MikeB

Stark Tech is a new form of progression introduced to Marvel Strike Force in update 2.0. The system allows for players to spend Alliance Credits earned through daily Alliance donations to apply Origin-wide upgrades to their roster. It’s a good, but not super interesting new layer of customization for players, that can also be a bit confusing or overwhelming.

Marvel Strike Force developments are happening at a breakneck pace these days. Last week, we were discussing three new characters coming to the game and this week FoxNext dropped update 2.0 adding a fourth previously unrevealed character along with some major new features.

Last week, we spent some time going over Storm, the latest addition to the Marvel Strike Force roster, but there are even more new characters on deck and they’re likely all villains, something MSF desperately needs.

Since last week’s favorite MMO abilities piece got some good responses, I thought it might be fun to flip the topic on its head. What are some of the worst abilities you’ve experienced in an MMO? This can be anything from stuff you thought sounded cool that just ended up being terrible, to abilities that were just oppressive, or my favorite, the noob traps.

First it was Wolverine, then Deadpool & Cable, and now Foxnext has added the weather witch herself, Storm, to Marvel Strike Force. X-Men are my favorite Marvel characters, so it’s been frustrating to say the least to see Marvel hold them back from appearing in various games and other media over the years. This makes it all the more exciting to see a mutant character appear in a modern Marvel title, even if it is on mobile.

There are a lot of things to consider when you think about what kept you playing your favorite MMOs, but for me a lot of the time it can be simple things I enjoy about the moment to moment gameplay. A really neat spell or ability can make a character a whole lot more enjoyable to play, so this week I wanted to share some of my favorite MMO spells or abilities.

This year felt a bit different for me. There were a ton of new trailers and some key developments, but nothing truly awe-inspiring (well, except one thing, but more on that later). In any case, Gamescom 2018 did still tick some key boxes for me and these are my highlights listed in no particular order.

As we’ve mentioned a few times now, it’s been a bumpy summer for Marvel Strike Force and the community has been on a razor’s edge for weeks now. But it looks like FoxNext is attempting to chart a better course for the game and right the ship, starting with some new efforts to communicate with players and offer some quick responses to community concerns.

When I first saw the announcement of Marvel Battle Lines I found myself conflicted. I was excited for the possibility of a sort of Marvel answer to Hearthstone, but cautious of Nexon’s involvement for fear of heavy-handed P2W elements. Alas, Marvel Hearthstone isn’t what we got. Instead, Marvel Battle Lines is closer to enhanced tic-tac-toe.

Four new characters are coming to Marvel Strike Force in the near future, including: Scarlet Witch, Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Nick Fury. The first of these new characters, Scarlet Witch, is now available through a new campaign event released with yesterday’s patch and the structure of the campaign is a significant improvement over the ones preceding it.

Riot Games recently released an impressive interactive map of Runeterra, the original setting created for its massively successful, but lone title, League of Legends. What happened after that stirred up a lot of excitement in the world of MMO fans. Riot co-founder Marc ‘Tryndamere’ Merrill quoted the tweet promoting the new map and asked if people would be interested in Riot building an MMO. This was either a cruel joke or a serious hint at what the studio has been working on all this time.

Bullet hell games aren’t really my style, but when we were invited by Digital Extremes & Human Head studios to check out Survived By, a free-to-play retro-styled bullet hell meets MMO, my interests were piqued.

Even though I knew MSF would be more Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes than Marvel: Avengers Alliance, I do think that the game could benefit from mixing in a bit of the MAA magic into MSF in a couple of ways.

Initially, my feelings on Fallout 76 could be best described as cautiously optimistic. The basic premise of the game appealed to me and I didn’t find too many issues with the E3 announcement or what I learned from the Noclip documentary, but since then, things have gotten a bit more complicated. The messaging has been kind of all over the place from Bethesda and the more time I have to think about things, the more I wonder how it will all pan out.

Another new movie, another new tie-in. I know that sounds like I’m unexcited, but I’m pretty much always excited for new MSF content. Truth be told, I don’t particularly care about Ant-Man or the Wasp as characters (though the Ant-Man movie was enjoyable and I look forward to the sequel), but their kits sound absolutely terrifying so I’ll be collecting both for sure.