In a rather shocking announcement, Marvel (or Disney) has revealed that it will be ending its working relationship with Gazillion Entertainment. As a result, online action RPG Marvel Heroes will be shutting down.

In an email to Kotaku, a representative for Marvel said that, “We regret to inform our Marvel Heroes fans that we have ended our relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, and that the Marvel Heroes games will be shut down. We would like to sincerely thank the players who joined the Marvel Heroes community, and will provide any further updates as they become available.”

Numerous people who worked at Gazillion, including one current employee and two former employees, noted that there were three rounds of layoffs roughly a year after launch. It was also revealed to Kotaku that several employees working on the game were told to not come in. Considering that Gazillion hasn’t had a number of weekly community updates or tie-in material for the recent Thor Ragnarok, along with community managers going missing on the forums, it seems that players knew something bad was coming.

An anonymous employee also noted that despite creating features for the game over the past 2 to 3 months, he was unsure whether they would actually be implemented. Speaking on fans of the game, “While they’re sitting there reasonably flaming us, our hands are tied.”

Marvel Heroes’ former creative director Jeff Donais said that the resulting lay-offs “Would definitely not be the fault of the internal men and women who actually worked on the game itself or served the customers…It was a real thing that people didn’t see their families as much as they should, or sacrificed their health to work an 80-hour week when an important patch deadline was looming…The patch release schedule, especially when PC was the main focus, was aggressively insane.”

What are your thoughts on Marvel Heroes being shut down, especially after more than four years? Let us know in the comments below.

Gazillion’s Marvel Heroes didn’t get off to the best start, but the 2015 overhaul, aptly titled Marvel Heroes 2015, turned things around, and made the title a fun action RPG that continues to enjoy a thriving community of dedicated players. With next year’s revisions, the developers aren’t looking to rock the recently stabilized boat- instead, they will continue to build on the improvements they started this year, and on the game’s newfound momentum.

The full specifics will be announced in the coming months, but for now, Gazillion’s list of announced improvements includes a new Secret Invasion Story, a new Thanos Raid, controller support, Steam achievements, leaderboards, as well as bringing the Mac version out of beta.

A full, more exhaustive and detailed list of all the changes will be made public in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, and if you play Marvel Heroes regularly, let us know what you think of all the planned changes in the comments section below.

Gazillion Entertainment’s free to play online RPG Marvel Heroes has received a new 2.31 game update which, as usual, adds a heap ton of new content along with new characters. Gazillion also noted that signups for the Mac version’s closed beta are now available. The closed beta for Mac will being in Spring.

PC players can look forward to playing as Moon Knight, who is the so-called knight of vengeance. Sort of like an ersatz Batman under the Marvel banner, Moon Knight relies on utter badassery along with lunar-based powers and gadgets to defeat his foes. He is the 30th hero to join the ranks in Marvel Heroes.

Also, for Mardi Gras, there are will be special themed masks and beads available, with each player receiving boosts for rare item find, special item find, and experience gain. There will also be limited edition Fortune cards for players daily, and some ultra rare items like Punisher Franken-Castle, Wolverine Brood and Headpool are available again as part of the occasion.

Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes has received a significant boost with Game Update 2.2, namely Forge of Asgard. This adds a deeper customization to the items and character outfits and allows you to combine five runs with Uru-Forged items. This can grant all kinds of abilities for your character including full health, Frost Giant growth and invisibility.

The game will also be arriving on the Mac with the closed beta beginning near the end of February. CEO David Brevik stated that. We’ve always wanted to release on Mac and we’re proud to announce our CBT. Marvel Heroes continues to grow and improve at an astounding rate. Giving Mac players an opportunity to suit up and save the world is a good next step for us and one we’re happy to take.”

Marvel Heroes is a free to play MMORPG which allows you to choose tons of heroes and villains including Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. Have you given it a shot yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Marvel Heroes continues to add superheroes to its ranks, with Gazillion Entertainment announcing the addition of Nightcrawler with the latest Game Update 2.15. This brings the roster up to 29 heroes and villains in total.

Nightcrawler is a mutant blessed with the power of teleportation, which allows him to move quickly from one enemy to another and traverse great distance. He’s also blessed with extraordinary agility and can vault up to high places with ease. In Marvel Heroes, Nightcrawler will have the Brimstone Blitz ability, that allows him to automatically teleport to and destroy all nearby enemies in a flash.

