We may never get a proper, big budget action/adventure game based on the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but the success of turn-based social RPG Marvel: Avengers Alliance suggests fans are willing to accept substitutes. Well, here comes Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics.
A continuation of Avengers Alliance, Disney Interactive's Avengers Alliance Tactics for Facebook looks to follow the same formula as its popular predecessor. Players are cast as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent tasked with assembling a dream team of heroes from a pool of 20 Marvel characters available at launch. Players will cultivate their characters, raising experience levels, unlocking new skills and characters and ultimately facing off against other players in PVP battles.
The core difference is that instead of Captain America, Black Widow and the Hulk showing up on the left side of the screen and taking turns against enemy combatants, the adventure unfolds on 3D grid-based maps, where movement and positioning becomes a factor.
The game's multi-dimensional story looks as if it's been tailored to allow for all sorts of wierd alternate characters to unlock. From the official press announcement:
Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics follows the Avengers as they work to protect Earth against threats from other dimensions. S.H.I.E.L.D. has sent a strike force to the Savage Land after detecting an enormous energy anomaly. This routine containment mission reveals a shocking source: the imminent collision of uncountable parallel dimensions. Now, Super Heroes from each dimension turn on each other, desperate for survival.
Interesting story, turn-based tactical combat — sounds like a winner to me. Of course this is a Facebook game, so a large percentage of the game's potential audience went directly to the comments section to leave "nothankyou" images after reading the second paragraph. Well, so is Avengers Alliance, and I've had a pretty good time playing that one.
Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics will be launching in Canada for testing in the coming days, with a worldwide release penciled in for "soon."