Marvel meets XCOM in Avengers Alliance Tactics

Marvel: Avengers Alliance and XCOM: Enemy Unknown don’t have much in common except for the colons in their names and the fact that they’re both awesome games. But if we could somehow cause them to meet, fall in love and procreate, it’s possible we’d end up with a turn-based tactics game with a full complement of Marvel super heroes and villains.

If that sounds like something you’d play (and it should), you might be happy to know that we can skip the awkward courtship process and just wait a little bit. Marvel just announced Avengers Alliance Tactics, a squad-based game for Facebook that will hit the U.S. “soon.”

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Borrowing from the successful XCOM formula, the new title puts players in the boots of a S.H.I.E.L.D. commander, controlling the actions of agents and Avengers alike. If Avengers Alliance is any indication, the game’s story should spread from the Savage Land to familiar locations all over the Marvel Universe. Various heroes will be available for recruitment and advancement, no doubt showing off increasingly powerful abilities along the way.

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Marvel: Avengers Alliance and XCOM: Enemy Unknown don’t have much in common except for the colons in their names and the fact that they’re both awesome games. But if we could somehow cause them to meet, fall in love and procreate, it’s possible we’d end up with a turn-based tactics game with a full complement of Marvel super heroes and villains.

If that sounds like something you’d play (and it should), you might be happy to know that we can skip the awkward courtship process and just wait a little bit. Marvel just announced Avengers Alliance Tactics, a squad-based game for Facebook that will hit the U.S. “soon.”

news

Borrowing from the successful XCOM formula, the new title puts players in the boots of a S.H.I.E.L.D. commander, controlling the actions of agents and Avengers alike. If Avengers Alliance is any indication, the game’s story should spread from the Savage Land to familiar locations all over the Marvel Universe. Various heroes will be available for recruitment and advancement, no doubt showing off increasingly powerful abilities along the way.

It’s a concept so obviously filled with potential that Marvel simply couldn’t pass up the chance to turn it into a reality.

“There’s not a lot of great tactics games out of Facebook,” executive producer Gabe Brown said to USA Today. “The opportunity to mold a tactics game and a Marvel game into one, it was just too juicy to resist.”

It’ll be hard to resist playing it too, especially if you have any love for either of its “parents” — which we definitely do here at Gamezebo, considering we gave both of them five stars. It appears Avengers Alliance Tactics is already in beta in Asia, making the wait for it to head west, however short, that much more tantalizing.

Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.