Aside from Nightcrawler, players can also take control of Wolverine, Spider Man, Hulk, Iron, Captain America and many more characters in Marvel Heroes. Best of all, it’s free to play and can thus be accessed by anyone. What are your thoughts on the addition of Nightcrawler? Let us know below in the comments.

Gazillion Entertainment’s free to play title Marvel Heroes has received some substantial content with the new Game Update 2.1, which brings new war zones in Asgard, Thor’s home, is it faces a siege from the Dark Elf Malekith and his army. You’ll also be able to play as Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance itself, and team up with other players on the new campaign. Update 2.1 will be free to all players.

Since Siege is a public combat zone, this means that several players will be able to band together to fight off the Dark Elf’s armies. There will also be a battle against Loki in Odin’s Throne Room along with new enemies such as Kronan, Rock Trolls and many more. You’ll also have access to new story missions and added motion comics that come fully voiced. We did mention this is all free, right?

If you haven’t gotten into Marvel Heroes yet, hit up the link here.

A long-time member of the team, Gambit’s mutant ability allows him to kinetically charge objects, which can then explode on impact with their target. Most times he just uses this ability to charge playing cards and hurl them at foes, while also using a staff to beat them senseless. Gambit’s design seems to fall fairly close to the original Earth 616 appearance, which we don’t mind in this era of movie-based redesigns for classic characters.

You can check out Marvel Heroes here if you’re interested in discovering the game for yourself. What are your thoughts on the inclusion of Gambit? Let us know in the comments below.

The free to play massively online Marvel themed game, Marvel Heroes, got a massive, substantial update with Marvel Heroes 1.3. The update added a new hero, a Prestige Mode, a Hero Synergy System, Legendary Quests, and a hell of a lot of more stuff.

The new hero, of course, is Luke Cage, who’s even cooler now than ever before, if that’s even possible. Luke Cage is nearly invulnerable, and boasts the ability to summon Heroes for Hire, opening up an entirely new style of play.

Elsewhere, the Prestige System works as you would expect it to (once you max out a hero, you can restart at Prestige Level 1), the Hero Synergy System brings persistent skills across all your heroes (each hero now unlocks account-wide synergy bonuses at levels 25 and 50 that can be equipped on any hero. Since every hero can equip up to ten synergy bonuses, including Hulk’s health bonus and Spider-Man’s increased chance to dodge, players now have access to more hero customization), and Legendary Quests allows players to gain access to new combat and loot they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.

Along with all of this, the costume, Lady Deadpool, may also now be bought in game.

It’s basically equivalent to at least a full fledged expansion pack.

Players also now have the options to unlock any hero in any order they want by collecting and using Eternity Splinters, which are dropped from enemies. A new zone – Midtown Patrol – has also been implemented, which sees our heroes fighting off groups of super-villains at a time in Manhattan. There’s also the usual bug fixes, UI enhancements, additional build options and performance improvements that have been added to the mix.

Head here to view the complete notes on patch 1.11. Meanwhile, you can view the Human Torch developer diary below. You can also download and play Marvel Heroes by heading here.

"In a sea of predictable gameplay ideas, the mixture of spandex and nostalgia is the most appealing element of Marvel Heroes' opening sections."

Usually relying on the quality of its cameos over gameplay excellence, it is understandable that so many licensed titles are discriminated against and, whilst I do wish Marvel Heroes was another gem like Arkham Asylum, it just isn’t. A free to play Diablo clone, Marvel Heroes manages to spend so much time cramming Marvel characters down your throat that it totally forgets to innovate within the ARPG genre in any meaningful way.

The game starts off with Dr. Doom obtaining the Cosmic Cube, a device of untold power. The main scenario revolves around several Marvel Heroes uniting to prevent Dr. Doom from committing heinous acts with the cube. It has enough charm and cheesy one-liners to crack a smile, but I won’t be expecting it to win a Bafta any time soon.

Regardless, it does a good job of running the player through an unseemly array of Marvel universe locations and characters in a short span of time. The word fangasm comes to mind.

