Overall: Ultimate Alliance is a Marvel comic fans dream (or nightmare). The original Ultimate Alliance had a pretty basic beat-em-up style game formula we've all seen before. It showcased hero's and villains popular and barely-heard-of alike, fighting off against each other to save the world once again.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 expands upon this formula. Unfortunately for Activision, expanding on an already mundane surface will give you, well, a slightly less unimaginative experience, but still a lack-luster game. However, if you are a huge marvel fan, or new to the genre, MUA2 will bring you enough enjoyment to beat the game once or twice and then some.
The story starts off with a secret government mission led by Nick Fury and our popular bad@!%#*! superheros (Wolverine, Iron man, Spider man, Captain America) launching an @!%#*!ault on an enemy castle. The villains in turn retaliate by destroying and killing innocent humans in an act of terrorism. Now who is to blame for this? Has society had enough of masked super humans parading around doing as they please? Bluntly put, yes, and a bill is put in place to insure all superhero's register with the government and essentially become their puppets. Naturally, superhero's with a bit more aggression and attitude rebel against the act, while those more publicly known already try to enforce it. This is where you decide if you want to rebel against the act, or agree to help catch those who don't register (giving you great reason to beat the game twice). What we're left with is a hero vs hero vs villain vs ??? kind of situation. This proves to be a clever storyline as it widely opens up the usual formula of good vs evil, to perceived right vs wrong and pits typical hero's against each other in a battle of freedom.
Gameplay: Those new to the series can expect 4-player shared screen coop, where each player can be any superhero they wish. (Sorry, not many villains are playable this go around, MUA3?) It is then a leveling up system, and you are allowed to upgrade your character's attributes. Unfortunately it was difficult to really notice the improvements an extra skill point had, and often it's just as good to let the computer auto-@!%#*!ign points anyway. The other RPG element is the use of badges which can be found hidden throughout levels, or obtained from defeating bosses. Three can be equipped at a time, and clever use of arranging them throughout the game on harder difficulties is mandatory.
Each type of enemy has a certain weakness and immunity, and these weaknesses need to be exploited (this is only necessary when on the game's hardest difficulty, when playing on normal you can be anyone). This is where badges will become useful for each character, as you can equip "+6 fire damage" on fire-based hero's or "+4 damage on each attack" to fast melee hero's.
A new element to MUA2 is "fusion" attacks, which allows two hero's to team up and unleash a devastating attack. They come in 3 forms: clear, guided, and targeted, depending on which two characters you perform a fusion with. Clear is used with many enemies, guided is used with a few stronger enemies, and targeted is used for single damage on bosses. For the most part, I was impressed with the attacks until they started repeating themselves with different characters. For example: Thing picks up a giant piece of the ground and holds it in the air; with Human Torch he lights it on fire, with Gambit he embeds explosive cards in it, and with Iceman, he freezes it. Thing then proceeds to throw the rock for targeted damage. I would have liked to see different animations for each character, not the same one with a different color. If Activision is going to boast about over 200 different fusion attacks, make them unique.
The characters are supposed to all be "balanced", yet there are m@!%#*!ive distinct advantages to choosing a select few, with some emphasis on variety of team (strongman, magic caster, regenerator, area of effect caster, etc). You can swap out characters at any time, but doing so tended to ruin the pace and flow of the game. You will have to go through many, many weaker enemies throughout a level to reach a boss, which takes the form of one or two boss characters. 4 superheros then proceed to gang up on the enemy in a clear, unmatched battle. I would have loved to see a 4 on 4, where strategy and working together was necessary and prevailed over taking turns hitting the boss in the back.
The game also attempts to use a "choose your response" mechanic where you can choose to be aggressive, defensive, or diplomatic when asked a question. I liked the idea, but there really is no advantage to choosing one over the other, and the characters treat you the same regardless of what you choose. What could have been a great idea if implemented correctly, fell up short.
Graphics: MUA2's visuals are better than it's predecessor, but I'm still left wanting better. For a Marvel fan seeing these epic events unfold is a dream come true, but the lack of awe-inspiring visuals tones it down. Instead, we're left with the bare-minimum visuals I've come to expect from a next-gen console game. The cut scenes were often intriguing and entertaining, but again, the game offers nothing new and feels very similar to ultimate alliance 1. Sound: For the most part, the sound work was done decent when analyzed individually. The voice acting is satisfactory for each character, but you won't recognize any of the big shot voices we're beginning to come accustom to. Some of your best attacks always have a certain sound to them when they are used, and it is often useful to use a single attack over and over in a situation. This can become an extremely annoying situation, where the game becomes a mumbled collaboration of increasingly annoying attacks from each character. This combined with the repeated character sayings became a problem as I advanced in the game. It reached a point where I had to switch out my favorite character due to not being able to stand the audio any longer.
I have spent the majority of the review criticizing the game for its faults (though there are many), instead of praising the cooperative fun factor. If you take the game for what it’s worth, you will have fun playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 with some friends. With many unlockables and collectibles in the game (including hundreds of recordings, character bios, marvel facts, costumes, etc), true fans will find something to love here. For everyone else, it may be worth a look as I wasn’t too disappointed with the end result, and I’m not a huge Marvel fan.
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