The new mobile action RPG Marvel Future Revolution was released just over a week ago and MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn has played it. And although the game ultimately is just a typical mobile grinder, the new Marvel game is really fun and motivates me to keep playing.
Name: Marvel Future Revolution | Developer: Netmarble | Price: Free2Play | Platforms: iOS, Android | Release: August 25, 2021
What is Marvel Future Revolution? Marvel Future Revolution is not just the mobile version of Marvel’s Avengers. It is a kind of successor to the successful mobile hit Marvel Future Fight. It comes from the Korean developer Netmarble, who were also responsible for the equally successful mobile MMO Lineage 2 Revolution.
Marvel Future Revolution is thus an open-world action role-playing game for iOS and Android. The story is by Marvel writer Marc Sumerak and offers a new storyline that fits perfectly with the current Marvel works like Loki or “What if …”. Multiple “versions” from the multiverse collide and merge into a primary Earth.
This leads to a lot of trouble, as the various versions bring all their iterations of well-known heroes and villains. Therefore, you play as a member of the newly formed superhero team “Omega Flight”.
The next Marvel movie to play along
It starts off so cool: Actually, I don’t like tutorials, especially when they pop up as soon as I’ve just installed the game and was only supposed to see if the patch data is fully installed.
But no, Marvel Future Revolution won’t let me be and I have to save the world right away. Literally, because the aforementioned “Convergence” event is currently taking place and several versions are on a collision course. This could end badly for all involved, so several superheroes are already on the way to save the Earth(s).
My adventure begins with the laid-back Star Lord, who saves passersby while listening to music and is surprised by weird guys in yellow protective suits. These are agents of the evil organization A.I.M., known from Marvel’s Avengers. They want to solve problems with the power of science, but the best idea they can come up with is to blow the other versions away with antimatter.
I don’t accept this simple yet brutal solution and it’s time to act! A short firefight follows against the agents, whom Star Lord easily takes down. Right here and in the previous cutscene, you can see that Marvel Future Revolution does not skimp on graphics. The familiar colorful look of the comic and film templates is perfectly captured, and in battle, it sparkles and flashes until all the agents are down.
All heroes in fast forward: “Okay, that’s it, tutorial over!” I think to myself, but no, suddenly a big enemy mop appears and Star Lord gets taken down. But then Black Widow shows up and helps him out. I fight the next battles with the agile agent and get to know her moves and skills.
But even Widow eventually reaches her limits and needs to be helped out by the storm goddess Storm. And after Storm, Dr. Strange comes into play with his magic.
In this way, I play through each hero from the selection once and gradually thwart A.I.M.’s nasty plan and the three(!) M.O.D.O.K.s who have come from different dimensions. The battle against three of these grotesque flying creatures with oversized heads and tiny arms and legs is a real highlight.
Eventually, the tutorial ends after what feels like an hour of gameplay, and I feel as if I’ve just completed the game. The Earth(s) are saved, and our heroes have triumphed once again. Or?
This is how it continues after the tutorial: Unfortunately not, because due to the merging of the Earths into one, there are now numerous different versions of Earth existing simultaneously, so besides the known Earth, there are variants where the nasty fascists from Hydra have taken over or a version where the gods of Asgard directly rule over humanity.
To ensure that all these Earths with their heroes and villains don’t cause trouble, there is now the new team Omega Flight, and I get to choose which of the heroes will join my team. I pick Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Star Lord, and Storm. Additional hero slots can be unlocked later.
The best tutorials I’ve ever played: Each of the heroes on my team has their own origin story, where you replay how they got into Omega Flight. These stories are also just tutorials, but they exclusively tell an exciting narrative and effectively familiarize me with the gameplay of the respective characters.
As Star Lord, I have to escape from an alternate Earth full of dinos and battle an evil version of Groot. By the way, his special move is also called Groot. As Storm, I have to prevent a prison riot in the super prison “The Raft” and have an exciting duel with Magneto at the end, both physically and philosophically.
As I finally unlock all my heroes and start the actual main story, I am already fully hooked, and the unique “Marvel flair” has me completely under its spell. I just want to know how the promising story continues.
Despite the autoplay feature, not a thoughtless grinder
This is how the actual game starts: After another cool cutscene, we continue in the main game, and I am supposed to check the Ultron drones of Tony Stark with Captain Marvel. As you can probably guess, they suddenly go crazy and start attacking the town’s residents. My mission is to take down the berserk robots and find out what went wrong.
This is how the open-world works: The fight against the Ultrons takes place in a large open map. I can move around freely in the area, and a main quest leads me through the area. However, there are also numerous side quests that often tell a cool story. For example, I once have to help a little girl repair her supposedly tame Ultron unit “Uliti” or mediate a dispute between several very unruly versions of Spider-Man.
This is how the gameplay runs: Countless enemies challenge me to fight, and just like in the tutorial battles, I am surprised by how much tactical depth the gameplay has. I have several skills that charge very quickly. I also need to pay attention to my movements, as particularly strong bosses often unleash area attacks that I should evade. This works well thanks to the well-implemented touchscreen controls, and there are also skills that support dodging or blocking.
The well-timed use of my best skills ensures that I take down enemies just as quickly, effectively, and spectacularly as the Marvel heroes would have done in the movies. The full Marvel feeling is also present here, as Captain Marvel unleashes her photon blasts on the enemies while Iron Man blasts foes away with his repulsor rays, performing all sorts of acrobatics in the process.
This is why autoplay isn’t so bad: I can also automate the fights and the paths to the mission objectives if I wish. An autoplay function is therefore a fixed part of the game.
However, it is indeed important to get involved yourself from time to time and evade the boss attacks or time the particularly devastating special moves correctly. I usually only turn on autoplay when I want to quickly reach a specific spot because my heroes can also fly and simply zoom to the destination.
This is still something to criticize: Despite all the praise for Marvel Future Revolution, there are also some complaints. The game suffers from the annoying issue of getting shop offers and achievements all the time, which you have to click away to continue playing.
The game also has numerous values and upgrades that for my taste are a bit excessive, and you spend a lot of time optimizing your hero. I find such “manager tasks” rather boring, I would much rather experience more story and smash enemies.
Furthermore, while the gameplay is certainly fun, I can imagine that it might wear off eventually and you end up doing the same thing over and over again. I still hope for exciting stories to keep me entertained.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that Marvel Future Revolution is very demanding, and even my still relatively new Galaxy Note20 Ultra was only suggested to use the second-best graphics options. When playing, it also didn’t take long for my phone to heat up, and the battery was almost dead after just over two hours of playtime.
This is not a good thing for a game that I would actually like to play on the go.
Conclusion: A mobile game with addictive potential that greatly benefits from the Marvel bonus
I admit, deep down, Marvel Future Revolution is an improved version of Lineage 2 Revolution, just that here you play with familiar superheroes in the Marvel universe.
But this is exactly where the great appeal of the game lies. While I could never really get into the world and the story of Lineage, I am genuinely interested in the story here and I am totally keen on grinding new costumes and cosmetics for my hero team.
In addition, the gameplay is more action-packed and not so heavily geared towards autoplay. So anyone looking for a fun Marvel game with a great story, top-notch graphics, and plenty of Marvel flair can confidently start the download.
Jürgen Horn
Editor at Mein-MMO
So much for my opinion on Marvel Future Revolution. What do you think of the new Marvel title? If you are looking for more cool mobile games, check out our list on MeinMMO here: The 9 best mobile MMORPGs 2021 for iOS and Android.
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