Marvel Future Revolution Preview: A World Full of Possibilities

Marvel and Netmarble have teamed up once again for a brand new mobile game titled Marvel Future Revolution, and thanks to a recent preview we had of the game, it seems they are intent on delivering on their title’s grand implications. ComicBook.com had the chance to get an early look at Future Revolution, and while we didn’t get hands-on with it just yet, the footage and details revealed suggest this is really aiming for a console-style experience on mobile. If the visuals and gameplay we saw are any indications, they are well on their way to bringing their universe-spanning Marvel epic to the finish line in style.

For those unfamiliar, Marvel Future Revolution is an open-world RPG releasing for mobile devices, and it features all of your favorite Marvel heroes and villains in a story that embraces the many realities we’ve seen in the comics and ones we haven’t. You’ll choose from 8 heroes at launch, including Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Star-Lord, Captain Marvel, Storm, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange, but there are plenty more on the way.

Thanks to Vision the various worlds are all converging, and it gives the developers a chance to mix and match and introduce new concepts. The areas revealed so far include Hydra Empire, which takes place in a Hydra-controlled New York City, complete with a Red Skull statue in the middle of the city. You’ll also travel to the heroes’ new home base, Midgardia, where the Asgardians have also settled and brought their trademark aesthetic.

You’ll also discover New Stark City, which takes after its namesake and embraces technology and a sleek futuristic look. On the other extreme, you’ll head to Sakaar, which also embraces technology but is set against a more harsh and desert-like environment. Perhaps the most interesting of the cities is Xandearth, which features grand architecture and airships above it but with a touch of nature in the many trees and green areas found throughout.

You’ll be taking on enemies and larger bosses as you make your way through these locations, which range from Red Skull, Thanos (straight out of the MCU), Ultron (boasting a slick new design), a comics-style Kingpin, and Loki. You’ll meet them throughout the main storyline, and as you unlock new main missions you will also unlock side missions that introduce new story possibilities and quests. We asked what those quests would consist of and you can expect the standard RPG-style quests, at least at launch, which based on other games in the genre often consist of picking something up for someone, collecting a number of things to craft something, or taking out a group of enemies.

Once you get into combat you can expect a number of hero-specific attacks and combos, and from our brief glimpse Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Captain America, and yes, Captain Marvel all look fun to play and lethal in their own ways. What really stands out though are the graphics. The character models and faces in the in-engine cinematics look stunning, and even when things zoom up close the characters still look incredibly impressive in action, especially for a mobile game. We’ll have to wait and see how it controls, as that is often a mobile title’s Achilles heel, but Future Fight manages to handle it pretty well so hopefully, this is along the same lines.

The real fun though is not in the classic looks, but in all the options the game presents you with to customize your heroes. Each hero comes with 4 different customizable elements of their costume, and you can mix and match to your heart’s content. We asked about how the stat structure works and we didn’t get a clear answer just yet, but odds are each piece will have something unique about it other than just the visual element. There will be plenty of options pulled from the comics and the MCU to choose from too, and each world will have its own unique costumes to offer as well, and trust me when I say that I never thought I’d want a Hydra Empire themed Avengers team until seeing the one they’ve created. It’s like Marvel and Cobra were put in a blender and it’s amazing.

In addition to the main storyline, you can show these costumes off in a variety of multiplayer modes, including Blitz, Special Operations, Raids, Darkzone, and Omega War. Omega War is just a massive team-based multiplayer mode that looks absolutely chaotic, with blaster fire, shields, and everything else filling the screen, but Darkzone is perhaps the most interesting mode. Darkzone is a team-based affair as well, but in this case, you and other teams are all fighting a massive boss at the same time, and whoever takes it out first gets the winnings and loot. It adds some risk and reward to the gameplay, and I’m interested to see how it actually plays once you get into the thick of it.

There’s quite a bit to get excited about in regards to Future Revolution, but there are questions too. Just how engaging the storyline and quests will be stand out as bigger questions, as it’s necessary for any open-world game to have a compelling narrative to pull you towards the next objective, otherwise you just end up wandering around aimlessly and losing interest. The game looks stunning here, but sometimes a game can take a visual step down once it’s actually on your device, and if it does it will be a bit disappointing. As with all mobile titles, a make or break aspect is also how it controls, and fingers crossed it can stick the landing on that aspect as well.

Marvel Future Revolution is showing quite a bit of promise, and so far is delivering a mix of new elements and fan service that should appeal to just about any Marvel fan. Global Pre-Registration begins today on iOS and Google Play, but no release date has been revealed yet.

What do you think of Marvel Future Revolution? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things Marvel and gaming with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!