MMOs are my Kryptonite. I hesitate to play console games anymore, and a first person shooter will entertain me for roughly 30 seconds if it's any good. It's just not my cup of tea; however, make a PC game with a level-up system and I'll play it.
Marvel: Heroes. A little different from your typical MMO, but if you played Diablo 3, you'll feel right at home. The two games share quite a few features, which isn't surprising. David Brevik, Diablo creator and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, is one of the masterminds behind Marvel: Heroes. Unsurprisingly, the gameplay, controls, and basic in-game features are similar. Let me break it down for you.
Here's a list of what the two games share:
Pre-designed character selection.
When you start the game, there are certain characters you can play as. You pick the superhero to use, such as The Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman, etc. There really isn't any customization, though you can purchase (or find) costumes for each character. The starting heroes are Hawkeye, Storm, Thing, Scarlet Witch, and Daredevil. I played through the intro stage as Storm, but subsequently dropped $10 to purchase Ms. Marvel from the online store. I have not regretted this once.
After completing the intro level with your first character, you're given a random token to unlock one of the other four started heroes. I unlocked Daredevil, but have yet to use him.
Some characters have yet to be implemented. A list of all playable characters is here.
Ever-changing World Maps
This is both a pro and a con in my opinion. On the plus side, every play-through will be slightly different, and each zone has the potential to spawn new side portals (remember the random caves in D3? Same idea. tougher monsters, treasure chests, etc). This helps keep the maps fresh and give you the opportunity to visit all the side portals without having to wait until you get a new character to that particular zone.
On the down side, if you knew where a certain NPC was on your first play through, he's not guaranteed to be in that spot on the second (or third, or fourth) play through. Just because the entrance to the subway was on the north end of town when Scarlet Witch was there, doesn't mean it won't magically shift to the western part of town when Cable's looking for it. A little frustrating, of course.
3rd Person Click to Move
If you haven't played Diablo 3 (which for the life of me is the only other MMO I can think of right now that employs this kind of movement programming), this is the same idea behind any RTS (real-time strategy) game. Your character follows your mouse cursor and goes where you click. This took me a while to get used to with D3, but playing that made movement in Marvel: Heroes almost second nature.
Along the same lines, you have to choose your abilities carefully, as you can only hotkey up to six (four on your A, S, D, F keys, and one on each mouse button). You can learn as many as you have skill points for and switch them out when you want, except during combat. Because of this, I dumped all my skill points into the six I use consistently. KISS method at work, baby.
Leveling The Vendors
This made a lot of sense to me in Diablo 3, but not always the case in Marvel: Heroes. For example, in D3, you had two vendors that went with you to every major hub: the Blacksmith and the Jeweler. It makes sense for a blacksmith to level up and be able to make better armor and weapons. In Marvel, the two primary vendors are a scientist and an arms vendor. It makes sense for the scientist to level up and learn to make new and better enhancements to your gear. It doesn't make much sense for an arms dealer to level up, but I guess that's my opinion.
The enhancements to your armor/weapons are pretty sick. You can use it to add offensive and defensive bonuses, such as extra melee damage or better resistance to energy attacks, and even upgrade uncommon items to epic - stats included. It's definitely beneficial to level him up as quickly as possible.
Oh, and you can add visual flare to your characters' costumes as well. They're all cosmetic, but who DOESN'T want to run around with sparkles?
Now for some differences:
Open World
Outside of quest instances (specific places where you move the story along by fighting a boss or have an encounter), you'll see everyone else fighting random mobs wherever you are. I had an Iron Man 3 flashback when I saw five players (all Stark, of course) take on a group of Sentinals harassing NPC mutants. Diablo doesn't have this (you're either solo or in a group of up to four people), but almost every other MMO does. It's just a little strange to see so many players in one area when the character selection is limited, and customization is limited to what you're lucky enough to find or willing enough to buy.
The Iron Legion
Auction House
So far I haven't found/heard of an auction house in Marvel: Heroes. If anyone has, please let me know. It's a pretty standard component of MMOs, in my opinion, and so I hope there are plans to implement one at some point.
And... I guess that's it. If you enjoyed playing Diablo 3, but prefer super heroes to fantasy and modern (or futuristic) technology to the more rustic nature of bows and swords, I absolutely recommend this game. The developers are still tweaking and fixing various parts of it, but that's to be expected so soon after launch. Both melee and ranged heroes seem to be pretty balanced, and though the mobs seem relatively weak right now, they will probably get buffed once the heroes get balanced between themselves.
My Ms. Marvel is only level 23 and I'm still working through the story, so I haven't done any of the end-game dailies yet. As far as I know, there isn't anything that resembles a raid (like in World of Warcraft), but there is PvP. Again, haven't tried this, either. Maybe I'll write a follow up once I've reached max level and done the various dailies and/or PvP.
The X-men take on Magneto.
If you like MMOs, this game is pretty slick. I see a lot of potential in it, and I don't see myself getting bored any time soon. It's free to play, with the option of purchasing characters and costumes, although everything is available in-game if you have the patience and luck to wait for an unlock-token to drop. Marvel: Heroes definitely has my vote, so head on over to Steam, download it, and let me know how your favorite character plays.
Happy Sentinal hunting!
~ERP Princess
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