I’ve been spending a lot of time with TinyCo’s Marvel Avengers Academy (Free) recently. What can I say? I have a documented weakness for Marvel fan-service, and this app really packs it in nicely. Now, there’s not a whole lot of playing to be done here, since at its heart it’s more or less a superhero aquarium, but I have found a few tips to help things move along a little quicker for those of us who want to enjoy the game for free. Some of these are obvious to anyone who has messed around with a game like this before, but for the sake of anyone who hasn’t, I’m going to include basic advice along with the rest. Excelsior!
Keep Your Heroes Busy At All Times
Upgrading your academy is going to require cold, hard cash. The only way you can get that cash without paying real money is to complete missions. Nobody should be idle if they have a mission on the board, with very few exceptions.
Manage Tasks Appropriately
So, one of those exceptions? There are occasions where your hero might only have one option open to them because another hero is occupying a building. If that one option will take a really long time, and the other hero will finish their task soon, you may want to hold off for a couple of minutes so that you can send the first hero on the shorter task first.
Work Missions Around Your Schedule
Even if a hero’s only possible mission is a very long one, you might want to hold off and see what comes when you clear another mission off the board. Long missions are best started when you know you won’t be able to check in again for a while, like before bed, for example. If you have any extremely short missions, you should queue them up first, as they might be done by the time you finish off checking everything else.
Story Missions Should Take Priority
Completing story missions opens up new characters, new buildings, and new opportunities to make money. Of course, these are usually longer missions, so if you have a few minutes to burn you might want to clear out shorter side-missions first, but generally speaking, you’ll want to keep your nose to the grindstone on the story quests. The rewards are quite valuable.
Do Side Missions That Grant Items First
If all else is equal, take on missions that give you upgrade items before regular missions. These items will allow you to upgrade your heroes, increasing their earning potential and opening up new actions. Academy textbooks are of particular importance, since every new recruit and character upgrade calls for them. The sooner you can start piling them up, the better.
Use Pym Particles Wisely
You’ll get a slow trickle of Pym Particles from completing missions. These allow you to remove rubble from the map. First of all, if you’re just starting the game, make sure you keep a few in storage to remove the tank containing Captain America’s shield, as you’ll need that to recruit him. After that, make sure you’re considering what the removal of each rubble piece can do for you. You’ll have to lay down a lot of buildings, and some of them are quite big. If holding off until you get one more Pym Particle will let you remove a major obstruction as opposed to a minor one, it’s better to wait.
Save Those Gems
You’ll get four each time you level up. Save them up long enough and you might one day be able to unlock Spider-Woman or the Superior Iron Man Suit. I’d recommend the former, but if you’re a fan of ol’ Shellhead, the latter can be useful, too. While we’re talking about suits, don’t forget to unlock Tony’s business suit. It only costs coins, and it opens up new actions and a new quest line for him.
Upgrade Buildings Before Heroes
If you have some money to throw around and you’re not sure whether to invest it in improving your buildings or powering up a hero, the former should win every time. Powered-up heroes earn a bit more money for clearing missions, which is certainly important, but upgraded buildings open up new, more profitable actions for various characters. As you start recruiting more heroes, this is particularly important, as until you beef up some of your buildings, those new heroes might not have many things to do.
Before Renovating, Check Your Missions
If you’re going to upgrade a building, make sure you’ve cleaned out any relatively short missions that require it first. Depending on the construction time, I’d recommend starting an upgrade either just before bed or first thing in the morning, but make sure you sweep out the queue first, if you can. You don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of missions you can’t work on.
But Really, Keep Those Heroes Busy
You can’t stockpile the results of actions, so if a hero doesn’t have a mission on the board calling for an action, it’s useless to do it. Or is it? This one involves a bit of sneaky business and some dumb luck, but it can occasionally pay off big. Before you leave the app for a long period of time, find every idle hero and put them to work on something that will consume a lot of time. When you come back, check off the heroes who were working on missions first. Let the mission board refresh, then go check off the other heroes. If you hit on any lucky guesses, you might instantly clear some of the new missions on the board. If not, well, you didn’t lose anything. This is particularly good for 8-hour actions before going to sleep at night.
