Almost a year ago to this day, I played through and reviewed Marvel: Cosmic Invasion — an anticipated, much talked-about and retro-styled beat ‘em-up. As someone who grew up playing many of the games that it was inspired by, I loved the type of game it was, and enjoyed my time with it. That’s because it was fun, well made and polished, although there were some niggles and things weren’t perfect. It’s one of the better releases of its ilk in some time, though.
Sometime after release, new characters (Cyclops and The Thing) were added into the 16-bit brawler, but that happened through paid DLC. I didn’t bother with that, and those characters looked to still be locked.
Now that we’re a month away from the latest derivative Marvel Cinematic Universe release, Avengers: Doomsday, it’s no surprise that this game has received more DLC aimed to drive up ticket sales. Said add-on has been talked about for months now, and it’s called The Siege of Castle Doom.
That tracks.
The first proper expansion, but second DLC, for Marvel: Cosmic Invasion, The Siege of Castle Doom was originally revealed with mystery. By that, I mean that that Dotemu was coy about what kind of content it would offer, and exactly which form it would take. Now that it’s out, we can tell you what it is, how it works and whether it’s worth your time and money.
The Siege of Castle Doom is, unsurprisingly, a roguelite mode, which is separate from the core campaign. It introduces two new playable characters, too, in the form of The Invisible Woman from Fantastic 4 and, oddly enough, Doctor Doom himself. How that works and makes sense, I’m not sure. It’s true that he’s one of the two new playable characters though, as well as it being possible to play through this DLC as him. That’s odd when the final boss is also Doctor Doom, at least from what I’ve read and seen. I didn’t get that far, to be honest, but definitely tried.
The idea behind this mode is that Doctor Doom is preparing a weapon and must be stopped. In order to do that, players will have to fight their way through different regions of his castle, collecting battery cells along the way.
Players begin by choosing their two heroes/villains, who will be playable in tag team form, much like in the main campaign. Up to four players can play together, too, which allows friends to work together. I played with four strangers; two at a time. However, my first run was solo.
The gameplay is predominantly similar to what fans of the game will be used to: lots of 16-bit beat ‘em up gameplay, with each character having his or her own archetype (heavy, all around, ranged, etc.) and abilities. Combat consists of mixes of light, ranged, heavy and special attacks.
Doctor Doom is a heavy fighter, who has a lot of power behind his moves. He’s strong, not as quick as some others, and has an energy-based special move that can clear the screen. Meanwhile, Sue Storm is faster and more agile, and can float in the air. She’s also able to temporarily become invisible, although only for a very, very brief window. Her special is essentially an orb that damages enemies around her.
These were the two characters that I used on my first attempt. They’re definitely two of the game’s best, too. It’s nice that they’re now available for use throughout it, provided you’ve acquired this DLC.
As you battle your way through different parts of the castle, Doomstadt, you’ll go from room to room, defeating the monsters, Doom-guards and bug-like creatures that get in your way. However, given that this is a roguelite experience, and those often provide player choice, the path isn’t linear or straightforward. In fact, upon clearing one room, there’s a choice of up to three doors to go through next. They’re colour-coded too.
In this colour-coded system, blue doors are ones that will provide added battery cells once their enemies have been vanquished, allowing for faster progression. Meanwhile, green doors eventually offer health, purple ones provide pick-ups (like the ability to slow enemies, have unlimited special attacks or light enemies on fire), and orange ones provide combat challenges/special events. The game doesn’t do a good job of telling you this, but it’s something that you’ll learn as you play.
To be honest, the tutorial doesn’t do a great job of explaining this mode.
One other aspect of The Siege of Castle Doom is that there’s a siege gauge, which appears on the right-hand side of the screen, down near the bottom corner. It seemingly fills up as the player(s) take damage, and also if they take too much time. Once full, it causes a game over.
The first time I played this new mode, I did so alone. I lost Doctor Doom, then eventually died as Sue Storm and it was game over. I visited the lab (more about that soon), then started over. However, that time, I started a new party and two random people joined my game. We did really well, I thought, but then the run ended.
I did the same thing again, started solo and then had two other randoms join. That was welcomed, for sure. While we didn’t do as well, our run ended at around the same point. I tried to be faster, and wasn’t doing poorly or taking much damage, but it still ended. After that, the game failed to load properly and got stuck on a black screen, so I quit out.
While I had fun, I got frustrated. I thought that we were doing really well, and then the runs ended prematurely. We weren’t close to dying. It felt overly difficult and punishing. Then again, I don’t play many roguelites and usually avoid them. I know that the idea behind them is to keep doing runs, but there’s not a lot to upgrade or unlock here.
You see, once you finish a run, you can visit Reed Richards’ laboratory. There, earned energy points are traded in for modifiers that make the experience slightly easier, but can also make it more difficult. One grants a temporary bonus of 25 HP, while another provides an extra life in return for only using one character as opposed to two, so it’s basically the same amount of health. There’s one that deploys an automated hellcat turret, another that deals random damage upon collision and more. Meanwhile, there are others that add risk for greater reward, by removing the Cosmic Swap mechanic, forcing you to fight waves of foes, and more.
There’s also talk about how things get more challenging as the meter fills. I guess that’s true, but we weren’t close to dying on my second and third runs. We were doing well.
Adding on to the above, there are some other roguelite elements that make their way into this add-on. They come in the form of upgrades that can be earned during runs, but are not permanent. Once you get to certain points, you’ll get to upgrade your offence, defence or tactical. I focused on defence, with the odd attack upgrade. However, I’ve read now that tactical upgrades may be best.
As mentioned, these perks are not permanent, so it’s possible to choose different ones during each run.
The other new elements are environmental, including green energy chain traps that will wrap you up in metal and prevent movement if stepped on. They’re joined by heaters and energy coils in different parts of the castle. For instance, when you go outside and fight on top of the walls, it’s so cold that your character can freeze. In order to prevent this, you must attack and engage heaters and fight within their warmth.
Being that The Siege of Castle Doom is built primarily on the back of the very good gameplay of Marvel: Cosmic Invasion, its core mechanics are strong. It’s also a good addition for those who like roguelites, but it doesn’t go far enough and runs don’t feel unique enough. I feel like more could have been done to make it more unique, and more fun. They also could have offered better progression, modifiers and the like. It doesn’t even seem like the characters can earn experience, but there are different colour palettes.
Marvel: Cosmic Invasion was quite a good game. It’s great that it’s still being supported, even if this DLC is kind of advertising for yet another Marvel movie. Overall, said add-on is decent, and pretty fun, but also frustrating, overly punishing and not deep enough to warrant long-term play.
This review is based on the XBOX Series X version of the game, which we were provided with.