REVIEW: ‘MARVEL Future Revolution’ – A Fun, if Shallow, Action RPG (iOS)

MARVEL Future Revolution is developed by Netmarble Monster and published by Netmarble. As Earth’s heroes fought valiantly against their foes, multiple versions of their world began to fuse. Only through the Vision’s sacrifice is the ultimate disaster averted. But as it turns out, combining multiple Earths into one hybrid planet brings with it an unending number of new problems. Luckily, there is an entire multiverse of heroes to lend a hand.

It’s always cool when a developer can work a game’s mechanics into the story to make what would otherwise be a bizarre scene make some semblance of sense. But that is what Netmarble has managed to do with MARVEL Future Revolution. By placing the game in a collision point between realities, the sight of multiple Captain Americas, Spider-Men, or Captain Marvels all make perfect sense.

The core gameplay loop sees the player taking the role of one of eight Marvel heroes fighting villains and keeping the new patchwork Earth together at the behest of characters like Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Nick Fury. The character initially travels about New Stark City as they fight throngs of goons and occasionally challenge notable Marvel villains.

Traversing the game’s open-world areas is clean and straightforward. The distance between mission locations is short, often to the point of being mildly absurd. But while it can seem funny for a quest giver to ask you to retrieve a device that is literally 100 feet away, not having to waste time with long traversal times is worth the silly feeling.

These areas are also shared with other players. Enemies are tackled with anyone else who happens to be around, and you can see what cool armor sets other players have gathered through their adventures. The number of hero variants you will see as you travel the world feels truly endless.

When the fists start flying, MARVEL Future Revolution puts the player in control of several special abilities that run on short cooldowns. As a result, there is little strategy in most fights. Instead, simply firing off your specials and occasionally dodging a bigger attack is all the combat asks of players. This ease of gameplay makes for a relaxed, albeit unengaging, experience.

Just as the gameplay falls solidly in the fine category, so too does the story. As villains rise to threaten the tenaciously held together Earth, the player will be sent out for reasons that are explained well enough but deliver little beyond a reason for why you are going to this place to punch this particular group of nameless thugs or robots. However, even though the story lacks any real punch, there is the occasional moment where MARVEL Future Revolution does something unique and interesting with the classic Marvel characters.

The biggest thing MARVEL Future Revolution has going for it is the loot system. As with most open-world games, players are frequently rewarded with new items they can equip their character with. While these items have stat effects for the hero who equips them, once an item is gained, the player can opt to have their character gain the visual look of the item, even if the stats aren’t as good as what they have on. This way, players can craft unique looks for their heroes, helping them stand out in the crowds of characters they will encounter as they explore this open world.

Along with improving their character through loot drops, players can also unlock and improve skills to gain experience and level up. Unfortunately, all the upgrades I found during my time with MARVEL Future Revolution purely improved stats. Shorter cooldowns, more damage, and increased health were the only sort of buffs I saw. While these aren’t bad, it often makes leveling feel invisible as you continue to fight enemies of greater strength who keep up with your stat improvements, making leveling sometimes feel non-existent unless a new skill gets unlocked.

As with most free-to-play games, MARVEL Future Revolution features a bevy of microtransaction options. New costume pieces can be purchased from everything from in-game resource restocks to gatcha-based loot boxes. While it certainly looked like a player could spend a lot of money in the game, I never felt pressured to purchase. Even without buying anything, I was able to keep up with the scaling difficulty with ease.

Finally, let’s talk about the graphics that bring this adventure to life. The visuals are thoroughly impressive for a mobile title. An ample number of characters can be seen on-screen at a time, along with all the explosions and web balls those characters create. The environments also look good. There was a solid array of objects and buildings scattered throughout the space. I never felt myself getting turned around because I could’ve sworn I’d seen that building somewhere else.

However, this graphical delivery does come with a price. MARVEL Future Revolution eats battery life relatively quickly, and it got my IPad noticeably hot. The fact that the game comes with a built-in feature that will tone down some of the graphical elements if it detects your device starting to overheat should say it all. So make sure to take your device out of that rubber protective case you have it in before settling in for some playtime.

So, when all is said and done, MARVEL Future Revolution delivers fun, if shallow, gameplay. The cool costume combinations you can put together are the strongest draw to this package by far. But, if collecting loot isn’t a strong motivator for you, there may not be a ton here that’ll keep you coming back for very long.

MARVEL Future Revolution is available now on iOS and Android devices.