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GameLook reports/The rigidity of the MOBA market may be broken.
On May 20th, at the 2021 NetEase Game 520 online conference, the MOBA game “Marvel Super War” that appeared as the first show attracted many people’s attention.
Judging from the CG displayed at the press conference, this CG continues the large production and high quality that NetEase, the “art factory” has always done, and the super popular superheroes in Marvel such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the US team have appeared one after another. The grand Battle scenes that appear from time to time all highlight the high quality of this game that does not lose to similar competitors.
In addition to high-quality CG, the official also announced the heavy news that the game will start pioneer testing in June. Prior to this, the game’s official website has opened a reservation event. Every player who participates in the reservation event can choose a favorite superhero and recruit it for free after it goes online. In addition, the game had a round of closed beta in mid-May, but as soon as the news was released, the test code was swept away, and the popularity is evident.
In fact, compared to its domestic debut, “Marvel Super War” has been online for more than a year overseas, and it has been on the top of the free list and best-selling list in 5 countries. The national server just got the version number in December last year. Considering that NetEase has been making big moves recently, it is also an appointment and a short period of time for testing. It is inevitable that people can guess whether the game will be launched on the national server soon.
As the first genuine Marvel MOBA mobile game jointly launched by NetEase and Marvel, the breakthrough idea of ”Marvel Super War” is very clear. It not only combines the artistic advantages of NetEase’s R&D team, but also highlights the differentiated experience through the upgrade of picture quality; At the same time, the innovation of the gameplay and the wide audience themes also make the product show a different side from the mainstream MOBA.
MOBA, a market that has been popular for many years and has been rigid for many years, may usher in new changes.
The details restore the Marvel heroes, and the old Marvel fans call the insiders
After years of development of MOBA games, the form of gameplay has stabilized. How to make players feel fresh on the fixed gameplay design? The first answer given by NetEase is: restore.
Like most MOBA games, “Marvel Super War” maintains the basic settings of the MOBA game, which is developed in the form of 3-way splitter 5v5, but the battlefield is replaced by the high-tech fictional country where the superhero Panther is located. Wakanda. Therefore, the map also presents a blend of Wakanda’s modern and classical style.
In the game, players can play dozens of well-known heroes in the Marvel universe, such as Gears of War, Spider-Man, and the villain Crow, and even Captain Marvel, the ceiling of strength among Marvel heroes. In addition to the heroes of Marvel comics, the super-popular original hero “Bingyue Huaxue” in “Marvel Future Fight” is also added to this work.
Perhaps it is the huge influence of Marvel movies. In the process of playing the internal test, I found that most players’ choice of characters is more inclined to the degree of preference for heroes, and then the lineup will be considered. Therefore, compared with other MOBA games, the restoration of the characters in “Marvel Super War” is very important, and it largely determines whether the hero is popular or not.
In order to maintain the authenticity of the character set, NetEase chose the image of the hero in Marvel comics rather than in the movie, but considering that many players only get to know the heroes such as Iron Man and Spider-Man through Marvel movies. NetEase also added the appearance design in the movie to the game in the form of a skin.
Of course, this restoration is also reflected in the hero’s skills. For example, the freely scalable Ant-Man has two forms in the setting of skills, while Spider-Man uses spider silk to make rapid transitions, which is also in the skill setting. Reflected in. Quite carefully, the classic scenes like the Hulk repeatedly falling Rocky around in the movie have also been restored by God, not only paying tribute to the movie, but also causing the knowing smile of the old Marvel fans.
Hulk Fell
According to the official information, as Marvel’s first MOBA mobile game, “Marvel Super War” will cooperate with Marvel Pictures in depth in the follow-up. Considering that Marvel has frequent layouts this year, there will be “Wanda Fantasy” in the first half of this year. In the second half of the year, in addition to the film and television series “Rocky”, there will be “Black Widow”, “Eternal Race” and many other movies coming online. I believe there will be a large wave of skins coming to mobile games. .
Not only has the inherent advantages on IP, but also has a high degree of restoration of Marvel’s heroes and villains. The “Marvel Super War” added by BUFF is obviously not small for Marvel fans. Taken together, these advantages can not only provide a traffic basis for the game’s development of the domestic MOBA market, but also provide strong support for subsequent content development.
