Marvel Heroes Omega recently released on X1. My friends and I have been playing it, it's not bad. I see a lot of potential there as a "pretty good game to go back when there's nothing else out", but their business model for this free to play is pretty bad. I've played a lot of F2P games (Smite, Paladins, Path of Exile, Loadout, Warframe, etc) and they usually offer you like 3 to 6 characters to choose from. In this game you can be anyone, but you can't get past level 10, which takes like 2 hours to get to, unless you buy a character with shards. You do find shards in the game, but I'm guessing it would take dozens of hours to get enough to buy someone and it's more or less $10 of real money to buy someone if you bought shards directly.

On X1, you can unlock Daredevil for free, but I don't like him that much plus we don't want to run around as four Daredevils going around punching everyone. I think this will turnoff a lot of gamers, especially console gamers, who aren't used to being so restricted. They should offer around a handful of character for free even if they're people with not so cool powers like Beast, Daredevil, Colossus, etc. I get having the more popular and/or powerful characters like Dr. Strange, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Spiderman as premium characters, but we need more than just one choice (Daredevil).

Did the business model turn anyone else off? If there a quicker/better way to get shards or unlock characters let me know.

It's worth it to just spend the money on a character or two you really like, then pick up others as you get shards.

The PC version let you unlock about 6 characters as you went through the tutorial when it first came out. It's a bit disappointing if the PS4 version only gives you one.

Can't get past level 10? That seems strange. I played Heroes when it first came out on PC (before the renamings and whatnot) and got pretty far in the game with Storm. I just got kinda bored of her. But yeah, I've definitely bought characters in games before, like a decent few in HotS, but I'll only buy them if I know that I like them. At the time when I was playing they didn't have any sort of test ground, which it sounded like they added way after the fact. In those cases I think it's pretty fine. $10 might be a bit steep, but I dunno, to each their own.

Yeah this doesn't seem terrible to me. $10 for a character is a lot, but since you can try them all before you buy you can pick the one that you find most appealing. Then, my understanding is, you can play the whole game with that character. And there's a lot of content. So $10 for a whole big AARPG seems not bad. You only really need to pay a lot if you want to go past level 10 with a whole bunch of characters, but if that's the case you're playing the game a ton, so it's also not so bad.

Seems like one of the less exploitative F2P models out there honestly.

I was reading that you could do a lot more when the game first came out, now it's way more restrictive.

When you're level 10 you still have a lot of powers locked, so it's not like you know what they can fully do, it only takes an hour or two to get to level 10. Plus, you can't really keep going at level 10 since the enemies will out level and damage you pretty soon. I would say $10 per character and Daredevil (probably the most basic character in the game) as the only free one is pretty bad. A good F2P model IMO means spending money is optional and you can still have a good time without doing so. That's definitely not the case here.

You're gifted enough shards to buy a mid-tier character from the start (after the Times Square mission) though, not just Daredevil. Only a handful -- Iron Man, Jean Grey, etc. -- are unavailable because of cost at the beginning.

Yeah kind of seems like you're over reacting here. This is a video game that is trying to make money after all. Basically being able to play the entire game for a tenner seems pretty fucking good.

But can't you play the whole game with your free character (Daredevil or whoever) if you want? I don't understand your definition of "have a good time."

It seems like very few games would have good F2P mechanics under this definition. I guess the cosmetic only games, but that's a minority. Most F2P games if you want to experience the whole thing you gotsta pony up.

I've played about 25 hrs on X1 using the free Daredevil character and have had a pretty good time. I finished the story, am at level 59 and just now starting to play the end game content. I wasn't thrilled about starting with Daredevil, but be was free so I gave him a shot and actually started to enjoy using him after leveling him up a bit. I've earn 450 of the Eternity Shard in that time, which is enough to buy 2 more of the inexpensive characters. The business model hasnt really bothered me, although some of the achievements look a bit too grindy, like prestige a character twice or fully level a legendary item. Overall I think it's a pretty fun Diablo/Marvel Ultimate Alliance experience and I would encourage people to check it out. You can play every character for free up to level 10, so if there are some you really like or want, I'd say go ahead and spend $10 to $20 to fully unlock them.

