New ‘Marvel: Avengers Alliance’ RPG Screen Shots Surface

Disney Interactive Media has revealed new game information and new screen shots from its upcoming Facebook powered turn-based RPG, Marvel: Avengers Alliance. According to SuperHeroHype players will take on the role of a male or female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent tasked with forming, deploying and even fighting alongside custom teams of Avengers that include heroes from all corners of the Marvel universe (X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc.) as they battle villains for coveted "ISO-8" crystal shards that've arrived on Earth following a mysterious cosmic event known as "The Pulse." It's good guys and bad guys fighting over treasure, ya dig?

28 playable characters will be available when the game launches at an as-yet-unspecified date later this year, which can be configured into teams of 3. Battles will stem from multiple story missions that can be completed with Facebook friends. Like essentially every other SM game, in-game currency can be earned and spent to upgrade weapons and other empowering devices. Players will also be able to train their characters when not in use to level them up -- for a price they'll even be able to speed up the process. I'm picking up on some serious Pokémon parallels (not that that's a bad thing in these parts) minus the "catching them all."

From SHH:

Though the game also features an additional 100 NPCs, the 28 attainable superhero characters have previously been revealed to include Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Thor and Wolverine. We can now confirm an additional ten: Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Colossus, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Phoenix and Storm.

Check out screen shots of Marvel: Avengers Alliance gameplay below.