Optimize the design of MOBA gameplay, taking into account the game threshold and strategy
If only IP restoration is achieved, it may achieve great results in the short term, but in the long run, the differentiation of gameplay is the foundation for the long-term operation of the game. In terms of making a differentiated experience for the MOBA gameplay, NetEase has actually put more effort into it, but in summary, it is nothing more than two core points: gameplay innovation and reduced liver strength.
The first is in terms of gameplay innovation. In order to provide players with a different MOBA experience, NetEase has innovated the game’s mechanism settings. In the game, in addition to gaining a lot of experience after killing wild monsters, players can also gain an additional active skill, such as adding shields to defensive towers, summoning a group of minions, or accelerating themselves.
The most direct impact of the addition of these skills is to increase the strategy of the game. If the skills are used properly, it will greatly change the direction of the battle. At the same time, the existence of this mechanism indirectly intensified the competition between the two teams for resource points in the wild area. Whether it is in the early, middle, or late stages of the game, the players’ strategic decisions will be more selective. It has also led to frequent battles between the two parties, prompting The viewing and excitement of the game is improved.
In addition, combined with the setting of Marvel’s world view, the game also adds functional props such as anti-gravity devices that bypass the field of vision and quickly transfer the line, which further enhances the tightness of the game rhythm. The epic monsters have also been replaced by the flame giants Sirtel in the Marvel universe, and they are directly in the middle of the river, reducing the impact of terrain on the team’s position and making the battle for strategic points between the two parties more fair.
While the gameplay is innovating, the official also does not forget to “slash and cut” the liver.
In fact, in games that do not pursue equipment such as MOBA, it is meaningless to design content that requires players to work hard. NetEase, who knows this well, directly chose to remove the rune system, which is the most livery system in the MOBA game, to further narrow the gap between the novice and the veteran. The ultimate goal is naturally to return to relying on strength to win. In the fair battle.
In addition, the character’s talent system is replaced with a more concise “1+3” form of energy core program, that is, 1 main core skill talent plus 3 secondary core talents, combined with the removal of the rune system, which guarantees The strategic combat experience of the MOBA game has also reduced the threshold and understanding cost for new players.
What’s more rare is that while ensuring the exquisite picture quality, “Marvel Super War” has also been well optimized. It not only adapts to more types of mobile phones, but also consumes less power, and the actual experience is very smooth. If the optimization is done enough, the benefits are obvious, not to mention expanding the potential user base, and saving users the trouble of changing mobile phones. In a sense, this can be regarded as reducing the game’s heaviness on the other hand.
It can be seen that whether it is to innovate the gameplay or find ways to reduce the player’s liveriness, NetEase has always maintained respect for the fairness and strategy of MOBA games in the process of innovation.
Backed by super IP, let game content and IP grow together
Although the history of MOBA games is not long, it has spawned a huge user base in today’s game circle, but the overly obvious first-mover advantage also makes it difficult for later entrants.
When playing game after game in the test server, I often think: In the solidified MOBA market, what kind of new MOBA game does the industry need to break the current deadlock? And can “Marvel Super War”, which is backed by Marvel Super IP and optimized and innovative for gameplay, succeed?
In the eyes of most players, the answer may be yes.
On TapTap, many players have given five-star praise on the “Marvel Super War” page to look forward to. Most of the reviews often focus on the game’s “character setting and art quality”. However, some players pointed out that the game still needs to invest in social and numerical optimization.
At present, Marvel IP has a huge audience market in China, but the strong emotion of fans for IP lacks a carrier that can be implemented. It can be seen that NetEase’s “Marvel Super War” largely plays such a role.
For Marvel, trying to cooperate with NetEase to launch a MOBA game can not only help itself expand the volume in the game circle through this most influential competitive category, cut into a wider circle, but also provide IP belts. Come more commercialization space.
In contrast to the game itself, the Marvel Universe has now launched its next ten-year plan. Only in 2021, several film and television works have been launched, and the worldview has also been expanded. With the great influence of Marvel IP, “Marvel Super War” is expected to break through the solidified user circle of the MOBA market through continuous movie game linkage and continuous content updates in the future, and become the dark horse that cannot be ignored in 2021.
Of course, all of this still needs time to test, but at least there are already many players like me who are obsessed with this Marvel world.
This Article is curated from Source and we only provide the English version of the Story.
