We all love Super Heroes, there’s just many qualities of them that we admire and respect like they’re heroes for one thing, they go out and save people. A hero gives us hope, a hero is something that most of us aspire to be, or at least try to be like. Super heroes are people that we might wish to be like, not only for their super powers but because they offer us something to dream about, a better place maybe where the heroes live where we could live. There’s many reasons to love heroes, no matter what your reasoning is, a game that puts us in their shoes is one that will most likely succeed, it allows us to vicariously live their lives through the screen.
Today for review I’ve got the Xbox360 version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. UA2 puts you in the shoes of 24 heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe. The premise behind that game is that the government is trying to force the heroes and villains to register and basically become their private force, problem is that not everyone agrees with this. Iron Man is heading up those that are for the registration, and Captain America is leading the anti-registration forces and it’s essentially an all out civil war between the two sides.
Specifications/Features:
The largest army of Super Heroes is back… and being torn apart! The Superhuman Registration Act becomes law and Super Heroes must register as weapons of mass destruction, becoming licensed government agents. As Civil War is stirred, Iron Man leads the Pro-Registration side while Captain
America spearheads the stand on Anti-Registration. The fate of the Marvel Universe is in your hands. Lines are drawn. Sides are chosen. And the ultimate question remains: Whose side are you on?
-Create and customize your ultimate team – Assemble your dream team from the Marvel Universe and select from over 24 playable characters, each with specialized powers.
-Cooperate with your ultimate alliance – Play Co-Operative Mode with up to four friends, both online and offline.
-Choose a side in Marvel’s Civil War – Support the Pro-Registration side and defend national security, or choose to be Anti-Registration and fight for personal liberties.
-Fight fear with fusion – Combine Super Hero powers for devastating results. Over 250 unique fusions arm you with an unimaginable arsenal for unprecedented battles.
-Wield next-gen superpower in fully destructible environments – Demolish and interact with everything in your path. Pummel your enemies by launching crushed cars, lampposts, machinery and anything else you can pick up in your way.
Box Shots:
Here’s the box shots for you:
Gameplay, Graphics, Impressions:
Please note the screen shots I’ve taken are from fairly early in the game as not to spoil anything for anyone.
The main menu is set up with five options including credits, Xbox Live, Play Game, Options and Review. Under review you’ll find bonus features like dossiers on the characters as they are unlocked.
When you’re not on a mission you visit Stark Tower to learn about your next mission and do various other things.
Gameplay:
Actual gameplay is fun, but it can be a bit confusing at times with all the stuff that’s going on the screen. I’ve got a 47” HDTV and even on the big screen the characters seem a bit too small, and when you get 10, 15 or 20 characters on the screen it can bee very hard to see what’s going on.
When you’re playing you’ve got a team of four characters that you can switch out if you wish for other characters, but only if they’re unlocked. While you’re playing you can also switch between which character you’re controlling.
You can also find and use various types of medals in the game that give you boosts to power, life, armor etc. You can equip three at a time in most any combination.
The in-game menus is where you’ll access character switching, map and stats as well.
While you’re playing the characters have basic moves like hit, jump and strong hit but you can also combine characters for super moves. Depending on the combination of characters you use though you’ll end up with something different each time, sort of. The whole Fusion of powers thing seems like a great idea until you’ve seen them a few times, you’ll quickly realize that they’re all pretty much the same moves but with a different combination of characters.
The controls for UA2 work well, but at first they can be a bit confusing.
As far as online play goes, there’s not much really to it, just co-operative playing with your friends, nothing new here.
Graphics:
The graphics are decent overall, but not quite what I expected, I’ve seen better, but they are passable really. I think the main problem I have with the graphics goes back to what I mentioned earlier, everything just seems so small on the screen. The lighting is nicely done with shadows and all of that so aesthetically it looks good. There are times though when the frame rates will drop when there’s a lot of stuff going on, like many characters and explosions and such. All of the areas are different and there’s a lot of detail that goes into it. The game though is basically a 3d scroller, you really can’t go up or down, only left, right, forward and back on the screen.
While you’re playing you’ll quickly realize that there’s a lot of cut scenes in this game, you’ll spend almost half of the game I would estimate just watching them. Yes they are worthwhile to watch the first time through as you’ll learn about what’s going on through news reports and actual character interactions, but some of them you can’t skip. I saved the game and then came back the next day only to be greeted with the same 2 minutes of cut scenes that I already saw and I couldn’t skip it.
Conclusion:
Overall Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a decent game, but it’s got problems.
If you’ve played the other Ultimate Alliance games then you’ll be very familiar with this one, it doesn’t bring much new to the series really. A different storyline with a bit different moves, and slightly improved graphics.
If you’re a big fan of the UA series of game then you might want to grab this one, but if you’re just a casual fan if you don’t grab it then you won’t be missing out on much really.
Pros:
+ Play as many of your favorite heroes and villains
+ Good storyline
+ Decent graphics
+ Good replay value with online play
+ RPG-esque gaming
Cons:
- Can get confusing at times with lots of action on the screen
- Xbox360 slows down at times when there’s a lot going on
- Small characters on-screen, hard to tell who’s who
Overall: 3 out of 5
Gameplay: 4
Controls: 4
Graphics: 3
Replay Value: 3
