Marvel Heroes: Hands-On First Impressions

We got a chance to play some Marvel Heroes at PAX East this year, ahead of its June launch. Inspired by Diablo, it's easy to see this free-to-play game garnering a large audience in the coming months.

At its core, Marvel Heroes looks a lot like the Ultimate Alliance games from a few years ago. Those Activision products were among the best-received comic book games ever, so clearly they are on the right track. The action is once again isometric, with the screen constantly being filled with energy blasts, powerful punches, and bodies flying everywhere.

After choosing from a wide array of Marvel heroes, players will navigate the large maps with simple button clicks, while actions and powers are mapped to the ASD row on the keyboard. For Diablo fans, this will be second nature, but for gamers used to WASD controls, there might be some getting used to. Luckily, the action never seemed too tough, and rolling with a posse ensures that someone will be there to back you up.

While the MMO-space is always crowded with newcomers, Marvel Heroes seems to have a clear leg up on the competition right out of the gate. The fact that it is free-to-play, and features the iconic Marvel characters will surely reel in lots of customers. Whether it can hold an audience over the long run is yet to be seen, but at first glance there's a lot to like about Marvel Heroes.

Chris Linendoll's spider senses are tingling. Follow him on Twitter.