Summary
Whether it is Batman or Captain America, there is almost always an appeal to playing a beloved character from comic book history in video game form. However, rather than being tied down to a character’s specific template from Marvel, DC, and other various comic book universes, developers have tried creating original superpowered experiences.
Players not only have superpowers, but they also enjoy the freedom to explore an open world as a superhero, villain, or a character somewhere in between. These games can vary from science fiction adventures set on Earth or in space to magical journeys through high-fantasy realms.
While nowhere near the level of the first three games,Mass Effect: Andromedawas ambitious in giving players the chanceto freely explore alien planetsas the Pathfinder, known as Ryder. Sadly, the fourth game in the beloved franchise was plagued with many glitches and technical issues at launch but has since gained a following as it was patched and aged.
SinceMass Effect: Andromedafeatures the familiar character creation as otherMass Effectgames, players can give Ryder various skills and abilities. With Biotic-based versions of Ryder, the player can unleash powerful energy, manipulating mass and gravity at their fingertips.
Often overshadowed byDC Universe Online,City of Heroesactually came first, launching in 2004. It provided fans with the opportunityto create their own superheroes. Similar to DC Universe Online, it is an MMO that allows players to explore their comic book fantasies in the open world of Paragon City.
City Of Heroeslasted many years until the development team at Paragon Studios was terminated, leading to the game being shut down in 2012. However, the game made a welcome return in the form ofCity Of Heroes: Homecoming, with thousands of still dedicated fans on the servers.
Prototypeis the ideal game for those wanting a darker hero, more of an anti-hero. As Alex Mercer, the player is infected with a bioweapon that grants him super strength, durability, and the ability to form weapons outside his body. In a way,Prototypecan be viewed as the closest equivalent to a Venom video game.
The team behind Prototype also worked onThe Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, another superhero project. Like that game, the player has the freedom to leap and charge through the city as they see fit andsaid city is completely destructible, which can lead to cathartic mayhem.
By the fourth game, the developers at Deep Silver decided to go as outlandish as possible. InSaints Row 4: Re-Elected, the titular criminal organization is now the ruler of the free world with the Boss as President. The world is abducted by aliens and then forced to live in a virtual reality until the aliens’ control, which leaves it up to the Saints to save it.
As weird as the concept forSaints Row 4is, it allows for the Boss to become the ultimate superhero. In the virtual world, the player can gain access to powers, such as telekinesis, super speed, force fields, and being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, just to name a few.Like allSaints Rowgames, the player is given the freedom to go as wild as they wish with the powers.
If the first gamemade the player feel like Venom,Prototype 2makes the player feel like Carnage. Not only is the new protagonist, James Heller, a much darker character, but the action-packed gameplay is even more brutal and bloody as he seeks revenge for himself by pursuing Alex Mercer.
Overall,Prototype 2is considered to have superior gameplay mechanics that are backed up with Manhattan being just as destructible and fun to explore. James Heller also proves to be a different shade of gray in terms of mortality than Alex Mercer, as he is not a hero, but he is not the villain of the story either. He could be considered an anti-villain, allowing for a unique perspective.
InForspoken, players get to experience a classic fantasy trope of a conventionally normal person being transported to a fantasy world to become the hero of the story. In the case of Frey Holland, she ends up traveling to the world of Athia, wearing a special sentient bangle that gives her powers to fight a wide variety of monsters.
Frey gradually unlocks magical abilities based on the elements of Earth, fire, water, and air, each allowing her to traverse and fight in various ways.Forspokenmay not be a game that reinvents the wheel in terms of open-world fantasy games, but there is plenty to still enjoy.
The adventures of the New Kid continue, only instead of a fantasy game, the kids in South Park are bringing out their superhero personas, such as The Coon and Mysterion.South Park: The Fractured But Wholemaintains exactly what the first game was, a giant parody of its subject matter, but this time, it’s nothing but jabs against Marvel, DC, and other comic book adaptations.
Similar to the first game, the player can choose classes, but this time, there are different superhero archetypes, including Speedster, Martial Artist, Cyborg, and more. The biggest difference is thatSouth Park: The Fractured But Wholeis the RPG combat, which swaps from a basic turn-based systemto grid-based combatthat takes a little time to get used to but is satisfying to master.
For many years,The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimhas remained a source of pure entertainment for many gamers thanks to the amount of freedom given. A player can stick to the main plot featuring dragons and civil wars or go off and get lost in the province of Skyrim, engaging in hundreds of quests and other storylines.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimalso gets praise for its ingenious way of allowing players to create their classes by simply doing whatever they want. This can include using powerful magic to hurl lightning, freeze enemies, and summon monsters. Additionally, there are powers such as the Words Of Power, being able totransform the hero into a werewolf, and so much more to create the fantasy hero of the player’s dreams.
In many ways, theInfamousfranchise feels like a loveletter to X-Men comics and the third game,Infamous: Second Son, is no different. There are people known as Conduits discovering that they have abilities and one of them is a young man named Delsin, who uses his power to fight the government forces that herd and harm Conduits.
On top of the socio-political commentary,Infamous: Second Songets praise for giving players the chance to control multiple power types: smoke, neon, concrete, video, and more, turning Delsin into agodlike being roaming Seattle, Washington. If the player wants to be an altruistic superhero, they have that freedom, but there is always a villainous option which had karma and consequences.
