Last week, we went behind closed doors at gamescom to meet the Daddy of Diablo and Diablo II. Now the president / COO of Gazillion Entertainment, David Brevik unveiled the brand new, massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Marvel Heroes to the European press for the first time and it IS marvellous.

With a plethora of characters from the entire Marvel library to choose from, the launch line-up has 20 iconic playable heroes including: Spiderman, Wolverine, Deadpool, Scarlet Witch, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk to name but a few, with more to be announced in the future. Deciding which hero to play was tough as each have their own individual styles of combat, powers/abilities and splendid costumes. Happily, we found we could switch characters at any point during the game which brought a tactical and fun element to proceedings. The Scarlet Witch had enormous ranged skill, blasting out hot red death whilst Hulk got up close and personal as he crammed his giant fists into enemy faces, raging on William Stryker’s puny Purifiers as they swarmed through the streets of Mutant Town.We teamed up with other players and ran round a corner straight into a massive 40ft Sentinel boss, one of the many battles to discover in the randomly generated public play zones (multiple run throughs with different heroes will offer a different, attractive replay experience as town layouts and boss encounters change). Hulk and Iron Man could pick up and chuck vehicles to cause extra explosive damage whilst Wolverine could spin his blades to swipe out at enemies when surrounded. The Sentinel was a tough challenge and the game does get progressively harder. As our giant foe evaporated he left behind sweet loot. “One cool thing we’ve worked on is that any loot dropped is relevant to the character you’re playing.” David announced proudly, “There’s no need to be squabbling or back stabbing over loot – even if all of you have chosen to play as the same character.” Though the thought of four Deadpool’s chimichangaring together seems insane, it actually makes looting far more fun and practical than experienced in Diablo III where picking up useless items quickly became boring. It’s a simple idea but perfect as loot can be in the form of upgraded powers, crafting items or new costumes (which are taken from all corners of the Marvel Universe including the new Avengers movie, comic storylines or specifically designed for this game), allowing players to customise their favourite heroes.The cut scenes are motion comics and though it hasn’t been confirmed yet who the vocal actors are, we were told many of the performers had “done the characters before.” The brand new story has been penned by Brian Michael Bendis AKA “Comic-Book-Super-Scribe” and involves a spectacularly evil plot with Doctor Doom planning world annihilation via the power of the Cosmic Cube.

Back in the demo, we headed to Fort Stryker to confront William, only to find he had already been chained up by a misguided Magneto. Then all hell broke loose! The difficulty of big villains is balanced against how many players take up the fight. Partying up with three other players, after donning a new pair of purple pants, we Hulked to the max, utilising all of our four power moves (Hulk smash ha!) as Magneto rained steel down on us until he erupted and belched out yet more loot.

With the Diablo influence openly celebrated and tightly woven into Marvel Heroes, the attention to detail with Marvel lore, the aesthetics and the sheer delight of being able to play whichever hero you want, whether with friends online or solo makes this a top PC title to look forward to. The best news is; it will be FREE to play! “Players can complete the whole game without giving us a penny” David Brevik revealed. “We will have micro-transactions for those wanting to further customise their heroes, or buy new heroes but it won’t be pay-to-win. We’re so excited to be able to offer this to all MMO, action RPG and Marvel fans.”

Check out the Marvel Heroes website for more news. Release date TBC.