On pc i think you get 400 shards for completing the first mission, not sure if it's the same on console but it might be. I have put about a 100 or so hours into it on pc this year after never being able to get into it before, could be the controller support. Daredevil was my first character too and he is IMO the worst character i have by far, on pc they had an anniversary event so i got enough shards to buy a few heroes now, plus there is a vendor that sells random characters for like 175 shards(you can get a dupe though)

Between the half-off sale and bonus splinter boxes they just had, collecting splinters during playing, and using some on random hero tokens, I ended up spending about $25 for a dozen or so characters on the PC version. I think that was a great value for the hundred hours I put in before I got burned out. I do think it's weird that costumes and NPC team-up heroes cost as much as playable characters.

@bigsocrates: Yes, I could play the whole game as Daredevil, but he's not fun to me, so I don't want to. Like I said before, we should have the option to choose between multiple free characters. All the games I named in my original post got F2P right, so it's not like I have impossible or unrealistic standards.

I don't mind spending money, I bought the founders pack for both Smite and Paladins, which got me all present and future characters plus some cosmetics for $20. In this game I'd only get 2 charaters for that amount and they don't justify that disparity in value.

@bhizzy: Is Time Square the tutorial? If so, maybe on PC they're giving away that many shards, but on X1 my friends and I had about 220 after that part. Most characters are 500 to 750.

My big problem is just coming into it on PC well after release and seeing that hub area. That shit is incomprehensible. Between this and Destiny, someone really should have a sit-down with game devs and have a little talk about limiting the numbers of currencies.

@deathstriker: Huh, this was on PS4 when it launched there a month or so ago. I forget exactly how many shards were gifted, but they showed up in your inventory at the end of the tutorial and you had to actually open the box and add them to your currency. I would find it super strange if it worked that way on PS4 and not Xbox.

I just fired up the PS4 version to check, and there are several characters that I could have bought for the 200 shards that I was gifted at the start: Angela, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Hulk, Kitty Pryde, Nova, & Squirrel Girl. I've got Black Widow & haven't spent any money, so I assume she costs 200 too. I also got a free Daredevil to start with.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Trick is the only thing to worry about is eternity splinters, you can ignore everything else until you get a grasp on the game. I still don't know what half that stuff is for and i have over 100hrs in game now lol. There are special vendors but i don't think any matter until you reach max level anyway, so best way to play is just play and have fun. Also don't worry about inventory, if you get a bunch of max level gear at level 20 just dump it for space. This game is the first game i've played where you get TOO much loot, there is also an option to automatically get rid of commons etc. in the options.

I played on PC for years and loved the game. It's my most played game on Steam with about 200 hours. The way it worked when I first started playing (around the 2015 relaunch) is that you had to pick a character when creating your account from a limited pool, then that was all you got until you could buy another one. You couldn't try anyone out, so you just had to hope they were cool or go watch Youtube videos. They changed that eventually so that you could try out all the heroes (up to level 10) and then pick the one you wanted to play. It sounds like now they have the level 10 thing, but they only give you Daredevil (who, when I played at least, was one of the worst characters).

I've always thought the monitization system was quite fair. You pay directly for the characters you want, that is, there's no random lootbox bullshit. They are between 5-15 dollars each, and a full play-through from 1-60 will give you about 10-20 hours of playtime. Probably significantly more for your first few characters. They also run BOGO sales at least four or five times a year, and sales on the premium currency regularly as well. If you're patient, you can get a bunch of characters for ~$60. Yes, the cosmetics are expensive, but the easy solution is just not to buy them. Even if you do want them, at least you can just buy the one you want instead of paying money for lootboxs and hoping you get what you want.

I guess if you're aim is to get as much free time as possible out of a game, then this one probably isn't for you. But, if you're willing to put ~$60 into it over time, and you like the combat system, you'll get at least as much fun out of it as most retail games.

I look at it as a good game the play through once... maybe twice if you've got some friends who get into it, but it's not some great MMO-style game that you're going to want to play forever or anything like that. It's fine for what it is, I had a really good time with it on PC and played way more of it than I expected to, but it's not "obession-worthy" if that makes any sense.

