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Marvel Battle Linessounds like the kind of mobile game that could easy hook millions of people . Mixing one of the hot licenses in the world with a genre in card battling and collecting that oft feeds addictive whim should have been a sweep dunk . alternatively , Marvel Battle Linesis a middling prison term - cause of death that begins predict before descending into the form of microtransactional model that feels exploitative .
Marvel Battle Linesbegins with a mere premise - you ’re a civilian who has circumstantially become infused with a sherd of the Cosmic Cube , which feed you the power to see people as trading cards and do conflict on a playing field Iron Man come up with to facilitate you visualise your newfound abilities . It ’s mussy , and developer NEXON did n’t stress in particular hard to excuse why the protagonist is slinging cards alongside some of the universe ’s strongest fighters , but it ’s forgivable since the balance of the story is just a mashup of greatest hits in the Marvel universe . Everyone evidence up , from Cottonmouth to Hela , and even if it ’s a jumbled mess it ’s at least an entertaining one . localization of function issues aside - Nick Fury yell " DAMM IT " in a particularly funny attribution - the game uses its Marvel licensing well when it comes to tale .
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Gameplay also starts out promising . Marvel Battle Linesis variety of a admixture between tic - tac - toe and a traditional TCG , with players looking to line up their calling card in particular formations ( diagonal , three - across , X - shaped , etc . ) to damage the enemy leader . That ’s elaborate by the fact that card have power that interact with other bill , sometimes destroying them instantaneously , other times affect the acting athletic field so that what calculate like the perfect fourth dimension to attain has now been barricade . There ’s a lot of tactical promise express in these designs and the early gameplay inMarvel Battle Linesthreatens to make the exact kind of positive feedback grommet that has made other game so potent in the mobile market .
Then the enemies lead off buzz off progressively more hefty card , and it all goes downhill rather quickly . Marvel Battle Lineshas one of the more unforgiving microtransaction poser in late memory , offer three free board a day and a atomic number 79 / premium gem organization that severely punish instrumentalist looking to play for liberal . There ’s no time - restricting energy system to speak of , so role player can dive into the game ’s manner as much as they like , but that does n’t aid when opposition begin to play cards that just outclass the ones player are return from the start .
Marvel Battle Lines is Way Too Unbalanced
In brusque , the balancing inMarvel Battle Linesis abysmal . Rarer wit are so much more powerful than coarse ones that the power curve becomes laughable cursorily . While voguish gameplay management and lucky draws can usually win after repeated efforts , it gets drudgery - yttrium room too speedily . Within a few hours the plot feels like a slog to the next goal , and cards adversary play that look fun are upstage dream on the horizon as actor drift through a see of fair cards with ineffective or no abilities to verbalize of . While launching sidereal day quests have been comparatively generous , the store system itself is not , which betoken potentially poor long - term wellness for the secret plan ’s card acquisition manikin .
Again , this would n’t be a Brobdingnagian matter if the biz did n’t try so hard to exploit its histrion , but it does . The prices in the store are silly , and it takes a ton of grinding just to get a basic card multitude , which does n’t even assure specially good results . Having to play the same card over and over to start the game makes it start to scuff , and the in - biz wages for completing hunting expedition missions do n’t spice up things up enough to prevent burnout . Once actor are capable to get good cards , the biz pluck up a little , but for all the variety involved in include so many different characters , the game play out extremely similarly .
thespian versus player is also part of theMarvel Battle Linesexperience , although unlike the rest of the game , it ’s pretty reasonable . It never mat like the mating were unjust , and the ranking system continue circuit board force in rules of order . PvP is enjoyable and by all odds the most interesting part ofMarvel Battle Lines , and if nothing else , should be a reason to check it out initially .
Marvel Battle Linesfeels like it has been designed explicitly to cash in on the Marvel licence without offering much in return . The thin - veiled attempt at creating a collectible card game that features all the sub and villains of the Marvel creation quickly unravels to reveal a shallow game that wants musician to cough up cash to go on . Maybe it ’s the sort of fourth dimension - killer a diehard Marvel fan would be unforced to hurt through , but at last , Marvel Battle Linesfalls well little of the standards that mobile games likePokemon GO , Fire Emblem Heroes , andStar Ocean Anamnesishave determine in recent years . Unless you really want to stick it to Thanos , avoid the imbalance at play inMarvel Battle Lines .
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Marvel Battle Linesis out now for iOS and Android . We played the Android version for revue .
