It would ordinarily be pretty expensive to re-enact any of Age of Ultron’s setpieces in Marvel Heroes – since Gazillion’s Diablo-like MMO makes its megabucks selling superheroes one-by-one to players, and Whedon’s cast is more cramped with costumed individuals than the lift at Comic-Con.
But not today! Iron Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye are all temporarily playable for free – and Ultron-inspired random events have begun livening up the usual action.
The Vision, the synthetic Avenger played by Paul Bettany, joins Marvel Heroes as a playable character, bringing the game’s total to a MOBA-worthy 47. And Gazillion have loaded the game with nine costumes inspired by the movie – for Captain America, Iron Man Mk 43, Iron Man Hulkbuster, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Vision and Scarlet Witch.
Hawkeye and Black Widow have both benefitted from upgraded weaponry, and Scarlet Witch has enjoyed a full redesign to reflect her powers in the film.
Play as an Avenger, and you’ll find yourself garnering extra XP. And there are plenty of ways to play at being Downey Jr. or Johanssen: Ultron Sentries will now pop up unexpectedly in normal game modes to tackle heroes, and the doo-lally android himself is holed up in the Avengers Mansion – a boss fight for advanced players.
Gazillion CEO and Blizzard North alum David Brevik points out that his game’s Metacritic score has hopped from 58 to 81 in a year. Evidently the Hollywood future for Marvel Heroes Gazillion once outlined to us has come to pass as they’d hoped. Are you playing (and paying), though?