Those are all the tips I have for Avengers Academy. As long as you treat it as a silly thing to check on here and there, it’s pretty enjoyable. The dialogue is fun to read, and some of the nods to the comics and movies are quite clever. It’s not much of a game, I suppose, but as long as you approach it from the right angle, I think fans will get some laughs out of it.
I'd take NOVA 3 over the Halo games they released on iOS any day. Annoying top down view...
NOVA series was great IMO, it's a shame they never released a 4th game(though at this point I doubt it'd be a premium title).
I guess the point more is back in the day you had to be like "Hmm I enjoy Halo what's on the App Store that's close to that." These days, you just type in "Halo" and can download two legit games without needing to do any extra legwork or research that might lead you to Gameloft's catalog of Halo-likes.
But gameplay-wise they are not like "real" halo at all, if you want a halo-like fps you're gunna download nova. Seriously hope nova 4 is announced out of nowhere
I still think there is a lot of room in the Apps store for Gameloft if they can remain consistent and drop that quick cash grab freemium games.
N.O.V.A. series is still the Halo game on mobile, because it is in FPS with decent mechanics, I just wish they put in mFI controller support.
There are still big games a lot of devs and publishers refuse to put on iOS and Android in their console like form.
StarCraft (Gameloft should take another crack at a sequel)
Street Fighter (a version that supports mFI)
Mass Effect (third person that supports mFI)
Fall Out series
I loved NOVA 3! It still holds up pretty well visually today, in hindsight it was a class A experience. The opening theme was better than it had any right to be especially considering that the story and dialogue were pure cheese.
Fantastic shooter.
I really resent the tone of this article. I LOVE RC cola and prefer it to Coke.
Me too, but everyone thinks I'm some kind of weirdo. I vastly prefer RC.
Mr. Pibb!! Accept no alternatives!
Mr. Pibb? Dude didn't even get his degree.
Don't get me started on that holistic quack Pepper.
Ppl still drink soda in 2016? Eww, sugar and carbs.
Yes, I remember the day when carbs became more carcinogenic than tobacco.
Sick of their compromise. I swear, if they flake on the NOVA franchise in done.
I can absolutely 100% promise you if another NOVA game is ever released it will be free to play.
Unfortunately...likely true. Gameloft is basically done releasing premium titles at this point.
they already did release another NOVA game ...albeit it is NOVA 3 in freemium form. 'Freedom' edition.
LOL
I think GameLoft needs to slow down, focus on only a handful of games and make them really console level premium and market them as such.
The Apps store could really do with a Bioshock series (with mFI controller support) since I reckon 2K are lying with their intentions of re-releasing it.
I'd say Gameloft's biggest problem is that they used to REALLY stand out from the competition. Now they don't.
RC gets no respect :/
Boycot them
I will always appreciate that Gameloft at least attempted to bring recognized games to iOS early on, even though they were clones at least someone was trying to port them essentially. Figured Gameloft's popularity would fade if PC or console developers ever took interest in the App Store, though.
GREAT ARTICLE ELI ...BUT ON THAT TOPIC I DONT KNOW WHERE THEY GO TGEY TRIED THE SNIPER GAME BUT HITMAN IS BETTER AND THAT GAME IS NOT LIKE ALL THAT GREAT BUT THEY NAIL THE ASPECT OF BEING A SNIPING GAME SNIPER ELITE FEELS LIKE A SHOOTER MORE THAN A SNIPING GAME ASPHALT IS GOOD BUT I LIKE NFS NO LIMITS MORE AND LIKE U SAID HALO GTA GAMES ON THA APP STORE NOW I DONT KNOW HOW THEY STAND OUT THERE RUNNERS ARE GREAT THO MINIONS AND SPIDER-MAN ARE AWESOME MAYBE THEY SHOULD THINK ABOUT SELLING THE COMPANY THATS ALOT OF MONEY TO B OFFERED SOMETIMES THINGS CAN PAST U BY 😔😔😔😔😔
you broke your caps button man? Lol :D
And your full-stop failed after 3 hits :)
Love gameloft hope it's coming back from the dead with premium games amin
Good article. I absolutely loved the old premium Gameloft.
