Marvel Avengers Alliance -online game review-

By Mark Rodriguez

For anyone with Facebook, you might have seen this online game that was out when the Avengers movie first came out and it's still out now. Even though it's named after the Avengers you run practically into the entire Marvel universe. If you haven't seen or played this yet or don't have Facebook, check out my review. 

Marvel Avengers Alliance casts you as a random SHIELD agent that you can customize to your liking and sends you out to stop HYDRA's attempts to conquer or destroy the world, all while running into other Marvel super villains. You start alone but soon enough Hawkeye, Iron Man and the Black Widow join your team. As the game advances you can recruit new characters based on how many gold bars you earn, which you can get every time you level up. 

The game is basically an RPG. You can upgrade your armor and weapons for yourself as you level up or earn more gold and SHIELD points. The superhero characters level up and unlock new attacks. Whenever they gain enough hp, you send them off to train. Once the training is complete, they level up. The character come in certain types, ranging from Infiltrators like the Black Widow and the Black Cat, Tacticians like Cyclops and Hawkeye and Bruisers like Colossus and She-Hulk. Despite having the Marvel Super Heroes on your side, your agent is still the most important member of the team. One of the main reasons is you're the only one with access to extra items during a fight. Yes, during fights you can use your inventory with things like heal potions, first aid kits, grenades, and other stuff you can use to attack the bad guys or keep your team alive. Every member of the team can use the items, but if the agent dies, the inventory goes with him, and the surviving team mates will be left without a way to replenish health or anything else for the rest of the battle.

The game sets you on several missions, (Nick Fury and Maria Hill brief you on your missions) and each mission has several areas you can go to fight off the henchmen and mid-bosses before the boss appears. Some places ask you to deploy one of your heroes, and they basically sit out a few fights until their mission is done and you gain extra points and chances to win rare items. Depending on the missions, they might ask you either deploy whoever you want from your team based on their character type, or a specific character that you might or might not have on your roster. Certain battles or stories even have certain characters team up with you, even if you haven't unlocked them yourself. For example, Thor joins you on your fight against Loki, and Spider-Man joins you in the fight against the Vulture. Several of the bosses you'll face include characters like Baron Zemo, Bull's Eye and Doctor Doom.

Funny... the Destroyer looked taller in the movies....

Not all missions are available from the start. Naturally they follow a story, so you can't go to chapter 2 until you're done with chapter 1.. but others are considered 'Premium Chapters' which require you to do certain tasks to unlock them (or you can buy them with enough gold). Sometimes there are Special Ops missions that appear and are only available for a set amount of days in real time. If you're able to beat these missions in time you gain rare items and might be able to recruit rare characters. The most recent mission I was in had a random 'Group Boss', the Red Skull. You have to fight him several times, and your online friends also have a chance to fight him. It was a random event and he kept appearing in certain parts of the main story.

Face the power of the Tesseract, bitches!!!

Speaking of online friends, since it's a Facebook game, you can invite other friends to join the game, even though technically you don't play side by side with them. As they go on their missions and level up, you go to their progress and earn some silver and points for yourself. You can also send gifts to each other as well. There's also a 'distress call' you can use that summons on of your friend's agents to jump in for a quick attack. This is awesome, especially since your friend might be a higher level than you and be using more powerful weapons. This review is based on the iphone app, and it doesn't show the name (or username) of the person helping you. The actual Facebook version on your computer does, so it's cool having a Paige Mischief or a Rakiarmas come to the rescue.

Thanks for the assist!!!......whoever you are!

There's also tournaments you can enter that are available for limited times. Winning these allow you to unlock even more hidden characters to add to your team or rare items. This is your chance to show off just how powerful you and your teammates are as you face off against other players all over Facebook!

Well, I have to say the game is fun and entertaining and always good for a quick boss fight during break time. The only downside is since it's a Facebook game, and some of them require you to pay actual real world money.... there are points in the game where you can't really do anything but wait around. Running out of energy stops from you from continuing any other battles unless you wait for it to recharge or buy more energy. You can use your hard-earned cash to buy more gold and Avengers points to buy more characters or weapons, and unlock the premium chapters. All of that is good, expect the energy part. Just let me keep playing my game. 

Overall it's a fun game, so if you're any kind of Marvel comics fan, it's worth a look. It's a good game to kill a few hours with, or for a quick match during break time. Hell, the game even lets you ship off your heroes on missions in plane for up to 24 hours real time, so they're earning more silver for you while you're on your day-to-day. And it's available on your phone to download too. Feel free to check it out!