Coming next month is DC's answer to Marvel Future Fight.
http://www.dccomics.com/games/dc-legends
Game is freemium to play. Having enjoyed MFF, I'm going to check this one out. Only reason I'm posting about it now before the release is the preregister offer for Wonder Woman.
Oh wow. Thanks, I just pre registered. From the trailer it looks like it will be more like Avengers Alliance 2, or Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. More turn based than action.
Also I kinda wish that DC games just left the costumes alone... we don't need armor on everybody... but I do admit that leveling up Swamp Thing so he has a crown and wings will be cool.
game's out, played a bit of it this morning. It's pretty solid for what it is (Det's right in that it's basically AA2) but I do like the art style, for what it is. Yeah, there's the typical "OMG ARMORZ" that the n52 loaded us up with, but it's done in a more cartoonish style than an Injustice/Arkham one, which is fine.
So, it went live and I've started playing it.
Initial overview & impressions:
- So far, character designs seem pretty standard, with the exception of my prereg Wonder Woman (who's based on the Cliff Chiang Wonder Woman (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53bc0ba7e4b096f3cce289a9/53bc337ce4b0dfc914b3da10/53c073ede4b0cdf4d648c442/1405121521587/statue+back+small.jpg) who is different from Standard Wonder Woman). You don't start getting into the weird armor until your character hits Legendary status, and that takes getting your character to 5 stars first.
- There is a plot involving Nekron and the Manhunters tying everything together. Writing is okay, centering primarily on Zatanna and Hal Jordan, even though you probably won't keep both in your lineup.
- Battles are turn-based. your team of up to 4 vs the enemies (I think the max is 5). Every character has their own speed which dictates how often they attack. Characters come in 3 flavors (Physical, Mystical, Energy) with a Rock/Paper/Scissors type of Advantage/Disadvantage.
- You can save up to 5 team configurations which covers most of the "flavor combinations" you'd encounter.
- Because it is turn based, there isn't much exploring. :(
- Characters level up with ingame currency which has been easy to earn so far, and XP fragments, which are also easy to find. They gain stars/rankings by both in-game currency and character cards/shards/whatever I forget what they're calling them but you get the idea if you've played Marvel:FF. Most of the aforementioned character bits seem to be in the "hard" version of the story missions though drop rates seem to be kinda low.
- Characters also can level up their gear with item drops and powers with mission rewards. You must level up all your gear to the same level in order to get to the next tier.
- PVP is team vs AI controlled team. You choose from a list of player opponents. If you clear the list, you get bonus points. Thing is, the list doesn't necessarily update as you level up so towards the end, battles have gotten really lopsided in my favor.
- So far, besides the prereg bonus, I have Zatanna, Hal Jordan GL, Batman, Green Arrow, Sinestro, Flash, Deadshot (who dropped as 2 star). Really liking Flash because of his attack speed and the fact that he randomly double attacks.
- There is an energy system, but so far it hasn't been an issue as I'm leveling up pretty fast (level 18 now). I'm sure it will become an issue at some point, at which time I'll let you know how big a pain it is.
- All shop currency can be earned in game. Yes you can pay for more, but so far the drop rate has been pretty good. Most items are random draw packs though so better hope you're lucky.
Overall, I'm liking it. Haven't run into too many bugs (had a level lock at the very end and had to redo, and had some connection issues due to weak wi-fi) and it looks pretty good and plays well. Will stick with it a while and see how it goes.
Personally, I'm feeling Benton-y right now... I just want Aquaman.
That being said, you actually get a ton of characters fairly early on... I played for maybe 15-20min and the only one GG has that I don't is Deadshot, but I'm pretty sure he's unlocked in the next story level. When I get home, I'm gonna try to grind out some Superman Biometric/whatevers, which can be earned by progressing through the story and by completing chapters on hard mode.
Speaking of, I didn't get a chance to play with that in my rush this morning. How was it? Is it something I should wait until later in the game to do, or can I start Chapter 1's hard missions before starting chapter 2?
Chapter 1 hard missions didn't feel that hard so I say go for it. I hadn't finished Ch2 when I tried Ch1 hard for the first time.
BTW: Looks like for now prereg Wonder Woman may cap out at 4 star, simply because there doesn't seem to be any more available character bits, not even in shop. I hope this changes soon.
An update of sorts since it's been over a month of play:
Been enjoying it for the most part. I'm up to Chapter 6 normal, and working my way through Chapter 5 in Heroic. I've unlocked about 15 heroes with a couple on the verge of unlocking. No Legendary heroes yet, and probably won't for a while :( My main four are pre-reg Wonder Woman (who sadly only seems upgradable with premium currency and a LOT of it :( ), Classic Deadshot, Castaway Green Arrow, and Zatanna. I'm tempted to swap out Deadshot at some point for Powersuit Lex Luthor but I need to boost Lex some more first. I would like to get the other Wonder Woman, but her shards drop slow so it may be a while.
The unlock system is interesting: the number of shards directly corresponds to the number of stars the character will be at unlock as if you upgraded them that whole way in one shot. While that is good in that some characters automatically unlock more powerful than others, it also means it takes a while to get some of my favorites, as some of the drops are rare to non-existent.
I am a little ticked that they took away the one thing in the store that you could buy with regular essence -namely the gear upgrade materials. It's now premium currency and I sadly doubt it will be going back.
PVP isn't bad - the matching system usually gives you plenty of opponents you can easily beat and a few challenging ones. I've run into a handful of Pay-to-win players there, but at least you can skip them (at the cost of the bonus reward, not recommended unless you really can't beat them)
Timed events, launched after the game was released, are basically just resource missions. You can only run each mission level once per time frame, which makes them less ideal for farming goods. More of that pay to win stuff, dang it. I hope that this doesn't continue to escalate, as it's stating to be a real turn off.
Character design is mostly classic. I haven't seen any characters that are really out there design-wise, even the Legendary versions (well except for Legendary Flash, more on that in a moment). Speaking of which, Here are a few of the Legendary versions if you're curious.
http://comicsalliance.com/dc-legends-legendary-character-gifs/
I like all of them except for Flash. Seriously, spikes?
Any other thoughts now that it's had time to settle in a bit?
My game kept glitching every time I finished a particular match, so I gave up on it... I've had enough issues with game breaking bugs in Spider-Man Unlimited, thanks. I'll dive back in later on, maybe when Aquaman finally shows up and they've gotten some of the bugs worked out.
cant even get it to load but if i could id love to see if i could rip the models
Crashes for me too, however crossspotts all the models have already been ripped. You can find them about devaintart.