Slap on your tights, it's clobbering time!

Let's go window shopping

This brings us to what you won't find in my esteemed colleagues article; the real deal on the free-to-play content. To be straight with you, my first impression is that this is  a highly monetized free-to-play game but, that being said, I haven't seen anything in their store so far that wasn't also available as a random drop. So in that regard Marvel Heroes is fairly legit in its free-to-play claim.

As you can see in the earlier screenshot of the store, there are a few things that exude an air of pay-to-win, such as paid XP boosts, ability re-specs, and item drop rate increases. Pretty standard stuff for the most part and some people could likely make a case as to why that doesn't really translate into pay-to-win.

There is also the Cosmic Key, which unlocks special endgame daily missions for you and your group. Since I didn't experience any end-game content myself, I don't truly understand how restrictive it may or may not be having to rely on random drops or rich friends to secure Cosmic Keys. But at a glance it did seem like it could restrict content for free-to-play users a little bit.

Throw in some vanity pets to boot, crafting supplies, and that sums up most of the odds and ends of the store beyond the obvious new heroes and hero costumes.

When you first start playing Marvel Heroes you will be allowed to select one of 5 free heroes. These 5 freebie heroes represent only a fraction of the current roster of 21 available heroes. Of course there will be more heroes released as time goes on, with at least 5 already announced as 'Coming Soon'. It's Marvel, so there is a near limitless supply of new heroes that could be introduced. Bring on Alpha Flight dangit! Go Canada!

All of the current roster of heroes can either be purchased or unlocked through in-game drops. To give you a frame of reference of what a new hero might run you, the basic currency conversion is 100G = 1USD. So the cheapest heroes, such as Hawkeye, will cost you about $6 while a premium hero like Ironman would run you $20.

Speaking of Iron Man, let's talk costumes. Each hero has a variety of alternate costumes. For a lot of them we are talking 3 or 4 costumes. But of course Tony Stark can't be out done, so he boasts an impressive collection of 11 alternate Iron Man suits. Maybe no one had the heart to tell him that half of them look the same... silly Tony.

This section of the store strikes me as the most dangerous. In my mind, half of the fun about comic book heroes is all the different costumes. I'm ashamed to say I'm a total sucker for that crap. I hope Gazillion wasn't trying to be subtle in their monetization by allowing multiples of the same heroes into groups, with the idea that, "oh they'll just buy different costumes to help differentiate themselves." Not subtle at all guys.

Of course like heroes you could just wait for random drops, or you could pay anywhere from $4.50 to $20 depending on the hero and the costume. I warn you now, Deadpool's got expensive tastes.

The only thing it seems that you'll miss out on as a free-to-play gamer, is bank slots. But this might be the most insidious monetization of all. With so much hero specific loot dropping, your bank is going to fill up fast, so why not buy a few hero specific bank slots to help organize everything. For a neat freak like me, $3.50 a pop seems like a reasonable price to pay. But the more heroes you unlock, the greater the need for these additional bank slots becomes. In the end you might spend more on this than you ever thought you would.

Bringing it home

Generally speaking the pricing on heroes and costumes seems a little steep to me, especially when you could rely on random drops in game. I think it's a compelling argument to stick to free-to-play.

Just how random are the drops? Well I can't say. I didn't run the numbers and so far the higher ups haven't said anything about a possible MarvelHeroesHead.com so all I can say is that in slightly less than a week of casual play, I unlocked 1 additional hero and 1 additional costume. That seems like a reasonable drop rate if you are planning on not spending any money, but it's hardly a proper statistic.

I am curious to know what the drop rates actually are, so if anyone figures it out, by all means post your findings in the comments section below, or any comments for that matter. The Free Agent always loves to hear from the readers.

I think my wallet is safe for the time being, as this nifty black unitard I found has tided me over. Long term though, I'm sure I'd cave sooner or later and buy more costumes. I can't help it. It's a sickness really.

However, the good news is that I can't see myself playing Marvel Heroes long term. It's just not my cup of tea. But if it's yours, don't let me stop you. You have the facts now; go check it out for yourself. If you love Marvel comics and action RPGs, this might be the free-to-play title for you. Just beware the multi-verse.

Happy free-to-play gaming to you my friends. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Caergan and send me any comments or questions you might have. Then join me in two weeks time when I dust off my PS3 to bring you all the free-to-play details on Dust514.

See you next time, on the Free Agent.

Robert "Caergan" Gray