Away.
Gangstar Vegas was an absolutely superb game and stood shoulder to shoulder with the iOS GTA titles. Most people would buy both IMO. But they ruined it by going freemium...then they did the same with Modern Combat 5. That was me done with Gameloft.
They should obviously try and bank on a Warhammer 40k game...
I loved gameloft from the beginning. I just happened to download hero of Sparta or whatever their God of war clone was and was blown away with what a phone could do. The action/rpg gripped me and forced me to play it non stop until I beat it and loved every second of that game. Then Dungeon Master, The war games, FPS, the FF clone around Xmas a few years ago all provided for some amazing game times. I truly truly do miss it... Big time. I bought a iPhone 6s Plus for games and I've played a total of 3 games on it. The free to play, card games, match 3, bejeweled, city growing stuff does not appeal to me in the least on any level.
I use my phone for my FPV phantom 3 and 4 flights now more than anything.
Hope gameloft can make it... They gave me some of the very best times on my iPhone 3s, 4s, and 5s.
For me, it was Gameloft's switch to freemium. Their games went sooo far in to F2P shenanigans that I simply stopped looking at Gameloft games. We'll never know, but it would have been interesting if they had instead gone after the cheap (premium) clone market. For example, a decent GTA knockoff at half price seems a better niche in than adding timers to an open world game.
Yeah, their timers and energy systems ruined experiences for me. I was only able to keep playing Iron Man 3 when they finally removed the stupid cool-down timer. Spider-Man Unlimited and that Jousting game both retained their energies or timers, and I had to give up on them. I mean, they are both online only to begin with, but then they limited how much I could play when I had time to actually sit down and play, and I don't have time for those kind of games. I'd rather play one of many good premium experiences like Final Fantasy IX or KOTOR.
The problem is creating a decent GTA knockoff is just about on par with creating an actual GTA game. It still takes a big team and tons of money to develop. So if real GTA games are going for less than ten bucks, and you're targeting half the price, you're never going to make your money back anyway. Besides, while people on mobile do seem adverse to paying for stuff, if the choice between a knockoff GTA and the real deal was just a few dollars, I'd imagine most people would shell out the extra few dollars for the actual thing.
I became a HUGE Gameloft fan back when I had a Motorola V400 flip phone. I spent quite a bit researching and finding great mobile games back in the early 2000's. And Gameloft not only made great games for those phones, they actually had great licenses too.
So, it really helped turn my flip phone into a great GBA alternative. So, when I got an iPhone, I promptly checked to see what they had available. I can't remember all of the GL games I've bought over the years and in what order, but they definitely were great in the beginning. N.O.V.A. was awesome, and gave me my Halo/Metroid Prime fix. Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Spider-Man, Iron Man... I mean, they were my favorite developer because they made full games and everything on the App Store was premium in the beginning.
But as the App Store shifted to F2P, Gameloft slowly stopped making fully premium experiences, and premium experiences came with a bunch of IAP. My favorite of this era is probably The Dark Knight Rises. That game is like a slice of Arkham City in your pocket. Way better than any actual mobile Arkham game. However, when their games went full F2P plagued with timers and energy... I stopped bothering with Gameloft altogether. For me their glory days were when premium games shined.
I'd love to see them come back, but I have no idea what it would take. Maybe the App Store needs to run its course with F2P, and hopefully birth gamers' desire to have more premium experiences. Or maybe Gameloft just needs to find some indie developers to create original content that can utilize the needed F2P mechanics in a fresh way. Where I once had folders full of Gameloft games, I now only have Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises on my phone. I wonder if the older ones would even work anymore.
