Superhero Diablo-like Marvel Heroes by no means actually had a lot of an opportunity. A really rushed launch to try to seize as a lot superhero hype as potential backfired, leaving what might have been a profitable sport with a mammoth battle simply to search out its footing and catch up.
This summer season’s relaunch as Marvel Heroes Omega (coinciding with the launch of the console model) was the final nail within the coffin, not did it fail to attract new gamers to the free-to-play action-RPG, however active player-counts tumbled sharply on PC. This week, Disney pulled the plug, saying the dissolution of their partnership with builders Gazillion, and signalling that the servers will shut down on December 31st.
Marvel Heroes was by no means a nice sport. At its greatest, it nonetheless lacked that intangible spark that drove essentially the most compelling of loot-hoaring hack ‘n’ slashers, however Gazillion put within the effort and turned issues round after its wonky 2012 debut. By the time the Omega replace landed, it was a persistently respectable little time-waster, geared extra in direction of spectacle and optimistic suggestions then steadiness or problem.
For some time, I actually thought it was going to make it. Updates to the sport have been substantial, heroes got here low-cost and rewards have been plentiful. Last I checked, I owned about half of the whole roster of playable characters with out ever having paid a penny There have been some warning indicators that issues weren’t effectively in Marvel-land, with the newest content material replace for the sport – Age of Apocalypse – being a console-exclusive launch with no point out or plans for a PC rollout.
Still, that was solely two months in the past, and contemplating that it solely launched on a brand new platform 4 months in the past, this announcement comes as a shock. With its day of loss of life set in stone, I bid some early farewells to Marvel Heroes, probably essentially the most excessively popcorn-filled action-RPG ever made. A sport the place if twenty enemies weren’t flying by the air at any given second, you have been possible asleep on the keyboard. Only in Marvel Heroes, in 2017, might you play as Blade, appropriately patterned after his Wesley Snipes incarnation.
This was a sport the place you would lastly management Squirrel Girl, canonically one of the vital highly effective characters within the setting, and by far one of many funniest (learn her comedian, dammit). It even featured Rocket Raccoon, totally playable, again when he nonetheless had his authentic, correct British voice. Not to say that Bradley Cooper is a foul actor, however Rocket is British, and I’ll brook no argument.
Marvel Heroes Omega is on Steam or available direct via Gazillion, and free to play if you wish to give it one final shot earlier than they pull the plug. Gazillion have introduced that when they’ve formally shut down the storefront, the complete sport – presumably with all characters unlocked – can be completely free to play, up till the top of this sundown interval, and the lights lastly exit.
