Just in time to coincide with the North America launch of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Netmarble's latest free-to-play mobile game, Marvel Future Fight, is all about putting together a team of various heroes and villains from the legendary comic book universe, and then using them to beat the stuffing out of lots and lots of bad guys.
Anyone who has read my previous thoughts concerning mobile gaming knows that, for the most part, I'm not a huge fan of the free-to-play market. I only truly started diving into mobile gaming about half a year ago and immediately started consuming everything I had ever seen anyone recommend, especially in the f2p category. What I was greeted with was a veritable army of boring clones upon clones, the vast majority of which featured the same tired mechanics that have you playing a bare-bones match-three puzzle game or card battle-esque showdown that all but operates on autopilot.
The gameplay is also limited by the traditional energy bar everyone seems so in love with these days. Going on a mission will cost you energy. Use up all of your energy and you're done for the day. You can, of course, buy more energy in the in-game store. Then again, the energy bar is pretty generous with its allotment, meaning it dishes out enough juice to get in quite a few missions before needing to refill, so you shouldn't feel too limited here.
At its heart, Future Fight is a straightforward brawler. I'd call it a dungeon crawler, too, but the levels aren't complex enough to warrant the comparison. Imagine a light version of Diablo or the fantastic Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and you're headed in the right direction.
In other words, there's plenty of meat on these bones to keep you coming back for more, as well as solid gameplay that makes you actually want to do just that. I'm still not a fan of the limitations of the free-to-play model, but Marvel Future Fight doesn't do anything insulting with the set-up, so I can't complain too much. As far as mobile games go, this one is definitely worth your time and attention.
Marvel: Future Fight is based on a review code pre-loaded with in-game currency. The reviewer chose to use it sparingly in order to get a more realistic feel for the “average” gameplay experience.