Great article . Gameloft's console clones would be great with today's mobile technology . No other publisher has really taken their place . iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2 Backstab 2 , shadow guardian 2 , nova 4 , that resident evil 5 clone e.t c.
GL should file for bankruptcy or let the Vivendi hostile takeover consume them.
In a way they pioneered core games at the time on a platform with little ambition and full of casual games I call throw-away games. However industry veterans turn to mobile and the scene has changed, Gameloft appears to have missed that boat. Their attempt at Clash of Clan, Siegefall, was quite decent, though apparently largely ignored.
Sacred Odyssey :(
I had hope of a sequel until they removed the original from the App Store. That was probably my favorite of theirs (and I can't play it ever again). Also liked a lot about Avatar, but hate to think what they'd do to it these days if they get the license for a game for the second movie. Ick.
I think most players have no issue playing a clone as long as it's well made and particularly if the original doesn't exist, but once it does there's really no reason to ignore the "real thing", especially a classic. And I can't help but finish this off by saying Pepsi destroys Coke and RC any day.
NOVA was a guilty pleasure, I will admit. One of the first games to convince me that touch could be fine for first-person (although they used too many extra on-screen buttons).
This comes down to two things, Gameloft finding better profit in licensed games and core gamers flipping tables because F2P murdered their kitten.
I enjoyed the hell out of Eternal Legacy back in the day - more so than Chaos Rings at the time in fact. I remember thinking that if Gameloft could produce that then why was Square settling for ports of their first two titles - showing that GL were ahead of the curve in thinking of the iPhone as a real platform and making the most of it.
I loved Eternal Legacy!! Game took my mind off of some really crappy things unfolding in my life. It was nice to climb into bed and get comfy and game on for a few hours.
I used to love Gameloft even they cloned others' games, until the day they make everything free to play but suck our blood as crazy. Their last game that finally destroy my love on them is God of Rome.
I think big studios should make enjoyable freemium experiences, and indie secs should stick with premium gems.
To add a bit more on the financial aspect, Gameloft is mostly collateral damage in the Vivendi power play on Ubi Soft. The main reason Vivendi launched a hostile takeover bid on Gameloft is to put pressure on the Guillemot brothers, one of which is Gameloft's CEO, and the other one Ubi Soft's CEO. The Guillemot family has still big stakes in both but not big enough to prevent Bolloré, a French tycoon activist who controls the board of Vivendi, to buy them.
Bolloré is a smart and dangerous guy, he took control of Vivendi with only a small stake in it, and is known to do things his own way. So the guys at Ubi and Gameloft are legitimately scared of an hostile takeover.
I have asked this question 2 or 3 weeks ago-
I think game loft will just become a mindless corporate abusing the free to play system.
They will be targeting the casual demographic
Was never a gameloft fan, I believe the best games are the ones designed for the device not to try and repeat console experiences. However very surprised they doing badly, thought they had hit the jackpot with Order and chaos.
I've always been a Gameloft fan and supported their games. I hate that they switched up doing what they did best...making console quality games at a reasonable price. The whole free to play model with timers ruined mobile gaming for companies like Gameloft because they tried to copy that format and now their games just aren't as fun and aren't as good.
I hope they make Nova 4, GT Racing 3, and MC6 and charge a set price and ditch the free to play nonsense and go back to making quality games.
I wish you would talk about Order and Chaos 2 a little ... I think it's loads of fun and worth playing. There are probably lots of Gameloft players who are just doing their thing, playing their games, without the benefit of your critical eye
I used to really enjoy Gameloft titles, back in 2010-2012. Too bad they're struggling so hard now. I will be curious which direction they go this year.
Definitely glad to see Gameloft losing relevance. Don't like to see devs lose work but I'd much rather Gameloft go tits-up and then the talented developers that work there go on to work for different companies, or form new ones that aren't so Gameloft-y.
