App Review: Marvel: Future Fight
Once upon a childhood, a young Adam fell in love with a game. Said game brought all his favourite heroes together in one action packed RPG with a great story and incredibly epic cut scenes. That game was Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and after its sequel, Adam patiently waited for a third instalment that would allow his escape into the Marvel world once again, so he could build his heroic dream team.
Alas, time passed, and a sequel seemed less and less likely. The end.
Or was it.. Marvel have branched out into the broader, pocket universe, and have given mobile gaming a chance.
Welcome, Marvel Future Fight!
Developed in partnership with Netmarble, Future Fight is a role playing game (RPG) that takes a leaf out of Ultimate Alliance’s book, and allows players to build a team of 3 heroes or villains and have their favourites working together.
Beginning the game, new players will be guided through a demonstration which will explain the basics and will see you controlling Thor, Blackbolt and Black Panther, which upon completion, will allow access to the game’s main screen, and Chapter 1 where you control Black Widow and Iron Man as your first two characters of the game.
Initially these are the only characters you have access to, but early on you will gain Captain America too. Characters, both heroic and villainous are unlocked via collection of “biometrics” which act as a sort of currency for characters. Heroes such as Blade, Vision or War Machine can be unlocked with as little as 10 bios, whereas characters such as Black Cat, Captain Marvel and Angela require the maximum number at 40 bios. But the game is ever evolving, with new characters and costumes becoming available over time. The most recent update for example included three members of the A-Force team from their Secret Wars comic series, including the brand new Marvel hero Singularity, as well as She Hulk and Sister Grimm (also known as Nico Minoru of The Runaways).
Biometrics not only unlock characters, but they also allow characters to grow further. The more biometrics a hero has, the more stars you unlock for that character, which unlocks various new attacks and skills, which coincides with the levelling up process.
Characters can further be powered up and customised in a number of areas. Players can choose various different types of ISO crystals to attach to their character, each giving different boosts. Players can power up the character’s Skills (ie. attacks), and power up the characters Gear to increase the stats.
Furthermore all the characters in the game are categorised into 4 different trait groups. Blast, Combat, Speed and Universal. Blast characters specialise in energy attacks and do more damage to heroes of the Combat category, Combat specialise in physical attacks and are more advantageous against Speed characters and Speed characters are faster and in turn are most effective against Blast characters. The universal typing is the most balanced and is neither super effective or vulnerable to any of the other types.
Now that all that character stuff is well and truly explained, lets get into the real business. Future Fight is most definitely a game for the long haul, especially if you’re like me and are determined to get through the game without spending too much real world money on game add-ons (I did splurge €3.99 on Crystals on day 1…what can I say, a guy needs his bling bling!). Leveling up characters will take quite a lot of time and effort, as will collecting new characters and bios. So don’t expect to breeze through this game in a single night.
One thing i do like however is how regular their events are. In order to get you playing regularly, there is a daily check-in bonus and usually some other special event bonus, which usually gives you some character bios, crystals or energy for logging in that day (New days begin at 4pm GMT, maybe that’s when most hardcore gamers usually wake up? Maybe.).
However, with it’s many great points, the game does also have some problems. My biggest problem is with energy. I never have enough, and I suppose I never have enough in the game either. So once I’ve completed a few missions, and side challenges, there is very little else I can do until my energy supply slowly charges up again. You can unlock energy achievements and recharge in a number of other ways too, but I really could not see anyone playing this game in any longer than one hour sprints.
My second issue with the game is the Player Vs Player elements. I’m not sure if this is just a glitch in the most recent update. But I always seem to get paired against the strongest of competitors. I’ll be the first to admit, being bad at PvP is just who I am as a person. It’s not a choice, it is a lifestyle, and I do it so well. But when the odds are stacked completely against you, I blink, and realise my entire team has been annihilated. So yeah, I’m afraid that’s a downfall for me.
Marvel: Future Fight is great fun for those that love Marvel, RPGs and collecting.
Future Fight is free to download on the Google Play and the Apple Store , with optional in-game purchases available.
