Marvel Heroes prepares for the end at the beginning
With early access to Marvel Heroes coming on May 28th and the actual launch a few days later on June 4th, the Gazillion team is on super-high alert. CEO David Brevik talked with us about the final additions that the team is putting in place, saying that most of the features are complete at this point.
Brevik most wanted to talk about Marvel Heroes' endgame. Interestingly enough, the main PvE story will take your character only about halfway to the level 60 cap. After that, Gazillion expects players to fully rely on a robust endgame to finish the journey.
The endgame is made up of three primary PvE activities (in addition to PvP): daily missions, group challenges, and survival challenges. Daily missions, which can be soloed or done in a group, are unlocked in a chain. The five-man group challenges only have a single entry at this point, although there are several variations on that challenge. Then the survival challenges can take groups of 10 to 15 players and pit them against waves of increasingly difficult foes. Difficulty for these wave battles can be lowered by grabbing shards and defeating enemies, and depending on how well your team performs, the boss could be a pushover or insanely tough. Gazillion is placing a premium on randomness and variety to keep things fresh, so don't expect all similar-looking mobs to actually be the same!
Read on for all of the last-minute changes that players will encounter when they take on their superhero personae next month!
Filling in the cracks with details
So what else can you expect from Marvel Heroes? For one, the team has added Cable to the roster. Cable's a ranged fighter who supplements his mighty gun with a slew of mental powers. Being able to stun or throw back enemies with his mind will be a great asset to keeping melee fighters at bay.
The team said that it will continue to work on other heroes, like the Human Torch, to add in to the game at a later date.
Gazillion's done a huge pass at all of the game's powers, including redoing the interface and power trees. Players should find this setup a lot more user-friendly than in previous beta iterations. Brevik said that players will want to collect as many of the same-character tokens as possible to save up for that hero's ultimate power, which can't be gained any other way. Iron Man's ultimate power involves his summoning a small army of suits, for example.
Other additions include cosmetic pets (such as Iron Man's little Iron Buddy or Herbie from the Fantastic Four), cosmetic effects that alter how your character looks (think head flames or mystical rings), and the ability to create guilds via War Machine. Like PvP, the current guild function in the game is basic and bare-bones, although the team promises it's working to flesh out both.
Will the creator of Diablo be able to addict a new generation of action-RPGers? We'll be finding out come June 4th!
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