Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is the action role-playing sequel to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. It was jointly developed between Vicarious Visions (Xbox360 and PS3), n-Space (Nintendo DS, Wii, and PS2), and Savage Entertainment (PSP). This review focuses on the Xbox 360 version as that was what I tested.

The story of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance focuses on the comic book storyline of Civil War (and a little of the Secret War). The game begins using the Secret War storyline with Nick Fury leading an invasion into Latveria. You play a group of heroes in this invasion and the consequences of this lead directly into the Civil War story line where there is a catastrophic incident in Stamford, Connecticut that killed 612 civilians. The government uses this as a means to force heroes to become federally registered that leads to a split among the heroes. The pro registration movement is lead by Iron Man while the anti-registration movement is led by Captain America. Soon after both sides begin to fight one another to prove they are right in their decision.

Hey guys is my cape straight?

Players must choose their side in this game. If you choose the Pro-Registration movement Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Songbird are locked into the game, and the Anti- Registration choice locks Captain America, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist into the game. All the other playable characters go with you despite which choice you make, and don’t worry too much about your decision as you get all the characters back eventually in the game. The story then follows along the aftermath of the Civil War arc and the new cause that makes the heroes  band together for the better good.

I personally was really looking forward to this game as I really like the Civil War arc and thought it would make an excellent game story. I was a little disappointed in how it played out in the game as it just seemed far too short and easy to finish. I replayed the game once to see the other ending and see if it really made much of a difference in the story, and it really didn’t except for the characters you lose for a while will be a little weaker when you get them back later. Yet, this aside I really liked the inclusion of actual comic’s storylines and hope this trend is continued in future comic book games.

Taste my mighty Iron Foot!

The graphics were better in this version than the first one, but it still uses that same camera angle that I personally am sick and tired of being used in these Marvel games. It seems like they started using it with X-men Legends and have stuck with it. I hope that if or when another Marvel group game is made they utilize a closer camera angle like in the Dragon Age games. We all know it can be done so let’s give it a try at least for once.

Another gripe I had with this game is that they decreased the amount of special powers each character has in order to include a super power Fusion system that sounds really neat, but in reality after you see a few characters combinations they all look mostly the same. This was a rather large disappointment for me as I had really looked forward to different Fusion animations. Also, the tokens used for Fusions is shared for healing your characters, and on the legendary difficulty setting this became a very big annoyance to me as I had to choose between healing a character or kill a large group of enemies. I wish they had left this like the old version as to save the tokens for Fusions.

CHEESE!!

The upgrading system returns in this game, and it’s pretty much the same as the first game. I liked it then and still like it in this game. There is a multiplayer co-op in this game that is pretty fun to use as you can team up as your favorite heroes and take down random baddies.

I liked their choice in characters this time. I think they did an excellent job of selecting an assortment of old favorites while introducing new characters into the game. If you don’t want to know the characters you will want to skip the rest of this paragraph. The characters are: Iron Man, Spider-Man, Venom (thunderbolts version not Eddie Brock but honestly not any difference except appearance), Deadpool, Gambit, Wolverine, Hulk, Captain America, Juggernaut (if you preordered or download him), Green Goblin, Penance, Daredevil, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Iceman, Iron Fist, Jean Grey, Luke Cage, Mr. Fantastic, Ms. Marvel, Nick Fury, Songbird, Storm, The Thing, and Thor. When reading this looks like a lot of characters and is, but I personally would have liked about twice that many but that’s just the comic geek in me.

The game ran smoothly although it is a linear path you must take as it’s not an open world game (which I hope to see in a marvel team up game one day). The sound track and background sounds were great with the atmosphere of the game. All in all it was a fun game for a comic book fan it was just far too short with few reasons to replay. For any fan of Marvel Comics or heroes I would recommend this game at least as a rental, but to those that don’t care for comics and only want a great game you may find yourself bored very quickly with this title.

Downloadable Content Available:

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 released a downloadable update that gave 5 more characters to the roster and more challenge room missions in which to use them. The five characters are Carnage, Cable, Magneto, Black Panther, and Psylocke. These new characters looked great and made for some nice changes in the games roster of characters. As an X-men fan I was really psyched with their choices. The Black Panther really doesn’t bring much of a change in gameplay as he resembles most of the other characters in his up close attacks. Cable brings a far off playing style shooting guns at enemies which may take some adjusting too. Carnage is a brutal player that is like a mix of wolverine and venom in one fun mix of a character to play with. Psylocke brings all the agility you would expect from a telepathic ninja. Magneto plays similar to his appearance in the first game. The fusion powers are similar in likeness to all the ones seen thus far in the game. In my opinion this DLC isn’t really necessary for ten dollars unless you just have to play with these characters.

Catch me if you can!!

Written by: Paul Miller