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[Column] Marvel Heroes 2015: Hits and Misses of Advance Pack 2
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
Gazillion recently unveiled Advance Pack 2 for Marvel Heroes; these are characters players can look forward to adding to their roster in 2015. Not only is the 2015 roster a bit underwhelming, but the pack also replaced bonus Fortune Cards with boosts.
Read more of Michael Bitton's Marvel Heroes: Hits and Misses of Advance Pack 2.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
Michael, good article. I agree with most of your reasoning.
I guess IMHO adding the Vision to the list was a "hit". If they can't do the phasing though I'm wondering how they will make ammends.
Not totally sure I agree with "Winter Soldier" as a "hit". Don't we already have a "bionic commando" in game in the form of Cable???
Maybe that's where I get let down a little... more "heroes" with similar abilities to existing heroes, e.g. X-23 -> Wolverine, She-Hulk -> Hulk, Iron Fist / Blade -> Psylocke?, Winter Soldier -> Cable.
Nevertheless, I pre-ordered as I would eventually buy most of these anyways and the Pack comes out to like $10 a hero plus boosts and extra costumes added.
I kind of agree... Especially with She-hulk that would have done much better as a enchanced costume for Hulk rather then a hero on her own. After all Alejandra Blaze, Kate Bishop, Lady Loki and Mar-Vel did not get heroes =P
Kitty i guess will be one of those very annoying glass canon deals that will have a ton of dodge but can´t take a hit. The inclusion of Lockhead does offer some ranged abilities and she could get a limited teleport-like ability to reflect on her phasing.
I would personally bump Bucky down to the miss list to. Do not see him bring anything new to table either. Just another bruiser with a gun.
This have been a good conversation
how is kitty pride a miss ?!
she is coming with lockheed ! which means one of her tree will likely be a summoner tree and that's amazing
black cat and she hulk are huge let down that's for sure.
i would love to have bishop as a playable character, maybe he'll be one of the last 2 characters of the pack
I could imagine her Ultimate power being she calls for the New (displaced ones in Marvel Now) X-Men since she is currently their Professor :-D
Yes and no. Cable doesn't really do much of anything with his arm in the game (they should probably do something about that). Bucky, on the other hand, emphasizes the use of his arm quite a bit in the film, and I'm sure that would be reflected in game when he comes out.
You're right in that Lockheed will probably have a significant role in her kit, but I don't think just tossing in a single pet makes her worth a priority slot in the Advance Pack. The rest of her kit is still deficient and Lockheed can't really do much but breathe fire.
Bishop was going to be on my "Replace With" list somewhere, but I already had too many X-men and I wanted to change it up for the article. My personal preference would be for Bishop instead of say, Nick Fury or Spiderwoman.
Love Doctor Doom, Iron Fist, Iceman, and Vision, the rest leave me cold, but I have weird taste in comic book heroes.
I'd like to see: Gladiator (Shiar), Ronan the Accuser, Quasar, Adam Warlock, Black Bolt, Namor, Acroyear (from the Micronauts), the list goes on and on.
T
regarding bishop, if i remember correctly, they mentionned on stream that they would be using 'call-ins' for the review of cyclop and i thought : man, that would be awesome if bishop came up on screen and scott just supercharged the hell out of him to release a huge energy wave. that would be a fantastic ultimate or signature for cyclop's review.
that's just speculation and wishful thinking but i'd love to be spot-on
I'd argue there's as much daylight between She-Hulk and her cousin as there is between Winter Soldier and someone like Black Widow. Hell, you even mentioned electric shocks! Switch Widow's kicks with punches and I doubt anyone could tell the difference. And there's no way he's more unique kit-wise then Black Cat will be.
I'd replace Winter Soldier or War Machine with Spider-Woman, but that's because I love love love me some Spider-Woman.
the amount of backlash over she-hulk and black cat (my two favorites announced) is ridiculous. believe it or not, fans of smaller heroes like these don't like being constantly patronized with "just make it an enhanced costume". there are enough mass appeal characters recognizable to casual readers and new fans to make everyone happy for a while, and yet people are getting pissy because there are a few dark horse characters coming up that they don't like.
the MH players have turned into a bunch of brats since this pack was announced, and it's groanworthy to see this nonsense on here as well.