It’s a good thing the references to other heroes come thick and fast as, in a sea of predictable gameplay ideas, the mixture of spandex and nostalgia is the most appealing element of Marvel Heroes’ opening sections. That’s not to say that Marvel Heroes is lacking in fun or functionality, far from it. That said, if you’ve ever played Diablo or Torchlight, you’ll have a strong and foreboding sense of deja vu as you click click click to maim, kill and loot. It’s an ARPG by the book and, until you unlock a greater variety of skills, one that is fairly average. That isn’t to deny the addictive quality of the genre though. Most action role playing games are inherently moreish, a trait that MH espouses in spades.

"You can play the whole game with the single free hero you get at the beginning, but this isn't hugely recommended, if only because the free characters are just a bit boring."

Things only get better as you level up and acquire more skills for your selected hero. Though all skills offer unique powers, there are comparatively few separate skills for each hero in MH than for your average class in Diablo or Torchlight. The reason for this is due to Marvel Heroe’s free to play business model, a payment method that relies on you purchasing new heroes in order to keep the game afloat. Though this is a decent and uncynical implementation of microtransactions, it is not without its flaws.

It’s safe to say that nobody likes it when free to plays lock lots of content out for those who don’t pay, a sin that Marvel Heroes never commits. You can play the whole game with the single free hero you get at the beginning, but this isn’t hugely recommended, if only because the free characters are just a bit boring. Daredevil, Hawkeye, Storm, Scarlet Witch and The Thing are your choices and, whilst they are perfectly playable, the more inspired hero designs require a bit of up front spending. Here’s where things get sloppy, as the prices for some heroes are steep.

I was kindly supplied with a stash of in-game credits I used to buy myself a few fun characters. Spiderman and Wolverine were my favourites, and I didn’t think too much of my purchase until I realised that the credits I was given would cost me over £60 to purchase. £60?! I could buy both Torchlight 2 and the entire Diablo series for that kind of money. With some of the more famous heroes costing upwards of a tenner each, this is only free to play in the most liberal of senses. This issue is furthered by how similar each hero is, with characters in the same class playing in an all too similar fashion.

" It never really makes sense when you just find quests getting ticked off without your input, so try your best not get hung up on individual missions."

Things get worse when you consider the game’s MMO structure. It’s one of the more interesting elements of Marvel Heroes’ design, merging the ARPG genre with the huge player counts and instances of a massively multiplayer online title. The problem comes in the confusion caused by character repeats. With only five free heroes on offer, you’re bound to encounter areas with fifteen Storms and a small army of Hawkeyes hunting down a single quest.

Far from dropping the suspension of disbelief, I’d argue this just annoys in a practical sense, regularly obscuring your view of the action. New characters and costumes can drop as rare items as you play but, more often than not, an expensive trip to the in-game store is the only way to stand out from the crowd. Even worse is how quests get jumbled up with so many people competing. It never really makes sense when you just find quests getting ticked off without your input, so try your best not get hung up on individual missions.

If you can get over these F2P pricing issues, there’s a lot of game to love in Marvel Heroes. The selection of characters adds huge variety to an already lengthy campaign, and the inclusion of several post-game challenges further lengthens the content on offer. My problem is in how hero levels are handled across your account, with all characters having a separate XP pool. There is a rested XP stash that is assigned when you aren’t logged on to the game, but it still means you can’t just swap heroes in and out as you please. With each new purchase starting off at level 1, you either tough out a tricky grind or have to repeat earlier levels you’ve already finished. It’s a shame such little thought was put in here, as trading out heroes on the fly could really have been a string to Marvel Heroes’ bow.

"Outside of a bountiful license though, Marvel Heroes is too boring and far too reliant on an unrewarding grind to warrant much fanfare."

At no point did I hate my time with Marvel Heroes but, especially when you consider how much money must be spent to truly avoid the confusion inherent in the game’s MMO elements, there isn’t enough here to take your attention away from competing entries in the genre. Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Either of the Torchlights and even the recently launched Van Helsing offer at least something worth investigating.

Outside of a bountiful license though, Marvel Heroes is too boring and far too reliant on an unrewarding grind to warrant much fanfare. You can’t really argue too much with a free game, but when the heroes, enemies and item drops are as repetitive as they are in Marvel Heroes, you won’t want to invest too much of your precious time.

This game was reviewed on the PC.