Awesome article I love stuff like this as a player and developer!!
I think they really dropped the ball with the new order and chaos also splitting the mmo userbase just didn't make sense especially when they follow close to the same model. If one was full subscription and the other was freedom it would make a bit more sense.
Even with all that said their gameplay and monetization system in o&c2 was just horrible at launch its like the game wasn't even finished and they just had to release. I wanted to love it but couldn't :/
It's too bad like you said they really brought iOS gaming to the masses.
Over iPhone games now, been a huge supporter over my decent game on iOS since early 09 but now I'm out! Have way more fun on 3ds now a days!! Cya layta 😎
Think it's worth noting that besides bringing high quality games, they were doing so when the market didn't want to pay more than .99 (angry birds) and everyone wanted updates with extra content for free. They need to make money and jumped on the freemium which kind of worked for them but alienated those that don't like that model. I never paid money for extras in asphalt, but my brother put in like $40+ on car packs and upgrades. He played the hell out of that game and to him it was worth it. He got a great experience and for a ps1 or ps2 game (the quality is about the same) he and others would pay that much. Times hopefully are shifting and with many games over $5 to start with ff series, they may finally be able to make a game like nova 4 (fingers crossed) and charge a premium. It is a business and they need to make money too. Are we ready to pay an upfront price?
I actually really enjoyed Backstab... was just craving playing through it again when I realized it was no longer on the App Store
They still make the best mmorpg's (order & chaos 1&2) and dungeon crawlers ( dungeon hunter) to PC/Console games, no other MMORPG or dungeon crawler comes close in the App Store to there versions..
The real Problem about Gameloft is that in every single game you need to pay money to have fun.
Totally agree. The reward system and progression system is so bad that you have to spend real money to advance as you would in any other premium game. People won't spend money up front for a game but damnit they'll spend $20 on a pack of gems. Human beings , full of contradictions.
I used to love the gameloft games! I wish there was a way for me to play backstab, it was my favourite....
imo gameloft's Asphalt series has been pretty solid- I think they'll do well to release an Asphalt 9 instead of bloating 8 with features.
It definitely feels like the golden era of the appstore has passed :-(
How is grinding the same races over and over for almost no cash to upgrade your cars a good experience. Asphalt is a perfect example of a beautiful game ruined by what's turned into a horrible gameplay and progressive model. I played it in the beginning and had some fun. Then they tweaked the mechanics where races got extremely difficult forcing you to replay old races ad nauseum before you A, got enough cash to get a much better car or B got frustrated enough to start buying IAP. And I collected most stars up until that point (in 2014). Totally owned in Asphalt 6 and 7 as well and loved those games because they had a clear reward system. You get first place, you get enough cash to continue upgrading your car. You have to not only get first place in A8, it only gives you a little cash making you grind and grind and grind , over and over and over. It's garbage.
Asphalt 6 was the best in terms of balance and rewards. I was able to go through and beat the game. No extra money spent. Every vehicle open to race in any track if I remember right. This game got me wanting more. Asphalt 7 they tweaked the balance and made classes. Made for a little more grinding but still very doable and fun. Asphalt 8, while visually stunning, not balanced for the player. Seems the more I tune the car, the ai goes just that much faster. Played for a long time without iap, got really good at multiplayer maps, but hit the wall too much and became repetitive. The effort-reward balance was off. If they came out with like a "platinum edition" in which they balanced the effort-reward system to not need iaps but could be used for the impatient (remember those days) I would pay another $6 for that.
Gameloft tried to cash in on freemium while still parading nice graphics and the illusion of a real game to users. They built themselves up on amazing titles with balanced gameplay like Modern Combat 3 and 4, Dungeon Hunter 2, Lets Golf, NOVA. They then tried to take those same games and build them around a freemium model which doesn't work. If you wanna do freemium stick to candy crush and clash of clans clones. But you can only dupe so many people for so long under the illusion of a premium game with IAP.
