4 Reasons to Love Marvel: Avengers Alliance

When Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Marvel's foray into the social gaming scene through game developer Playdom, was first announced, I was excited. A superhero Facebook game in the mighty Marvel manner? Sign me up!

I was lucky to be one of the few to play during the game's beta testing phase, and after doing missions, recruiting heroes, and beating up bad guys for a few weeks now, I came to one single conclusion...

You've got to play this game.

And so, let me take this opportunity to give you four great reasons why you'll love playing Marvel: Avengers Alliance, whether you're a power gamer or a casual clicker, comic book neophyte or Marvel zombie!

It's the Marvel Universe...on Facebook!

We've all had our share of wars and farms and poker games on Facebook, but it's safe to say that nothing comes close to the Marvel: Avengers Alliance experience. You get to meet Nick Fury, control Iron Man or Captain America to fight bad guys, all in a Facebook game...how cool is that? If you're a Marvelite, or even just a comic book fan, you'll get a kick out of seeing all these Marvel heroes and villains in a real storyline filled with epic battles, all in a free Facebook app. I know I did!

It looks fantastic!

Marvel: Avengers Alliance may be in 2D, but it oozes in style, color and flavor. It's fun seeing Hawkeye shooting three arrows to hit all enemies at once, or Spider-Man webbing Vulture in place. You feel Cyclops' optic blasts as it slams into a HYDRA agent's face for critical damage, and the Human Torch even looks like he's actually smoldering! If that's not enough, you get mini-cut scenes before a boss fight for even more art goodness. This is one Facebook game you won't get tired of looking at!

Strategy is key!

Most of your time in this game is spent fighting bad guys using your heroes, and this is where the game shines. Battles are turn-based, and characters are divided into five unique classes: Blaster, Bruiser, Infiltrator, Tactician and Scrapper. Each class is strong or weak against another class (Your enemy's got a Bruiser on their side? Too bad, a Blaster like Iron Man always critical hits against him! But be careful, a Tactician on their team can hit Iron Man twice!), giving battles a little more strategy than just 'point and click'. It's fun to recruit heroes (using the in-game Command Points), mix and match teams and watch them go to town on bad guys and on PVP...you never know what you're up against next!

There's lots to do!

Marvel: Avengers Alliance has a depth and scope you don't see in social games very often, giving players a lot to chew on in terms of what they want out of the game. From customizing character stats using ISO-8 chips to pwning d00ds in PVP, from learning more about the story by finishing every mission to recruiting every possible hero (so far there's 29 heroes to collect) via Command Points, it's hard to get bored in this game...until you get Hulk, surely.

Sure there a couple of hitches here and there (the game is still buggy in some parts, and Hulk is too powerful to be recruited relatively easy via Command Points), but the fact is that Playdom promised an authentic Marvel experience, and they delivered. Marvel: Avengers Alliance could have been a simple cash-in by Marvel, but it's actually a well-rounded superhero game that treats the characters and the universe it's based on with affection and respect. And that's awesome.

I hope I've convinced you with this little post! For more info, visit the official Avengers Alliance fanpage at www.facebook.com/avengersalliance or check out the game itself at  http://apps.facebook.com/avengersalliance. So what do you think of the game? Which heroes would you like them to include next? And who wants Nova to be in this thing like me?! Drop me a comment via the comment box below and let's talk about it! Thanks for reading!