Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the next in the line of Raven’s Marvel action RPG series (starting with the two X-Men Legends games and Marvel Ultimate Alliance).
If you’re not familiar with the series then I’ll give you a brief overview. In MUA2 you play as a team of super heroes from the Marvel universe. You can play 1-4 players, but if you don’t have 4 players you can easily switch between the other AI controlled team mates. Though the game feels like a typical overhead action game, there are a lot of RPG elements thrown in. It is very reminiscent of games like Diablo, or Baulder’s Gate, only that the Marvel games focus much more on action and much less on inventory management and stat building.
Ultimate Alliance 2 takes place during the Civil War period of the comic which was a great storyline the encompassed most of the Marvel Universe and affected nearly every Marvel character. The basis for the storyline is that super powers registration is put into place and a war ensure between those against and for the registration. This is a great storyline to base a game like Ultimate Alliance on because there’s a good reason for all the characters to be present and the stakes are very high. It creates a much more compelling story for the game as well.
The graphics are a huge step up from the previous game, which is expected as that, was a launch title for the next gen consoles. Though it’s not quite as nice as Raven’s recent Wolverine game, that’s to be expected because MUCH more is going on in this game. The whole design of the game screens and menu is based off the Civil war comic’s design which is very cool.
The game features roughly 24 characters to play as, and has a quick level-up system designed to fix the clunky one from previous games. You no longer have to (but still can) go into the slow loading menu’s character screen and update you characters powers and abilities one player at a time. Now you can just quickly hit select to do that through a mini menu on the game screen. No loading and multiple players can level and equip badges at the same time.
The combat is pretty much the same, you have two attack buttons, plus block, throw, and jump, you can use the throw button to throw items, enemies, or take the shields off of guarded enemies. Each character also has 4 super powers that you can activate by holding the R2 button.
The one big addition to combat is the fusion attacks. Combo attacks existed in the previous game, but these have really been ramped up. For a fusion attack two characters combined to do a completely different move, each combination results in some pretty crazy attacks that will help obliterate TONS of enemies at one. Most are guided so you can aim them while they are active to achieve maximum effectiveness.
The healing system is also changed a bit. It works; it’s just kind of sloppy and tough to get used to. As a team you can collect up to 2 healing items at once (I don’t know why it maxes at two, I ‘m constantly running across refills I can’t get), to use it you have to hold the R1 button and press a button that co-responds to each character. It’s a pain because the icons for which buttons to press appear by the characters on screen, and you have to look for that character then look at all corners of the screen to see who needs to be healed. This doesn’t seem so bad, and I bet there are more visual hints to make this easier, but in the middle of a big fight when you need to heal, it’s a pain. Also because the control is only one button away from your powers, I’ve accidentally wasted an item several times when meaning to use a power.
The game itself has all the things you’ve come to expect from the series, a trivia mode, a simulation mode for bonus missions and to replay the story missions, and tons of Marvel fan service. This series really has something to appeal to every type of gamer so I recommend checking it out if you’re looking for a co-op action RPG or just a fun beat-em-up kind of game.
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