Dungeon crawling, loot hungry fans have much to look back on across the spring. It marks the one year anniversary of Blizzard releasing Diablo III, a game that’s caused as much division among fans as it did praise when it was first released. Rather than look back on the dungeon crawler of last year, though, players will actually get another taste of dungeons and loot hunting from one of the original minds behind Diablo, but with a decidedly different spin. Come June 4th, David Brevik and his team at Gazillion will release Marvel Heroes, its own multiplayer action RPG.
“When we started working on Marvel Heroes, we knew exactly what we wanted to make – an unrivaled multiplayer free-to-play action-RPG experience that allowed gamers and comic fans to play as their favorite super heroes,” said Brevik in the Tuesday announcement, “This is an incredibly exciting day for all of us at Gazillion and can’t wait to let gamers experience the Marvel Heroes world and our fresh take on the massively multiplayer online genre.”
Marvel Heroes is free to download, but you only get limited access to certain Marvel Comics characters. The Founders Program will let early users buy packs to give them early access to the game, different characters, and in-game currency.
The commodities at play in Marvel Heroes – currency and equipment – aren’t too distant from Diablo but it certainly has a leg up when it comes to characters. The game features a huge swath of characters, not just Spider-man and Wolverine but some B-listers like Squirrel Girl as well, with plans to expand the roster as the game goes on. “This is the number one question we get: is character X going to be in the game?” Brevik told Digital Trends in February.
Marvel Heroes is a game Diablo fans should take note of, and not just because of the similar play style. Brevik has said in the past that Heroes shares a lot with the version of Diablo III he was working on before leaving Blizzard ten years ago. Since the game fully embraces online multiplayer rather than trying to satisfy both solo players and those looking to cooperate, it will be interesting to see if players respond better to Marvel Heroes than they did in the wake of Diablo III’s release.
