large so those on broadband plans with lower data allowances may get annoyed.

You can't log out anywhere and expect that's where you'll be when you join the game next. Like Diablo 3, you'll become obsessed about waypoints so you don't have to replay huge tracts of the game to continue your progression.

I'd like better enemy targeting options - flame away in comments if I've missed something but I'd like to be able to hit a key to target the enemy rather than having to click on them - particularly event bosses.

The Verdict

If you're a comics fan or an isometric gaming fan looking for something new to play, then Marvel Heroes is well worth checking out given that it's free to play. If you're an MMO player looking for something innovative to devote the majority of your gaming time to, I'm not sure Marvel Heroes will fit the bill but again it won't cost you anything to give it a go. For casual players looking for some Marvel-tinged gameplay that sticks well to the comics universe, then you'll definitely want to spend some time with this game. The cut-scenes alone are fun enough in parts to make it worthwhile.

Plus, I always wanted to kick Venom's butt.

David has been writing on virtual worlds since 2006 and has been using them since 1993. You can find out more at his non-profit sites The Oceanic Gamer and The Comics Herald.