I think if you can get one or two characters you like for free or a few bucks, it's a pretty good deal. But don't go nuts trying to unlock every character with shards, that's not a great use of your time.

I also think the console version is kinda clunky in spots, but it's still a decent campaign.

The business model compared to the PC version is really really poor. I put a lot of time into the PC (400+ hours or so) and was excited to play it when it came to PS4, put a bunch of time in it there during the "not really a beta but calling it beta, beta" and man is it rough. Not only is it such a sad shell of the PC version, for reasons that seems completely void, but like you say the business model is way worse. Just the fact they increased how many Eternity Splinters it cost to unlock Heroes is a slap in the face to players. Combine that with it being super lite on features, Heroes not even having their Unique Equipment to farm for, the frame rate being atrocious if there are 5+ people on screen doing powers, and Legendary Artifacts requiring way more EXP to level on console then PS4, and you have a shabby product that seems designed to try to keep you grinding for no reason other then to keep grinding, and hope you pay them money for costumes...which you can't even enhance stats on anymore.

It's a real bummer to see the path Marvel Heroes has taken since Brevik left. I know a lot of choices come from big daddy Disney (like getting rid of the Fantastic Four) but a lot of game choices that come from Gazillion have been worse and worse the past few years as well.

Oh also they added fucking Random Loot Boxes that hide some exclusive costumes in them, so fuck Omega.

Edit: It also seems based on a lot of responses to this thread that PC players don't fully understand the horrible changes that have been made to the console versions. I see a lot of people talking about the model being good, which is true for PC and PC only.

@takayamasama: Ewww, I didn't realize they had changed the game so much for the console release. I assumed they just ported it and gave it a different name to distinguish it from the PC version. It's missing many of the characters, and it sounds like they've removed other features as well. I expected performance to be terrible, since the game can get pretty CPU intensive even on PC in areas with lots of people, like Midtown. That's really too bad, because I think the PC version is one of the best free-to-play games I've played.

I put a bunch of hours into the Steam version over the years. I think I spent $10 one time for extra STASH space and that's it. I own over 40 heroes, multiple Team Ups, a ton of costumes I got by using the blender, and have a handful of characters that all have essentially the best possible gear. I never bought any cosmetics or anything like that. I always felt the business model, at least on PC, was more than fair. There were plenty of costumes for people who were into that sort of thing, but the game was also playable totally for free. Maybe it was too fair because of that costume blender change.

The only thing that really annoyed me about Marvel Heroes was that if you really wanted to play the game and collect stuff, there was no way to get enough STASH space without spending money. I think there was one STASH tab available for Eternity Splinters, and they gave one tab out during an anniversary event or something, but beyond that if you wanted to store items you needed to buy them. Even then, I just waited for a sale and got more than enough space for the 10 bucks I spent on the game and never felt like I "needed" to buy anything else.

Looks like they need to fix their filtering system, because when I go to roster and filter for min-max characters, I see Angela and Black Widow at the beginning, I knew they were 200, but those other couple of characters aren't there, it jumps to the 500 characters after Black Widow. When I go through the list individually I do see those others for 200, which makes things a bit more fair. However, from the comments in here and couple of Youtube videos I watched, it sounds like things used to be way better on PC.

After looking at their premium currency, the most expensive characters like Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, Jean Gray, etc are really $15 or $20 each, because they're 1350 points, but you can only buy points by 500 ($5), 1000 ($10), or 2100 ($20). Since they cost 1350 they're making us buy either the $20 pack or a $5 and $10 pack for the more expensive characters, which just feels manipulative and tacky IMO - after seeing that I'll probably never give them any money. That seems like a cheap trick from the early 2000's lol. They do have team bundles for straight up money: The Avengers (MCU version) is $60, GOTG characters is $40, and X-Men (6 of them, not including Cyclops or Gambit) is $60.

The only other alternative to unlocking characters (that I know of) is picking up shards in the game and they drop one every 8 minutes (from what I've read) and you'll need 500 to 750 shards for most characters, so that will take a while.

It cool that so many people are playing it now that its on consoles. I played this way back when it launched on PC( i think you were given a choice of like Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, & The Thing as your starting characters?) I picked it up recently and had a good time for the time I played.