Honestly, Winter Soldier is more of a "I get it" from a marketing POV and he's kind of cool at the same time more so than I'm ecstatic to see him in the game. You just have to accept that major characters that appear in Marvel films will be part of Advance Packs and such at this point. For example, I fully expect Ant-man to be one of the 'surprise' characters in Advance Pack 2. I wouldn't call it a miss, but I'm personally not excited for him.
I definitely think War Machine is a hit, though. He's got potential for a really cool kit. I feel like if they play his Overcharge mechanic well enough he could have some real awesome on command high moments in his gameplay loop.
I'd be cool with Spider-woman replacing Winter Soldier. But again, marketing. He's a great tie in that makes sense and his kit wouldn't be a total waste.
I could care less about Winter Soldier and would be happier him not being included. Then again I believe there is more than one character that has little choice on builds. Kitty has phasing which could be a defense tree with possible phasing damage. She has Lockheed which is likely a tree with other summons. She has martial arts training. I see 3 trees easily.
Dr. Doom is nothing I care about. Would be just as happy if he stayed a team-up hero. She-hulk though is someone I have been wanting. I do not care if she is like the others because her and Thing are my favorite heavy hitters (unless they add Giant-man) from Marvel. I do not think of her being like Hulk at all. I see her more like Thing and that would be a weird enhanced costume.
I am curious about Black Cat and how she will work. Not sure how she makes a full hero but guess will see.
Many of Marvel Heroes' choices seem to be based on, or coincidentally (perhaps due to the same factors that they appeared in that game in the first place) be similar to the roster in Marvel VS Capcom 3. There, She-Hulk's moveset is VERY different from Hulk's. A Marvel Heroes designer who's keenly aware of MvC3 (which they probably are) would want She-Hulk to be her own character so she can be like that, too.
What they can REALLY do to differentiate She-Hulk from Hulk is somehow incorporate her grappler fighting style (which differs from Hulk's SMASH! fighting style) in a meaningful manner. This is, after all, what makes her so different from Hulk in Marvel VS Capcom 3. Perhaps the decision to do this is why She-Hulk is not a 200 eternity splinter hero, given that adding meaningful grappler physics to the game would require significant new tech.
....no idea what the heck they have planned for Black Cat (if anything) that would justify her not being a 200 eternity splinter hero, though (for those who don't know, the pack is supposed to NOT contain any 200 splinter heros on grounds that those heros are too cheap for a pack that's supposed to have value). All of the other heros in the Advance Pack (including She-Hulk if they are planning to somehow implement grappling in the game in a meaningful manner), I can see why they'd need new tech or design time that would make them worth more than 200 splinters. Black Cat though... what could they be planning with her that would be so time or resource intensive to make?
As far as I know, cables partially metallic body is due to the Techno Virus. In which there is almost no benefit to it at all. He actually has to use his telekenetic power constantly to keep it from completely taking him over.
And the comment about she-hulk. They are NOTHING similar in style. She-Hulk actually keeps her wits about her, and isn't a raging monster.
Most of the Hit/Miss just seem like flavor issues. The writer and others having not wanting those specific heroes in the game before other heroes.
But then again, I guess MMORPG isn't really known for being very well versed in comics.
Indeed. Something people need to keep in mind is that a lot of thought is put into each hero to incorporate that hero's very being into their mechanics. In Hulk's case, he's not JUST a guy that punches stuff to death in the game. He also has a RAGE mechanic which boosts his power as various things make him angrier in the game. That's one of the great things about Marvel Heros and one of the things that helps differentiate heros from each other in a roster of over 30 playable characters. No other hero in the game has this rage mechanic that Hulk does in the game.
And it's also why She-Hulk wouldn't make sense as an alternate costume of Hulk. Because She-Hulk isn't based around Rage (as much) in the comics, and they're trying to stay true to the spirit of the comics. Quite a few enhanced costume suggestions were shut down by Gazillion with an explanation that the character's power set just doesn't match. She-Hulk is the same case.
I'm more than aware of Cable's arm situation (and I am well versed in comics, thanks!), but that doesn't mean he can't use it in-game (see Cable's Techno-Organic Rampage in Marvel Avenger's Alliance).
