Iron Surfer's Costume Review
I have a lot of strong feelings about this costume. Some good, some bad. I'd like this to be a helpful review for people who are on the fence about obtaining this costume, and would appreciate if it would be a form of constructive feedback to TinyCo as this is their first event for Avengers Academy. So... Here's my review of Iron Man's Iron Surfer Costume.
Let's go over the basics first. This is a nice looking costume that I'm sure some ladies would enjoy keeping on the Iron Hunk. I've seen MMO's sell costumes with HUGE price tags on them for female characters, so by comparison it's not outrageous that Tony Stark is sportin' his duds for 300 Shards. That being said, you expect some unique or strong support for the payment of shards - the Pay-type currency in the game.
Sadly, what I've experienced so far is anything but. At first glance, I was a little drawn back about purchasing this costume as it appeared to have no individual characteristics that made it special other than "Tony-Stark-In-A-Swimsuit". Looking back on it now I can't quite understand why I bought this costume - maybe I was hopeful for some extra storyline content, or maybe I thought I'd have a series of impressive quests to complete? I was also interested in the new actions [Order A Drink - ???] and [Surf's Up! - ???] because I wanted to see if Tony had a high-tech Hoverboard or not (he does not - it is a high-tech surfboard).
##Questline
Buying the outfit opens the quest line Tony Time!, involving Tony Stark's side of the LOKI'S DREADED BEACH story. The first scene opens up with an excited Wasp and Iron Man talking about what they'll be doing at the beach, with Tony saying he'll be doing nothing but relaxing while his reprogrammed S.H.I.E.L.D. drones do all the work. Tony Time!, Pt. 1 involves [Order A Drink - 3h] from Tony and [Lounge Around - 4h] from Wasp. The animation for [Order A Drink -3h] was enjoyable as Tony clumsily attempts to put a straw in his mouth to drink a coconut, but I'm not sure if I'd sit around for 3 hours watching it. This portion of the quest ends with Wasp agreeing with Stark that having nothing to do is sometimes a good thing.
Tony Time!, Pt. 2 Involves a worried Black Widow attempting to distract Tony away from the beach as there's something obviously wrong with the sands. You'll spend a few hours with a quest specific action involving Widow and Iron Man at Club A. (Apologies for the lack of detail during this part - forgot to record the quest specifics).
The shaky ground of copyright confusion gets touched as Tony mentions wanting to build a silver surfboard with Falcon in Tony Time!, Pt. 3 while Widow tries to figure out more about this weird Beach Loki brought. You'll be asked to [Do Super-Science - 3h], and [Tinker With Tech - 1h] for Tony, and [Search for Clues - 1m] with Widow. We find that Loki really did put something in the sand, so Tony promises not to use the beach anymore... and head straight for the waves! \m/,
Hope you upgraded your beach at this point because it's Tony Time!, Pt. 4! Iron Man and Wasp head to the beach for [Surf's Up! - 6h] for Tony and [Visit Your Castle - 8h] for Wasp. That's right - Tony has the inhuman superpower to stay perfectly balanced on a surf board for six hours! He utilizes the half-pipe wave machine with smooth flips and crazy hangtime. The animation itself lasts for a few dozen seconds before repeating itself.
With Part 4 being the final part of the quest, both Wasp and Iron Man's only thought is that they should stay there at the beach... forever... almost as if they're brainwashed... or really diggin' each other out? (<3??? )
The rewards for each part of the side-quest all amounted to 36 credits each part, for a total of 144 credits for the entire questline. XP was not measurable.
Allow me to come to some conclusions with all of this - the good, the bad, and unfortuately - the ugly.
##The Good
- A Half-Naked Iron Man
- A unique Side-Quest line
- Two new actions accompanied with two new animations
- TonyxWasp shipping!
##The Bad
- A costume costing 300 Shards
- A reward line totaling ~144 Credits
- Both actions costing 3 to 6 hours - driving Tony's efficiency deeper towards Slug status.
- No additional effect towards the Loki Beach Event plotline.
##The Ugly
- As opposed to other costumes outside of the Beach Event - Iron Surfer does NOT come with a beneficial time reduction.
- I hate to emphasize this again, but... A 300 Shard Costume for seemingly only a 144 Credit quest.
- Longterm - It is unknown if these new actions from the Iron Surfer costume will ever be used on the Missions Board.
##So then, the result?
Overall I'm pretty disappointed in the value of the costume. The numbers don't add up to be worth the price in terms of reward and content. 300 Shards pretty much equates to around $6.00, I want more out of this for that price. A week ago the cheapest Credit Vault was being sold for 190 Shards to get 170 Credits per day - so I'm a little confused by the value of Tony Stark's bathing suit here. Maybe the experience was the value? A little bit, I'm starting to gravitate towards pairing Tony and Wasp together when dating goes live now, but still don't feel like the price of the costume was satisfying enough.
It'd be great if the costume would reduce the wait time for something relating to it as we've grown accustomed to thinking "Costume = New look AND Action Reduction!"
I would suggest reduce [Stark Initiative - 25m] time by 20 minutes due to his swim trunks, or reduce [Test Your Toys - 7] by 6 hours because of his new surf board. Especially for Test Your Toys, THAT would make the costume worth the investment - especially when the mission board would hit Tony with a Heroic Toy Test. If it's too late to add a time reducer though, maybe include something unique and special related to his swimwear costume when the dating feature comes out? Just throwing around ideas now...
In the end, my Stark's gleaming Adonis body will forever illuminate the campus with his pale skin as I try to squeeze out the value from his new costume like the last orange on a juicer.
Has anyone else purchased this skin yet? Still thinking about it? What are your thoughts?
Posted Feb 22, 2016, 4:11 AM UTC · edited