Marvel: Avengers Alliance

Marvel: Avengers Alliance is a turn-based social network game developed by Playdom in 2012. It is based on characters and storylines published by Marvel Comics, and written by Alex Irvine. The game is available as an Adobe Flash application via the social-networking website Facebook, and via Playdom's official website. It officially launched in Facebook at March 1, 2012. It was initially released as promotion for the 2012 Marvel Studios crossover film The Avengers. It was nominated for Best Social Game on the G4tv.com Video Game Awards 2012, and won. It was made available on iOS devices on 13 June 2013. An android version is also available. On March 20, 2014, it was announced that the servers running on Playdom's official website would be discontinued.

Plot
In the first season the game revolves around a galactic event called the "The Pulse" hitting Earth. This event released a strange compound called Iso-8. Several villains, villain organizations (consisting of A.I.M., the Brotherhood of Mutants, the Hand, HYDRA, and the Maggia), and extra-dimensional menaces to take advantage of it leading to a villain alliance called "The Syndicate." The player is a new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit, dispatched by Nick Fury and Maria Hill to stop them. As the game advances, more heroes join the conflict as playable characters. The season ends with the resurrection of the Red Skull and a civil war within HYDRA.

In the second season, "The Pulse" has affected other parts of the world starting with Great Britain and the heroes discover and protect the Philosopher's stone while investigating the Circle of Eight, a mysterious organization that is killing low-level villains for unknown reasons.

Production
Season 2 was expected to be released on the 18th of June, 2013 and will feature new heroes and villains. On the 18th, Playdom said there would be a hold on release on it. Season 2 was released on August 1, 2013.

Gameplay
Players take control of an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and can fully customize the agent by gaining experience, leveling up, and equipping their agents with various weapons and uniforms obtained within the game. They can also team up with up to two out of the current 87 available Marvel heroes in the game, each with their unique skills and abilities. Players start with only a few heroes, and the other heroes are locked. These heroes are needed to be recruited first by buying them with "Command Points", one of the currency available in the game.

Gameplay itself consists of turn-based fights that pit your agent and heroes against one or more waves of three or less enemies, with each character having unique attacks. There are six character classes: blaster, bruiser, scrapper, infiltrator, tactician and generalist. The first five classes have a specific strength and a specific weakness to one of the other classes, in a Rock-paper-scissors style. Blasters have guaranteed critical hits against bruisers and ignore their defense bonus. Bruisers increase their statistics when they attack or are attacked by scrappers. Scrappers have a second automatic attack against infiltrators. Infiltrators counter-attack the attacks of tacticians, and tacticians gain a second turn when they attack blasters. The generalist class has no special strengths or weaknesses against other classes. Some playable heroes can switch classes during the game, and a character class may be changed with alternate costumes. The player has access to uniforms of all the classes.

Resources

 * Silver - It is the main form of monetary item used in the game to buy gears, uniforms, supplies, and Isotope-8. It is also used to fund research and training for heroes. It can be obtained by completing missions and Remote Operations from Flight Deck, participating in PVP Tournaments, selling items, visiting allies and rewards from Marvel XP.


 * Gold - It is an another form of resources use to buy other items in the game such as Command Points, S.H.I.E.L.D. Points, Energy and premium gear. One Gold is rewarded every time an agent gains a level up. Other ways of achieving gold are from daily or PVP roulettes, completing missions, ending a PVP Tournament in Gold League or higher, or buy using money to buy more.


 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Points - They are often used in conjunction with Silver to buy item and to train heroes. They can be obtained in various ways such as visiting allies and receiving gifts.


 * Command Points - They are used to recruit heroes or alternate uniforms for agent or heroes. They can be obtained from boss/epic boss, PVP or daily roulettes, completing missions, opening lockboxes, and by exchanging gold for them (exchange rate is 1 gold = 2 Command Points).


 * Energy - It is used to commence battles. Energy is recharged every 6 minutes with a total of 60 energy. 10 energy is needed to start a battle.


 * Challenge Points - It has the same function as the energy, but only used in Player vs Player. 1 Challenge Point is recharged every 30 minutes with a total of 5 challenge points.


 * Isotope-8 - It is a mysterious mineral that existed after the "Pulse" event that has been the center of conflict between the heroes and villains. Inserted in the heroes' costume or agents or uniform to upgrade their stats. It varies in chip, fragment, shard, crystal, and reactive crystal form and refined forms for each of these.


 * Empowered Isotope-8 - Mysterious new form of Isotope-8 that can give heroes and agent new abilities. There are Empowered Isotopes that can be equipped by any hero, some are class restricted, and some are hero restricted. Each hero can equip 2 Empowered Isotope-8 in their original outfits and Agent can equip one in Empowered armor. Alternate outfits for heroes can only equip 1 Empowered Isotope-8. Hero restricted Empowered Isotope-8 can be found in Heroic Battles in Season 2.


 * Augmented Isotope-8 - Mysterious new form of Isotope-8 that can enhance specific abilities of heroes. Some are designed for certain types of abilities, while some are restricted for specific abilities of specific heroes. One Augmented Isotope-8 can be equipped for heroes when they reach level 8 and up to four can be equipped when they reach level 14. Hero restricted Augmented Isotope-8 can be found in boss battles in Season 2.


 * Unstable Isotope-8 - It is an unstable form of Isotope-8. It is used to access Spec Ops. 10 per battle/deploy, 20 per mini-boss/boss battle.


 * Lockbox - It is a resource that can be gathered in several ways. Opening Lockboxes will have a chance to open a Comic Cover. Collecting 8 comic covers in a collection will recruit a Lockbox hero for free. Not all Lockboxes contain Comic Book Covers. There are also Supplies, Gear, Command Point inside of them.

Collections
Collections is a feature used to recruit Heroes that were previously Villains. It was unveiled as part of Special Operations - Cry Havok.

Collections can be completed by opening Lockboxes to collect Comic Book Covers. Collecting all eight unique Covers will recruit a new Hero.

Player Vs. Player (PVP)
For a limited time, Player Vs. Player (PVP) tournaments are available where the players fight to reach different tiers (Silver, Gold, Diamond, Vibranium and Adamantium). Players who placed at Adamantium tier at the end of the PvP season are awarded a new hero. PvP fighting can also be done during non-tournament times in practice mode only.

PvP season Hero Rewards:

Special Operations (Spec Ops)
Special Operations are limited time challenges in which the player has to complete 25 tasks in order to obtain a new hero. Unique boss items can be acquired through battle, and special weapons or items are rewarded for every 5 tasks completed. The only exception has been the first Spec Ops mission, in which the player had to get 5 star mastery in all the missions.

Characters
The following characters appear in this game:

Unlockable through Special Operations Missions. Unlockable through PvP Tournament. (Becomes regularly obtainable for 135 Command Points two days after the latest PvP Season ends). Also an in-game boss, unlockable through collecting 8 comic book covers from lockboxes (cannot be used by the player in missions where the character is a boss). Unlockable for a limited time. Found only in Special Operations Missions. Recruitable through Marvel: XP achievement in Avengers Initiative. Appeared at the end of Special Operations 9: Extremis. Hinted at in a Developer Questions and Answers Thread in Playdom's Official Marvel: Avengers Alliance Forum. Unlocked for purchase after completing limited edition Covert Task side-quests. Announced at the 2014 New York Comic Con as a future villain. Now permanently recruitable for 200 Command Points. Announced at the 2014 South by Southwest conference.