Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

The only reason I got myself a PS3, since I’m not a big gamer anymore, was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I know that the reason may seem utterly mongoloidal, and that’s what the guys over at different forums say also, but I just felt like my life wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t get to play it. Turns out, my life would’ve been just fine without MUA2. I can’t say the same for Brutal Legend, though.

Story:

Probably the biggest carrot for this whole video game would be its faithfulness to comic book storylines. Well, that was their hook anyway. I appreciate how it took elements from different storylines to come up with its own unique plot. Thing is, had Civil War really ended like the game, people would cry “cop-out!” then swear never to buy Marvel again, only to buy Dark Avengers and Siege a few hours later. And then I would cry.

I guess the script would fall under the category for story. I love how each character gets a set of lines specific to their speech patterns. It’s most noticeable with Gambit, because everything is spelled out like they hired a LOLcat to write it.

The overall story was okay. It felt like the whole plot were bits and pieces of story strewn together sloppily. But disregarding the presentation, it wasn’t all that bad. Not great, but not bad.

Graphics:

The beauty of this game doesn’t really stand out so much, especially in a sea of vivid, full high-definition games coming out for the wood work. Hell, I think “Sims 3″ when I see the MUA characters move about. Don’t get me wrong. This is leaps and bounds better than its ancestor, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but it still seemed lacking, especially in the lighting department. It ain’t no Final Fantasy XIII.

Some of the models are exceptional, though, like War Machine and Iron Man.

Gameplay:

This plays almost exactly like Marvel Ultimate Alliance, right down to the controls, except for some welcome changes. Of course, as advertised, instead of having three powers and a very useless ultimate super power, you have four powers and fusions, which is kinda cool. The Fusion system isn’t just a gimmick. They really do come in handy in a pinch and you have to be strategic on how you put your team together and when to use them. It added a whole new dynamic to the game.

The gameplay is significantly tighter, too, with a slight touch of increased difficulty, which forces you to be a little more strategic.

If you thought the ultra powers from before (save for a few Characters like Moon Knight and uh… Moon Knight) were cool,  you’d enjoy the Fusions. My personal favorite would be the clearing attacks, like Deadpool and Daredevil’s. It’s just so bad ass.

Each character has some pretty cool moves, with personal favorites for all of them, except probably Luke Cage. His moves suck ass. Sure, there are copied generic moves here and there, such as the most utilized rapid tap projectiles; but with enough upgrades,  they’d all seem pretty unique to each other because of the effects at later levels. All characters would play the way you would expect them to, except probably Captain America who was majorly nerfed. More on them later.

Voice Acting/ Music/ Sound:

Ah, I like the VO’s. Sure, Thor sounds like a character from some cartoon. (Further research says that it turns out to be James Cummings, who is in practically everything, from Disney movies to Robot Chicken, but he’ll forever be Tigger to me) Thor could’ve used more badassery, but everyone else got it down to a pat. I fucking loved Deadpool, Cap, Iron Man and Wolverine (Steve Blum, yo!)

Characters:

I’m still terribly pissed off about the DLC getting pulled a week before I bought the game and about 10 days before the advertised deadline. Seriously, that’s fucking pissing me off to no end. Fuck you, Misney. Fuck you. The word is that Activision decided to not renew their license with Marvel, and are therefore not allowed to make more money off their license. Oh well.

Anyway, I wanted to write a complete breakdown on what I think of each non-DLC, non-preorder character from MUA2, but that’d take up too much space. Therefore, I’ll write it some other time, as a separate article. But generally, the roster is lacking. I would love to have some Cyclops and I’d love to take control of Moon Knight again. Punisher would’ve been a cool fit, since Deadpool was there. Would’ve been cool to play as NIghtcrawler, too. FUCK YOU ACTIVISION!!!

Replayability:

You can play it twice because you’ve got two factions to pick from, Pro or Anti-reg, and you can do the whole Legendary + mode, and you’ve got tons of characters with which to play through, but it still feels like a game with a limited life. Sure, there’s online multiplayer, but it still isn’t all that great. This thing will get boring, but it does have pull-out-of-library value. Sort of.

Last Comments:

FUCK YOU ACTIVISION FOR TAKING DOWN THE FUCKING DLC!

Also, the game is okay, but it’s nothing earth-shakingly magnificent. I think this is the last of the MUA series, though, because of Activision’s licensing problems. It’d be interesting to see how things move from here on out. It is great as a comic book fanservice game, but from a pure video game standpoint, it’s nothing fantastic. It gets 2 and a half game covers out of 5!

Don’t take my word for it, though. Buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the PS3 here and check it out for yourself. Click here for the Xbox 360 version. Oh and sorry for the lack of my own screenies. I still haven’t figured out how to take screenshots from my PS3.