The LV. Cap: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii
1-4 Players/ Online Play
Developer: Vicarious Visions, Savage Entertainment, n-Space
Publisher: Activision
ESRB Rating: T For Teen
Price: $59.99
Activision hit the gold mine with Marvel Ultimate Universe and various scenarios were shown at the end of the first game that could lead up to the sequel. Guess what? None of those were used. Instead MUA2 was loosely based on the popular comic events Secret War and Civil War. Just like Civil War, MUA2 puts the heroes against each other rather than pit them against villains. The hero war has you choose a side: Iron Man, Shield, and Pro-Registration Heroes fight for public safety or Captain America, the White Stars, and Anti-Registration for personal freedom.
Pros:
Story: The story does what the comic crossovers it is inspired by couldn’t do. Stripping away from the shock value moments and mischaracterizations we are instead left with a story purely about an ideology war after a national tragedy caused by super heroes. The bout between Iron Man and Captain America becomes more than Marvel’s big two going toe-to-toe as they both become a symbols for their causes. What the story does better than Civil War is show the positives of both stances fairly as well as shows the drawbacks. The same debate that sparked division of comic fanboys will definitely re-ignite.
Graphics: Effin’ Awesome. It’s like someone slapped an epileptic with a rainbow. From the power effects to the cutscenes and down to the character design the game treats your eyes like a faithful muslim going to heaven to receive a bunch of willing virgins.
Character Management: K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid. To the advantage of the players this philosophy works extremely well in the sequel. Gutting the equipment aspect of RPGs that carried over from X-Men: Legends to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the sequel removes that aspect of personal equipment and instead puts into place party badges that bring stat bonuses to the entire party. With a simple press of the select button you don’t have to go through the actual pause menu to add points or equip the part badges. Instead a “short” menu pops up in the upper left corner where you can spend points after leveling or equip new badges. Another thing that MUA2 improves the ability to change up your party right in the middle of play. No longer do you need to go to a save point.
Camera: Re-worked and fantastic. The horrible camera issues in the first game are completely reworked by giving a Semi-fixed view. You still have some control over the camera with the other analog stick but if MUA camera was porn camera work, MUA2 upgraded to a summer blockbuster. No phallic objects in the foreground will block you from the action. Giggity.
Fusions: New mechanic that makes the game even more enjoyable. Fusions allow you to combine the powers of two characters to do devastating damage to a single or an army of villains. Depending on your party, fusions will vary on the two heroes you pick to team up. Personal favorite is Luke Cage teaming up with Storm to toss a large rock infused with electricity at a boss.
Cons:
Character Costumes: All secondary costumes are unlocked by killing 50 enemies. Some depend on the side you chose during the war as well as having the 50 enemy requirement. Guess what? All the secondary costumes fails harder than a blind nazi playing hide and seek with Anne Frank. Don’t get me wrong, the added costumes are welcomed and are nods to various comic interpretations. The primary problem is that graphically they look like an afterthought. The level of detail given to the primary costumes does not transfer over to the earned secondary costumes.
Power Selection: In order to use the heroes special powers you hold down the right trigger. In MUA you were able to tell the difference between which move was on what button. In MUA2 unfortunately this isn’t the case. If you have a poor memory you are going to be holding down the right trigger and pressing various buttons in order to pull off the one move you actually want. No helpful visual hints for the on-screen power display.
Multiplayer Lag: Lag was always an issue with MUA and continues to be an issue with MUA2. I don’t know if it’s the crappy connection in California but if you want to play this game multi-player, I say skip the Xbox Live or PSN multiplayer, invite your buddies over and enjoy it from your couch.
Verdict:
As much as I enjoyed the game from a comic fan standpoint, for the average gamer this will be a solid must play. Unfortunately it is NOT A BUY but a RENT. For the comic fans though, BUY this ASAP.