This was the first (and only) F2P game I feel bad about sinking money into...over $100 for one costume. Such a fool T_T

But ~$10 for a character, after finding one you like, isn't bad? Maybe it's because I had $100+ worth of "boosters" but I ended up with enough shards to get 2-3 characters by the time I leveled up my first. Seemed like you could just buy one then get freebies as you level.

This game if fine for genre fans but I think it's where I totally said "I'm done with this shit" to modern typical ARPGs. Just wandering around seeing players take on mobs with so many effects that you can't tell what the fuck is happening, spacing doesn't matter, you can hardly even see what you are fighting, players (many duplicate characters) just mowing through the enemies like grass that regrows every few minutes. All of it is boring and hard to read and not fun. ARPGs need a mix up.

I couldn't even get that into D III so ARPGs may just not be for me anymore but I think someone should do a new ARPG and really try not to make it a spammy diablo/fireworks display mess on the screen all the time and see how that turns out. I think Dawn of War III was supposed to be my ARPG but they didn't make a sequel to DoW II.

Sorry to derail with ARPG hate but that's what I think of when it comes up. To me the business model was always fine and you can make it through. For me it's such a case by case basis which games rub me the wrong way.

@artisanbreads: you try grim dawn? I have over 700hrs in it and constantly adding more. Its definitely more old school and a lot of people compare it to diablo 2 (i wouldnt know since i never played it). I find the constant particle effects and mobs of players on screen disorienting in marvel too, but thankfully all the story stuff is instanced.

@oursin_360: That's one I look at a lot. Every once in a while I give one a try but I only get so far into it usually before I start to get nothing from it. Played some Pillars of Eternity and felt that way again.

Sounds like a good recommendation though so I will keep an eye on it when it's on sale.

@artisanbreads: try Path of Exile

It's definitely a game that will take advantage of the weak-willed, DLC wise. I have a feeling that many comic book fans qualify. From a gameplay perspective, MH will remain satisfying for so long as you enjoy sending scores of enemies flying with your superhero of choice and will probably lose its appeal once you spend most of your time exposing yourself to the dire lack of variety it offers in the endgame.

@artisanbreads: Pillars is an SRPG, not an ARPG.

@ajamafalous: @veektarius: I meant Path of Exile. Have played that before, pretty good but still feels similar to other ARPGs with most of complaints.

I bounced off path of exile pretty quick, it takes to long to get abilities and i dont like the randomness of getting them through gems(maybe it gets easier i dont know). Plus i like to play with a pad and grim dawn is great with a steam controller. I like marvel because i like comic book stuff, it took me 4 years before i was able to actually sit down and play through it though, i am back on grim dawn now since ths update seems to have fixed my performance issues the last patch introduced.

I'm, currently playing Diablo 3 for the first time so I can see myself not touching this game for a while, but I do want to play as Hawkeye with the character palette from the Fraction/Aja comics--like my profile pic. That costume available?

@sloppydetective: It doesn't have the target shirt, but there is a costume similar to it.

Totally valid. Last time I played it I was trying to play a pet class and got no abilities for it until so much later in the game.

A recent update gets you Nightcrawler and some other stuff if you spend any amount of money in the store. I played through the story with Daredevil and thought it was decent. I now have enough shards to buy a 500 point character.

In the end though it just feels like a slightly worse version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I wish they would just make another of those.

Played a fair amount of this recently; its worth spending 5 bucks for the inventory slots so that gets you Nightcrawler or Daredevil as options, or any of the 200 crystal characters (some of which are relatively popular; many of which have very strong synergy bonuses). The way splinters are doled out doesn't feel right as a diabloey thing, feels more like a grindy MMO thing; that's bad but the game is fun enough that once you get an OP character it kind of fades into the background.

Now Omega Prestige is definitely terrible, not because you can get it quicker through money but because its relatively fast to prestige and you can do it almost infinitely; but the faster you do it the more 8% damage boosts you get; which is obviously absurd with 5x experience boosts.

But aside from that its just middle of the road as free to play systems go, and they do seem willing to improve it over time.