Going into this without much research, I was anticipating a good roster of Marvel heroes and an addictive "just one more" type of micro transaction cash shop.

Safe to say, Marvel heroes takes a "different" approach.

Obviously judging the roster is subjective, but I wasn't blown away. For as rich as the Marvel universe is, we don't even get a Silver Surfer, Iceman, Mr.Fantastic, etc. Nope. Raccoon guy. And look forward to Squirrel Girl? Odd decisions for a game you'd think would make its hay on quantity over quality.

The cash shop is also stunningly expensive. I can't really recall offhand another instance of such high sticker shock for a f2p title. I'm not the one trying to profit and figure out the best system, but my gut reaction was to just not spend at all. 20 dollars for Spider Man? Ouch... Might of had me at 5 and 5 for a costume. Not to mention storage space, boosts, etc.

The game itself is totally fine, but it isn't as if it shimmers with AAA production quality. I got the impression I was playing a well made $20 game.

The defense I've heard in game about the pricing generally boiled down to: "Each character is like it's own class, thus Marvel Heroes has a vast amount of content compared to other ARPGs. And if you desire, every character and costume can drop in game."

Which is fair, but I haven't seen a flood of people unlocking characters from loot, and the skill trees don't immediately strike me as best in class.

Bit of a shame. I wanted to be playing this kind of game.

The price tags for the heroes themselves are ridiculous.

It just launched, and I guess they will add more of everything; and maybe tune prices accordingly; like now with the popularity contest between the characters. Some hero costs 600 points, while another can cost 1000 etc.

It's funny you should mention Spider-Man. Initially that was the only character I wanted to use so I paid the $20/2000 space bucks/ whatever. Playing as Spider-Man, however, leaves something to be desired. He has no weapons or magic to speak of (web shooters don't count) and he just basically punches stuff. Coupled with the fact that there are no visible armor upgrades, I feel kind of let down. That being said I will probably play a little more to see if later character levels open up anything more meaningful.

I've heard similar things for a few other expensive heroes. That is reason enough for me to not spend a penny until they give us a 'try before you buy' style system.

The no visible armor upgrades is iffy as well, yes. It is understandable though; the super heroes wear their signature costumes for a reason; and armor could have been about strengthening those etc; instead the game sort of "pretends" that you get new pieces of cloth/armor to wear with better stats, but it doesn't affect your look at all because that is governed by the Costume slot.

The shiny loot part loses a bit of its charm when you can't show it off. Also; green loot is more common than grey in this game. :)

I might be willing to agree with most other points but not about the roster. I think they've done a good job with the character choices so far. There is everything from really popular/well known with the mainstream audience down to characters that are niche even among comic readers. Also if the game does well enough I'm sure they'll add in more heroes like the rest of the FF, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, more Avengers, more X-Men, and hopefully the occasional obscure character.

I played maybe 5 hours so far and had 1 hero-drop ... I started with Daredevil and Scarlet Witch dropped for me.

The combat is probably the biggest thing turning me off to the game. It's serviceable ARPG combat, but it really doesn't do anything remotely unique. Plus, it usually runs like garbage for a reason I can't figure out (especially when there are more than like five guys on screen). I would expect more from a guy who worked on Diablo and a game that has been in development for a good while.

Gear seems pretty pointless as well. I don't really mind the lack of aesthetic changes, but upgrades don't really feel meaningful at all. The lack of a simple DPS number calculated from the gear just feels lazy in a modern ARPG.

I also hate free-to-play games that greatly constrain inventory space in the hopes of getting your dollars--and this game does a pretty bad job of this. It feels just as bad as those mobile games with energy that restricts when you can play.

I'm guessing this game wasn't cheap to make, so I feel bad about criticizing them for prices; but sometimes I wonder whether a F2P game would have actually done better if it was sold like a normal (you know, old world, retail game) game and rather have more heroes added as DLC later perhaps.

That is Gazillion's problem - don't feel bad about it at all. They are the ones that felt the "full package" of the game is a $750 value. Seriously. That's really what they value the entirety of the package at. They're giving you a discount at $200. Whatever you have to say about Marvel Heroes, I think it is completely fair to say its value as a game rests well below the $750 mark.

If the success of their venture hinges on that price assumption being accurate, they made a terrible mistake and deserve to fold back into the ever shifting sea of the free market.

This is what they say to people concerned about the high prices of these cool looking, yes, but pretty limited game classes/characters. I do notice that the Marvel Heroes representative doesn't mention to this poor soul that with the current drop-rate of heroes, he'll be spending a whole lot of hours of his life grinding this if his goal was to get "every member of X-Force" through actually playing. :)

all I want is Rocket Raccoon.

Those hero drops aren't "real", for lack of a better term. That boss will always drop a character, and it will always be one of the free starter characters

I kinda suspected as much. So, nobody here got a real drop yet?

@2headedninja: I made a thread for people to report their eventual hero drops in.

http://www.giantbomb.com/marvel-heroes/3030-35003/forums/has-anyone-seen-a-new-hero-as-loot-yet-1439510/#21

It seems someone got it during the beta, but then they had the drop-rates upped for testing purposes I suppose. I think some people confuse the initial second hero as a loot drop, which it isn't.

I got Black Widow as a drop.

glad to have that cofirmed, i must have missed that