I used to be a huge gameloft fan from 2009-2013 until they started bastardizing games like Modern Combat 5 with IAP. But to be honest the game was horribly done from the start with low res graphics and finicky controls. I suck 80 hours into MC4 and loved every minute of it. It was balanced beautiful and tons of fun.
Greed has taken over the App Store and no one person or company is to blame. Apple is to blame for fostering this kind of garbage and not helping companies create premium experiences, gameloft and other companies are to blame for attempting to cash in with just horrible experiences. And the people are to blame for continuing to buy gems to speed up whatever tower they're trying to build.
So basically mobile gaming is screwed. Thankful there a few developers out there that still make quality premium experiences like Square Enix and the hitman/Lara croft go games.
Speaking of.....TA let their mobile apps die without an update in years what's up with that?
As the Founder of the Official Spider-Man Unlimited Fanguide, We have been working hand in hand with some of the development team to improve the game, and more importantly the player/developer relationship that has been a longstanding problem for this company.
I believe for Gameloft to climb back to the top and become relevant to gamers again, they must open their communications with the players that DO play their games. They have lost many dedicated players over the year, and earned a bad customer service reputation due to the policies that were in place for so long.
Recently we have seen some changes and allowances in those policies, which have allowed players feedback to be more directly involved with the ongoing development of these games, resulting in much higher player retention, IAP sales, and overall player satisfaction.
As Gameloft moves forward into 2016, i think it is ESSENTIAL that they also begin to dissolve the policies in other games, and work hand in hand with their community to improve all of their existing titles.
This will also allow them to have a better understanding of what players currently want and expect from a mobile game title. This would give them invaluable knowledge in building future games, and structuring them so as to account for a good, rewarding user experience, while still allowing room for considerable profits.
Few mobile gaming companies truly utilize the wealth of knowledge and feedback their fans and players have to contribute, and Gameloft could become a powerhouse by setting a trend for other major developers to follow their example.
Some of these games are great, no matter if they are clones, or heavily branded titles, they underlying problem seems always to be, Gameloft's inability to recognize and acknowledge their players feedback. Only when they open their mind and act upon the ability to use this information in a postive way, will they begin to fix the situation they currently face.
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KaL
They have lost their identity, so the company might as well be dead at this stage. There seems to be no future for their 'proper' games - no mention of a modern combat 6, and the Nova series seems to be long gone. These were really their two game series' that made them stand out on the App Store, but they seem to have dropped both titles. Instead, they are bringing out freemium games that are probably not as successful as they would have liked, and now they offer nothing. They've dropped their 'console quality' premium game series' and they don't compete well enough on the freemium market. In a limbo.
I've pretty much stopped buying iOS games, I have enough to last a lifetime, over 400, including a ton of life consuming RPGs. Plus all the excessive iOS updates that break games and F2P crap doesn't instil much confidence in me. I have enough, just need to take time to enjoy what I paid for, I'll update when I finish them all or get a new device, will be some time as Apple products tend to last decades, (my old blue G3 tower still works) and are easily repairable most of the time if they do break.
That said I'd like some of my remaining store credit to go to all the old GL games I missed. Main problem, they are too expensive at 4.99, I'm sorry but they are, relatively speaking at least. When you consider I can pick up something like Batman: Arkham City GOTY, brand new sealed for 9.99, which is an amazing production packed with content, 4.99 just seems steep for what GL games offer. I beat most of them relatively quickly and whilst enjoyable in their own way don't represent the same level of bang for your back, seems ridiculous saying this about budget priced games but there you go, the proof is in the pudding, you can get more for less, much more, so why wouldn't you? Plus buying half a dozen games priced at 4.99 each, it'll add up. If they dropped the price to around half what they are now I'd bite for sure. Not that it would save the company or anything but can't see many people buying into their legacy as things stand.