izigame.me

I feel kinda bad cause I'm not experiencing any of the performance issues that most people seem to be (rightfully) complaining about. What I've been experiencing is a pretty good game through and through.

The Dialogue and Story

I'm not a huge fan of Marvel, and I'll be honest, in the first 30 to 60 minutes, I was pretty worried that this game was going to be plagued with the same insufferable dialogue of disney's Marvel movies. You know what I'm talking about; the dialogue where there's a comic relief quip every 1 to 2 minutes, effectively rendering the use of comic relief null as it prevents any tension from building in the first place for the audience to be relieved of. Well that does exist in this game, and it is extremely prevalent in the beginning of the game.
The dialogue and writing is pretty meh, but at least the bad jokes die off a bit. The rest of it so far is passable, but nothing that'd perform in the box office to see funding for a sequel if it was a movie. The story isn't bad, but it's probably a lot more interesting if you're actually a Marvel fan, which I am not. The voice acting though, is pretty great, and looking at the cast, you'd expect it to be.

The Gameplay

There are two parts to the gameplay:
The Abbey
The abbey is sort of the hub-world where you can do anything and everything in support of your characters. Between missions, you spend your time there upgrading cards, scavenging the surrounding area for resources and collectables, chatting with your team mates, and upgrading the facilities in the abbey itself that allow you to do the aforementioned things.
A lot of XCOM DNA comes through in the abbey. Time passes at a rate of one mission per day, the mission splitting up the morning and evening. In the morning before the mission, you can spend some time upgrading your cards, crafting items, and conversing with the rest of the residents of the abbey, sometimes setting up a rendevous for the evening.
After you've done a mission, the game progresses to the evening where you can tie up anything you didn't finish up during the morning, and also provides you with new opportunities to talk to your cohorts.
This is where the game falls just a little short. While this is where the majority of the story happens, navigating the abbey and talking to all of the other heroes around it can feel like a chore, and sometimes feels like it's just getting in the way of doing the missions. There's a TON of dialogue to get through each day, and it messes with the pacing of the game quite a bit. This is a personal preference of course, and if you're a fan of the social aspects of the Persona games or the latest Fire Emblem game, or if you're just really into Marvel lore, this might be right up your alley.
The tasks in the abbey feel a whole lot like the way that the tasks in your base in XCOM are setup. You have a few different areas in the abbey that are congruent to XCOM's facilities that allow you to complete tasks that cost a certain number of resources, and take a certain number of days to complete. However, unlike XCOM, if you don't do these tasks, the world doesn't end, but some of your characters and card powers may fall a little bit behind. The progression feels meaningful in this sense, and you don't feel like the world is handed to you without effort as it is in many AAA games. The game will reveal several things to you while you're only able to unlock one at a time.
The Missions
The missions and combat are where the game really shines. Combat is interesting and engaging, and each battle feels unique, despite having very similar layouts, and only a handful of scenarios and win conditions.
You can tell that Firaxis put a lot of thought and testing into the design of the card system. It feels incredibly balanced, and doesn't feel as limiting as I initially thought it would be. It always feels good to use a card that just so happens to have enemies arranged in just the right way to be decimated in a single turn. The decks feel like they're just the right size at 8 cards per hero, and you often find yourself in a situation where you're drawing exactly the card you needed because of the limited deck size. There are also a ton of opportunities for synergies and combos that feel great. Interacting with the environment also adds a nice dynamic to the combat that doesn't feel out of place at all. The replayability here is crazy.
For most story missions, you're forced to bring the main character along and get to pick the other two you'd like on your team, although some story missions lock this down a bit more. For the side missions, you're typically taking along a hero that is the "owner" of that mission, and get to fill in the other two slots with whoever you'd like, provided the hero is not recovering from an injury from a previous mission.

Graphics

The lighting is sometimes rendered like a mobile game or straight to DVD CG movie for some reason, and other times it's rendered really nicely and it actually looks like a modern game. Don't get me wrong, it's not PS2 Hagrid levels of bad, but when those poor lighting moments happen, they feel really out of place. Otherwise, the graphics are just ok. There are hints of greatness here, like in real time reflections and effects, but the models and lighting leave room for improvement.
The animations are fantastic. They really do tie the whole experience together, and drive home the super hero theme.

DLC & MTX & DRM

It is my personal opinion that full priced games shouldn't have microtransactions or extra purchasable content on release. Regardless, the industry thinks otherwise, and it has become a standard offering in AAA games. With that being said, the monetization is not very obtrusive here. You can buy a season pass to unlock everything available now (all cosmetic) which renders the cash shop useless. The season pass will also net you a few future heroes that come out as DLCs. Again, there shouldn't be a cash shop/day one DLC at all, but all things considered, this one isn't so bad.
As for anticheat/DRM, this game does have denuvo, and denuvo is trash. It really is a roll of the dice on if it's going to affect your performance with the dice weighted against you. Keep that in mind when deciding to purchase.

Can you pet the dog?

You can and are encouraged to pet the dog.
If you're a huge Marvel fan or strategy game fan, pick it up. If you're only slightly interested, wait for a sale.
8/10
Edit: the abbey stuff has really grown on me, and the dialogue and writing has actually improved immensely. I actually enjoy all of the side conversations and other stuff to do in between missions now. For that reason, I've upgraded this from a 7 to an 8.