In a move no-one could have predicted, superhero-laden MMO ARPG Marvel Heroes 2015 is set to be re-relaunched, this time as – wait for it – Marvel Heroes 2016. And you’ll only have to wait “a couple of months”, with the release scheduled for this fall.
We sat down with Gazillion Entertainment CEO – and creator of a little series known as Diablo – David Brevik at Gamescom earlier today, and he outlined the changes that will be made to the game later this year.
“We don’t have expansions – traditionally MMOs come out with a subtitled expansion that they sell you for forty bucks. Since we’re giving away the content all the time we don’t have something to theme an annual release around, so this is our chance to say, ‘Hey, look what’s changed!’
So… what’s changed? “The 2016 update will be a bigger than normal update – we’ve saved some stuff up throughout the year,” says Brevik. “There will be new story content – this is a new chapter, the tenth chapter in the story, continuing from where the story left off. It involves the Skrulls, a shapeshifting alien race. There are new NPCs, new bosses [including] Kl’rt – he’s a Super-Skrull with all the abilities of the Fantastic Four – as well as a War Skrull who has a lot of the X-Men abilities: he’s got Cyclops’ visor, Wolverine’s claws, Colossus’s metal skin, etc.” Sounds like a nice chap.
“Leaderboards are coming,” Brevik tells us, “and we’re doing them a lot differently. We’re making them broad audience leaderboards so that you don’t have to play 24/7 to compete. We’re going to be much friendlier than that, with real short-session leaderboards, good rewards – things like that.” There’s more. “Controller support is coming, there’s a bunch of visual updates… plus the All-New All-Different stuff. We’ve got a new Thor costume coming with Jane Foster, Spider-Gwen is coming out.”
And the hits just keep on coming. Brevik has also promised an improved inventory system – allowing you to customise stash tabs, label them, sort them, move them around, customise icons and so on – as well as Steam achievements, the Mac version being brought out of beta, and “some other stuff we can’t really talk about yet.” The big tease.
Keen to try Marvel Heroes 2015 before it evolves? We’ve named it one of our 101 Best Free PC Games.