Game [Review and Suggestions]

84Macross

I have been holding back writing a review of this game, however this game has many issues that, from reading the past reviews, the developers refuse to address. To start off, I have tried multiple new sessions of this game over the past 6 months, and can see the fix is there, and the out come remains the same, and in some cases has gotten worse.

So here are my objective thoughts on the game.

Positives:

Its one of only a few Marvel games, where the concept is thought out to some basic degree.
Large list of characters to try and obtain, given the size and scope of the Marvel Universe.
Basic setup and start up to get you going, similar to other gem type games.
It CAN be fun, and makes you want to strive for better characters.

Rewards and progressions have gotten better...................HOWEVER

Negatives:

The adaptive A.I. is completely and totally unbalanced.

Examples include the following:

1. I have to play 5-10 rounds to win a session, regardless of how I mix and match my team in either story or versus. Sometimes I can win first round on a story, after 4 rounds I'm lucky to even make it half way through a session. On a PvP, 2* non champion characters beat my 3* star maxed characters? How does that work?

2. It goes after your teams character with the lowest HP/Highest Powers, regardless of how you position the character, or level the powers in the game. They say its part of the game. Really? then fix it. We can choose to attack a character, but we can't choose which character to put first? Really?

3. The game purposely sets you up to choose gem matches that cause cascading effects that benefit the A.I, Its not immediately noticeable but its there if you pay attention. Its a randomized timer, but like anything in gaming, you can make adjustments to code that can have the IF exception to it. If player gets 3 cascades in a row, then lets set the A.I. to counter with 4.

4. The A.I. purposely scatters gems that can power a character that has only 1 power, difficult to use. I have noticed this among many different Marvel characters I use that have only 1 power(and even then it takes forever to fully power it, if its at the lowest level).

5. PvP, lets see, as a previous poster stated, the progression is awful. When you play and play and get so close to getting that one cover upgrade you need that's at 1700 points, and you are at 1599 points, then boom you get kicked down to 1200 points all over again, and the shield thing doesn't work that well. And if you start playing you loose or break it. Not to mention how the heck are you supposed to play against 5* cover players, when you have a 3* that's higher then any 4* covers you have? Oh my god its frustrating and ticks me off.

IT TAKES FOREVER for characters to HEAL, not allowing you to fully finish a game event, given that receiving Health packs is limited, bad concept.

BUT you can sure pay for hero coins to add extra health.

Acquiring character coins to build your catalog of characters, was rare during story or versus matches, its gotten a little bit better. However as the cost dramatically increases as you get covers, if you don't want to loose a cover, hey, guess what you gotta pay.

Characters, characters, characters. This positive is also a negative, regardless of how many characters you have, the leveling process is atrocious, understandably they state the ratios, but when I get 20 of 1 character before I may even get 1 that I need, the random generator is set way to high. OR I have to spend hero coins in the hopes I get the upgrade I need from the upper tiers.

Money, Money, Money. While these phone games are designed to generate revenue for the company that creates them, there are games that can be played reasonably without forking over a lot, if any money at it. I like video games, but if I am going to pay for a game, I will throw it at a console game before I throw it at a phone game. The way this game is set up, is to get you to pay for what you need, regardless of what you want. Sure I can pay up to $100 for coins or upgrade points, but that is outrageous even for a phone game. VIP pass? Really? and I have to renew it monthly? Wow I get faster healing, character coins, all kinds of stuff you should be able to get playing it normally.

At $10 a month depending on how much you use it, Maxing out at $120 for the year is stupid.

Now you take that $120 a year and, multiply that by lets just say of the 5+ million downloads, 250k pay that $120, averaging 30million, this would have to average out with people that through a $20 here and there.

Sure there is the licensing to the big fat rat that owns Marvel cause we know corporate greed has to figure in there, and yes you have people to pay, not that making a video game is really hard compared to the days of line coding in the 80's.

Every thing about this game speaks greed on the developer. One of the other games I play is Star Trek Wrath of Gems, which uses a similar gem concept, leveling and combat, the difference is I have not had a need to throw money at it because its well balanced, you can pay for stuff, but its an OPTION, not a necessity. While the developer will state that paying for VIP or upgrade coins/points is an OPTION, it really isn’t. I like the game, but it speaks like many console games, buy a season pass, buy game extras, etc. Seems like they give preferential treatment to people that are willing to buy into the concept. Difference is, on a console, I can wait for a GOTY edition and get the upgrades/DLC content. Its just another example of the digital addiction people have, and they count on you to stroke them.

Mod Edit: Changed thread title to be less inflamatory