Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign — Marvelous but mercenary

Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign

This game combines the best parts of the Marvel universe and the joy of match-three puzzle games with the worst bits of an addictive free-to-play system.

There is a terrifying, malevolent force at work in the Marvel Universe, and it’s not the familiar machinations of Doctor Doom, Loki, or the Green Goblin. It’s not an alien or an evil mutant, but something far worse: It’s the supervillain who came up with the game we call Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign.

Before we get into the details, let’s back up a bit and explain the game. Dark Reign is a match-three puzzle game with RPG elements that stars our favourite Marvel superheroes. It’s free-to-play and available on PC (via Steam, which was how we played), Android and iOS platforms.

If this sounds like a completely awesome combination, it’s because it mostly is — we can attest that collecting a roster of superheroes and levelling them up so we can better play match-three battles against the likes of Venom is thoroughly enjoyable.

Unfortunately, everything outside the actual gameplay rubs us the wrong way and makes us think this game was designed by a devious megalomaniac.

The McGuffin is called Iso-8

Like many games based on a large comic book universe, the plot of Dark Reign basically boils down to “Magic McGuffin Causes Heroes And Villains To Fight.”

And that’s fine! Sometimes all we need is just a simple excuse to watch Spider-Man beat up Doctor Doom, even if he’s doing so via the medium of aligning three yellow gems in a row.

You take up to three superheroes with you into a fight against supervillains and their henchmen. You deal damage by aligning gems, and if you match enough of a certain colour your heroes will be able to use special abilities.

THOU ART THOR: Thor seems to be mighty angry, possibly over the loss of his sexy Chris Hemsworth beard.

For example, if you match 10 red gems, then Iron Man can use his Repulsor Beam to deal heavy damage to a single enemy. Later fights throw more complicated abilities into the fray, such as turning gems into countdown “bombs” that deal extreme damage if they’re cleared.

It’s a very basic gameplay premise but it works, particularly because there’s plenty of variety in the superheroes you can collect, the supervillains you can fight and the way each of their abilities work together/against one another.

The Marvel universe is particularly entertaining in this game, as nearly every popular character makes an appearance in-game. And, at least in the Prologue mission, every one of them offers witty banter in the cutscenes, as if they were all bitten by a radioactive Spider-Man and inherited his powers of snarkiness.

Gold digger

At this point you might be wondering: It sounds as if we had a good time playing Marvel Puzzle Quest, so why do we think poorly of it?

We’ll explain, but for the sake of this discussion, let’s say you’re a big fan of Spider-Man, in his classic costume, okay? Okay.

Well, you’re screwed.

If you’re looking to add Spider-Man to your collection, then you’ll need to purchase him using Hero Points, which we’re just going to call the “gold currency.” How do you earn this gold currency? Either through limited one-off events in the game, or through cold, hard, real-world cash.

ITSY BITSY: We were getting pretty obsessed about adding Spider-Man to our roster, but the dude's hard to catch.

Wait, it gets worse — you can’t purchase Spider-Man himself. You’ll basically spend your gold currency on a “booster pack,” which gives you a random hero. (For reference, US$5 (RM12) netted us two heroes from the basic Heroic booster pack.)

Even if you’re lucky enough to get the Spider-Man that you want, he’ll only have one of three abilities unlocked. To unlock his powers, you’ll need to find yet more “copies” of Spider-Man.

And then you have to consider the fact there are multiple versions of Spider-Man, such as Fantastic Four Spider-Man With A Paper Bag Head (we’re not even kidding.) Each version of a hero is practically its own character with different abilities.

Then, should you accidentally flood your collection with too many heroes — what with the randomised booster packs — you’ll need to start selling them off. Or, use gold to purchase more space in your collection.

After that, once you take your uber-charged Spider-Man into battle and he gets injured, you’ll need to spend time waiting for him to heal from his wounds. Or, you know, purchase a medical kit. Are you starting to see the picture?

We haven’t even mentioned Iso-8, the game’s second currency (let’s call them “crystals”) that you need to earn (or buy) to either further level up your heroes or purchase different booster packs.

Free to pay

To put it bluntly, we’ve played enough free-to-play games and collected enough trading card games to (Magic: The Gathering, in case you’re curious) to understand how dangerous this can get.

The allure of collecting your favourite Marvel characters is nigh irresistable, the currency system makes “pay to win” an incredibly tempting prospect, and the randomised booster packs have the same appeal as a casino table.

All these things are built on top of an already addictive match-three gameplay, so you’ll understand why we say the alarm bells in our head are going off like crazy.

Let’s go back to Spider-man, because we really, really wanted him in our roster. (We already had Iron Man, Storm and Black Widow as our “starter heroes,” just so you know.)

You could bring up a counter-argument, pointing out that it’s possible to earn Spider-Man by participating in the game’s various game modes and online tournaments. Of note, you need a “measly” 2,400 SHIELD. points or whatever in the SHIELD Versus Mode to get your “first” Spider-Man (classic costume), then another hundred something points to get your “second” Spider-Man to level him up.

Of course, to actually have a shot at winning in (or even qualifying for) one of the special modes, you’ll need to have powerful heroes in your roster, so first you’ll need to — ah, you see where this is going.

You might think that the temptation of spending real money in an already fun, enjoyable free-to-play game is just a matter of personal willpower, and to a point, that’s true. Nonetheless, eating a delicious chocolate cake right in front of a friend who’s fasting is a terrible thing to do.

End game

We’re fond of the Marvel universe, we love the gameplay of the Puzzle Quest series, and we understand that businesses want to make money. In fact, even as we write this review, we’re looking forward to playing another round before we head to sleep.

However, we just can’t shake off the feeling that Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign is rather... insidious, in the most literal sense.

At best, it’s a perfectly entertaining match-three puzzle game starring your favourite superheroes, even though it has some of its best content locked away. At worst, it’s an addictive money sink, a digital casino that exploits the awesomeness of the Marvel universe.

We can just imagine several supervillains sitting around a table, discussing the diabolical mechanisms at work in Dark Reign. Doctor Doom would exclaim, “Curses! Why didn’t we think of this first?” Then Magneto would say, “Dude, we’re not that evil.”

Pros: Solid puzzles; entertaining characters; highly collectible.

Cons: Potential money sink and possibly addictive — you have been warned.