For those unfamiliar with the original title, Marvel: Avengers Alliance let you collect your favorite Marvel characters, assemble them into a team with your own customizable SHIELD Agent, and participate in turn-based battles spanning across a multitude of story-based chapters and special operations (events). The game also featured sort-of-PvP, where you did battle against other players’ pre-assembled defending teams, and the associated PvP seasons were frequently ways to snag powerful items and new characters. The individual heroes were split into different archetypes (bruisers, blasters, scrappers, and so on) and could be customized further with a variety of crystals. There are a bunch of these sorts of games available on mobile now, but Avengers Alliance stood out not just for the Marvel IP, but for the depth of the combat mechanics. The interactions between the class archetypes and the variety of different ability effects, debuffs, and buffs, made for a much deeper experience than I’m used to seeing in similar mobile games. Again, the issue (for me) was the game’s monetization. Disney did not handle things with a light touch, which was true for most social games on Facebook at the time.
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Going fully mobile for the sequel offers Disney an opportunity to modernize its approach to gameplay and monetization, so I was eager to find out how things fared. While the game is only soft launched at the moment, I can definitely say that Avengers Alliance 2 benefits from all the best aspects of its predecessor while adequately addressing the monetization issues I had with it. I haven’t spent a dime on the game yet, and playing it constantly over the past week, I haven’t felt much pressure at all to do so, either.
The one catch is in the game’s hero collection component. If you spend the gold you’re given from task rewards and leveling up to keep energy and other currency levels refilled, you can pretty much play the game all day, but if you’re looking to fill your hero roster, it’s going to be tough balancing the two without shelling out a least a bit. Unlike the original game, heroes aren’t directly purchased with points, but are instead randomly drawn from a pull item that can only be purchased with gold.
This is a problem for two reasons. For one, this item also includes abilities, which are also handled differently from the original game. Heroes start with a pair of abilities, but they can get new ones along the way and you can customize their ability slots with any you acquire. It’s a great new feature, but lumping abilities in with heroes means you’re more often than not going to end up pulling abilities (including many duplicates) than new characters. Not such a great idea if you’re not looking to spend money on gold and also want to play frequently. I imagine this will only get worse in the future, as costumes will be handled differently in Avengers Alliance 2, as well. Each costume will be its own individual character, which will likely inflate the roster over time and make it difficult to acquire the specific characters you’re seeking to recruit without spending a bunch on gold due to the RNG factor.
Aside from that little bit of nitpicking, Disney has really dialed back all the nickel and diming found in the first game, and the game is also a whole lot more fun to boot. For one, you don’t have to spend hours training and so there isn't any temptation or necessity to spend gold to accelerate it. Probably the biggest departure that’s made the most difference to the game’s monetization is the complete absence of the SHIELD Agent. Your party now consists of three active fighters, with three in reserve that can be swapped in and out à la Pokémon. The SHIELD Agent in the original Avengers Alliance had to be upgraded, equipped with outfits, and had to collect a metric ton of new gadgets (often sold for crazy amounts of gold) to keep up. This is no longer an issue and the game is much better for it, unless you liked having the Agent out, but for me, I prefer doing battle exclusively as Marvel’s iconic characters and now I don't have to worry about putting together ridiculous item sets.
PvP, one of the most frustrating, but almost necessary activities in the original game, has been completely overhauled in the sequel. The mode now uses a Hearthstone-like ladder system, only split into tiers just like before. Earn enough wins and you’ll move on to the next rank, with each tier granting you different rewards, including new characters, and abilities for those characters. You don’t have to set up a team on defense and worry about others tanking your rank while you’re AFK. You’re in full control of your own destiny here. And there also aren’t really any PvP items for players to stack to give them an edge, so you don’t have to worry about wallet warriors to the same extent as you did in the original game.
The game benefits greatly from the move to its new 3D aesthetic. The beautiful 2D art of the original game shows up during dialogue and in menus and such, but once you jump into battle you’ll be fighting with 3D characters in 3D environments. Animations and visual effects are excellent, and the environments, while lacking a bit in terms of variety, are well detailed.
Combat moves a lot faster, too. You’ll still see the fly text for status effects, but it all happens simultaneously with your actions, speeding things up. I’m not a huge fan of the streamlining of the class archetypes, however. There aren’t distinct consequences for fighting your counter class, you just give the enemy a generic “Class Advantage” buff, and do less damage to them, while they do more to you. It’s not a huge loss, though, as the game has improved so much overall that it’s easy to overlook some of its shortcomings.
The aforementioned hero customization has to be my favorite new feature. You can very meaningfully tailor the way each character plays and build teams around having synergy with those builds. Characters like Wasp can be an incredibly potent, team buffing dodge tank, or with a different build, an AOE damage dealing, debuffing powerhouse. In another example, Iron Fist can be a devastating scrapper or a mix of utility with team heals and damage. Personally, I like building teams around free attacks, so I’ve got Captain Marvel (who can grant a team-wide free attack buff), along with Hawkeye (who can proc free attacks with his Rapid Shot ability), and Iron Fist (who can debuff enemies to make them take 75% more damage from free attacks). These three combined are absolutely nasty and half the fun of the game is coming up with these sorts of synergistic team compositions.
I’m not a huge mobile gamer, but the original Avengers Alliance really grabbed me, and I’m super excited to say that the sequel is definitely worth keeping an eye on. It’s improved on almost all aspects of its predecessor and is
much friendlier on your wallet. I’d encourage any fans of Marvel and turn-based RPG combat to give the game a download once it launches in your region
Michael Bitton / Michael began his career at the WarCry Network in 2005 as the site manager for several different WarCry fansite portals. In 2008, Michael worked for the startup magazine Massive Gamer as a columnist and online news editor. In June of 2009, Michael joined MMORPG.com as the site''s Community Manager.
Author: Michael Bitton
Created: December 23, 2015
