Infinite Crisis

So, DC is entering the MOBA genre with 'Infinite Crisis', now in open beta. IC seems to be farm more influenced by League of Legends than the Diablo series that inspired Marvel Heroes, and there's good and bad that comes with it. Fortunately, I think the good far outweighs the bad.

Gameplay is fairly standard: you move/target with right clicks, basic attacks go off automatically, you have 6 skills with various cooldown timers when you click them. Maps are tower defense-oriented, meaning that the goal is to take and hold various strategic points. You start off each match at Level 3 and build your character's skills as you level up through the match. You always start a new match as a fresh slate, able to customize your skills and items for each match. You can further customize the character before each match by selecting 2 'Stolen' powers, which are powers inherent to each character like Superman's Super-Strength or Flash's Super-Speed, that you unlock specific versions of by getting a Champion to Level 5 out-of-match.

Yeah, the Level system is a bit confusing at first.

Finally, you earn or purchase specific Augmentations that you assemble into sets that can be chosen for a Champion before you enter a match. So, if you're wanting to Tank, you can have a set of Augments that increase Armor & Hit Points. For doing damage, you have Damage and Penetration increase Augments. Additionally into these sets, you can add Augments that affect the items you can create during each match; these Augments can lower the cost of an item at certain Tiers or add additional effects.

The Bad: It's still new and there's only 3 arena maps. Also, it's only an arena fight game rather than Marvel Heroes which has explorable levels and a storyline. So, like I said, it's League of Legends vs. Diablo using superhero characters.

The Good: Each week there's different free-to-play characters to try out and earn in-game currency with which to buy characters. You can also buy in-game currency with real money, and the exchange rate isn't horrible. For getting a character like Wonder Woman, it's going to be about $7 US or about a weekend's worth of gameplay on a free character.

There are multiple versions of each character, with multiple styles of play for each. Wonder Woman, for example, has 3 different versions. The 'Main' version is melee damage with a bit of tanking. Mecha Wonder Woman is an AU robot that is a ranged damage dealer. And Atomic Wonder Woman comes from a post-Nuclear War universe and is a pure melee damage dealer. So, unlike the issue I had with Marvel Heroes where different costumes don't give you different gameplay options, here each different version of a character has a different playstyle. Also, there are aesthetic costumes to buy as well, most of which are awesome looking.

And for our little community, there's a generous selection of female Champions to choose from:
Atomic Wonder Woman
Atomic Poison Ivy
Catwoman
Gaslight Catwoman
Harley Quinn
Mecha Wonder Woman
Poison Ivy
Star Sapphire
Supergirl
Wonder Woman
Zatanna

And like I said, there's lots of costume designs and options. Most work. A few....don't quite feel right.

Atomic Wonder Woman (yes, that is Diana with a chainsaw on a street sign post...)



Sgt. Diana costume for Wonder Woman


Mecha Wonder Woman


Supergirl


Varsity costume for Supergirl


Yeah, I can't wait for the Classic Supergirl costume to appear...

'High Seas' costume for Gaslight Catwoman


And just released, 'Dressed to Kill' for Poison Ivy



So, right now it's free to join in, lots of great characters to play, and an overall solid foundation to build the game on.

And doing an update on the other side of the superhero MOBA aisle...

New Female Characters
Arcane Supergirl (blast instead of bash)
Hawkgirl
Katana
Stargirl

New Costumes
(that I think look pretty cool)

Bombshell Harley Quinn


Armored Vigil Hawkgirl


Galactic Voyager Stargirl


Radiant Avatar Arcane Supergirl


Still no sight of Raven, Starfire, Wonder Girl, Batgirl, or Troia, though... The next Champion to be added in is going to be Krypto.

So hey, maybe they'll add in Streaky or Comet sometime.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath for that either.

So, the last time I was seriously playing Infinity Crisis, they hadn't finished the tutorial sequence yet. You just had the one Tutorial where you get Gaslight Batman at the end. I went through and did all three tutorials, plus the two beginning maps where you face AI opponents. You unlock Green Lantern after the second tutorial, but (more importantly for us here) you unlock Wonder Woman for your account at the end of the third tutorial. So, after about 45 minutes, all told, a begining IC player gets Gaslight Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, all without spending any real money. You also get Doomsday after the Coast City AI map and Harley Quinn after the solo Crime Alley AI map. Meaning that after about 1.5-2 hours of play, you have 5 Champions unlocked, and zero out of pocket money spent. and all without having to do any PvP (you do team up with other players for Coast City, but it's all AI opponents).

Not too bad to start out with, in my opinion

Well, looks like it's game over here. The announcement was made today that Infinite Crisis will be shutting down in August.

www.gamespot.com/articles/dc-comics-moba...g-down/1100-6427756/

Fun little side game, but hardly surprising seeing how crowded the MOBA genre is right now.

I'm not a huge MOBA player, but the license drew me in and it was a fun little time-diverter. Gutted.

My brother, friends and I play LoL and Smite, we've seen a lot of these MOBA titles that stray away from the traditional sense, and eventually die. Sadly I would have gotten into Infinite Crisis however, point capture/defense just isnt that fun for this sort of genre, if its the only offered mode or the one where all the focus is. When you hear MOBA, most veteren players will think of LoL, DOTA or Smite, 3 lanes, 3 towers each, etc etc. Its just what works and is frankly the most balanced design, and also leads to the most competitive aspects if thats what the devs aim for.

Nerd mode off.