As for She Hulk, it's not a matter of flavor. It's a matter of her kit not offering any readily apparent interesting opportunities. She'll punch people. She'll dropkick people. She'll toss some concrete. As someone else mentioned, she's more of a grappler, but Marvel Heroes doesn't do grappling, so unless they somehow figure out how to make this happen for She Hulk, there really isn't a whole lot I can see myself looking forward to with her. This doesn't mean I don't want her in the game. I just don't see her as a "win" in terms of taking up a slot in Advance Pack 2 when there are so many better options that don't require you to dig into nuance to argue.
The fact that she's no longer a 200 ES hero (since those are explicitly not being included in the pack) makes me think they're going to do something with her grappling and thus add grappling to Marvel Heroes somehow. I can't really imagine much else that would justify making her cost more than 200 splinters.
Of course, I doubt they'll let you suplex Surtur (fond memories of Sabin Figaro being able to suplex a TRAIN in Final Fantasy 6... we just don't get that AWESOME anymore
), but they could always just make her use a grab-cannon-ish damage move if you attempt to use a grapple move on large foes, like what Dungeon Fighter Online did. Course, grapplers were considered top-tier party members in that game due to their ability to grapple most bosses for a time while other party members wailed on them, and I dunno how to avoid that in MH without that stupid crowd control immunity mechanic...
I really hope so, but I feel it's a limitation with the game more than anything else. If they manage to figure it out and work that tech back into other characters and She Hulk happened to be the catalyst for it all, she would skyrocket to #1 on my list of hits for the pack. :P
Heh, imagine Marvel Heroes if you could actually grab, drag, and throw enemies around (hopefully bieng able to do it to bosses too to some extent cause no one really cares about the trash mobs)... that actually would be the coolest thing ever, wouldn't it? But... I too would be surprised/amazed if they took things that far.
Hmm... which gives a conundrum. They're (HOPEFULLY) planning SOMETHING significant with She-Hulk that would justify making her cost more than 200 splinters, yet adding grappling to that extent seems kinda crazy (then again, Rogue was really REALLY crazy too I suppose, but sitll, Rogue didn't affect the base physics engine). It really makes me wonder what they have planned for her to make her cost more than 200 splinters (If anything at all), but like I said, I can't figure out anything else besides the grappling (unless they come up with something silly and ridonkulous like dragging enemies to court
..............................still no friggin' idea what would or could make developing Black Cat be worth more than 200 splinters. Anything she could do (stealth, web slinging, leaping, bad luck would just be a debuffing aura, etc) is already in the game, far as I can tell.
I can see red she-hulk as an enhanced costume for she-hulk. im wondering if they will add captain Britain or the wasp?
I really want to see what they do with Vision first.
Oh, and enjoyed this article. :-)
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
With Iceman, Kitty, and Ant-Man, it will be interesting to see if they can introduce some new mechanic to the game.
Iceman could have a Constructs tree. I'm pessimistic about this because there's already a Construct in the game -- Invisible Woman makes one -- and no one uses it. However, if Gaz figures out how to make Constructs cool, Iceman could be a lot of fun. More likely though he will just be another Surfer, doing a lot of sliding around, some healing and some AOE.
Kitty's phasing ability is cool but in this game it would probably make her just another melee. I can see her turning out a lot like Colossus, but with vacuum sound effects rather than steel clanging. Actually I think Kitty's skills as a computer programmer / hacker could be more interesting. My dream for Kitty is that she will mind-control a robot pet, the way Emma currently mind-controls a non-robot pet.
How Gaz will handle Ant-Man's size changes I have no idea. Will he only shrink down to Rocket Racoon size? Will he get smaller, but with his location indicated by some kind of cloud, crosshairs, or magnifying lens effect? Perhaps we will get a clue when the Wasp teamup comes out. I also wonder how much AOE Ant-Man and Wasp could have, they seem designed to harass single targets.
To me, Blade sounds like he is going to play A LOT like Deadpool currently does. Swords, guns, and gadgets. Unless they come up some some really cool twists for his kit, they really should have just made a Blade costume for Deadpool.