Reviewer: Craig Reade
Quick Rating: Average
Rating: T (Teen)
Official Site

In the middle of Marvel’s Civil War, an even bigger threat forces the heroes to overcome their differences to save the world

Platform: XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, PSP
Developer: Vicarious Visions, Savage Entertainment, n-Space
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Action/Adventure
# of Players: 1-4, Co-Op Multiplayer online
U.S. Release Date: September 15th, 2009
MSRP: $59.99 ($49.99 Wii, $39.99 PSP, $29.99 DS & PS2)

About 3 months ago I had the opportunity to sit down with this game for a brief period, and was fairly happy with what I saw. As a result, I was pretty eager to get my hands on the full version of the game.

A car accident, a trip out of town, and a broken TV later, I finally got a chance to sit down with this one and give it a full treatment. Honestly, I am not entirely sure it was worth the wait.

The story is a new take on the Marvel event series Civil War. After starting off with events from Secret War , the plot takes us through the familiar catalyst to Civil War – the Stamford Incident. Of course, this leads to the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act, which then requires you (in story) to choose sides. Will you follow Captain America’s anti-Registration Secret Avengers, or follow Iron Man in support of the act?

Your choice really only impacts about a third of the game (the second of three ‘Acts’) because in the final third of the game, Iron Man’s faction loses control of the nanites that are controlling the Supervillains. The nanites’ network has become complex enough to be self-aware – and the two factions must join forces before the entire world is assimilated by the nanites. A little Borgy, but overall, the story ended up being a lot better than its inspiration was, so that is a plus.

The story does make the game a bit short for the price – the fact that you are supposed to play through it twice (once on each side) is supposed to make-up for that, but there really isn’t much more to be had the second time through. At $60… the length is a cause for concern, and might make the game better suited as a rental or a used purchase unfortunately.

Structurally, there isn’t much that separates this game from its predecessor, or even the previous X-Men Legends games. You still control a quartet of heroes as you make your way through the story, smashing opponents and your surroundings alike in an effort to save the day. There are some significant differences that expectedly come from this new console generation, specifically in graphics and the sheer number of opponents you can face at once. The sheer numbers of grunts you face at one time makes the game a lot more palatable than previous incarnations…. you are supposed to be super-powered characters after all, it really never did make sense that 4-8 normal humans would have a hope of beating your team of four, or even coming close.

That does bring me to something I didn’t expect to talk about – power levels. In previous games, the power-levels of all of the playable characters were somewhat homogenized. It made sense – you didn’t want one or two players to totally dominate the game. This formula worked well in both X-Men Legends games and in the previous Ultimate Alliance installment. Things are a bit different this time around – the more powereful characters in comics are quite literally the most powerful players in the game. Utilized correctly, some players end up being almost unstoppable in this game. Hulk and Thor can lay waste to entire boards of opponents in a single stroke. Their durability allows them to stand toe-to-toe with bosses that would flatten “street-level” characters like Daredevil. This doesn’t apply to just bricks – other abilities give certain characters a huge advantage. Wolverine and Deadpool) become nearly impossible to kill thanks to their healing factor. Granted, they can’t dish out the same kind of damage that Thor can, but with a little patience you can virtually solo any boss in the game with either of them.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the other characters aren’t fun to play, but if you want an easy time beating the game, team selection isn’t that difficult.

The voice-acting is fun, and really helps the game’s feel. As you fight, every character has a series of lines, battle cries, or sarcastic comments they use throughout the battle. Sure, they aren’t infinite, and they do repeat occasionally, but they do a decent job with the characters and that little touch gives the game a good feel. They aren’t always totally on character if you consider the comic, but the game has a wider appeal than the funny-books, and if you are a little forgiving those few lapses aren’t bad. The ultimate in hilarity comes at the end of the game, when you uncover the Hulk-ku Audio Track. Of course, if you don’t like spoilers, don’t click this, but if you want a good laugh, you have to listen. Stan Lee also makes a cameo as Senator Lieber, and as usual his voice is unmistakable.

Sadly, those annoying HQ maps have made their return in this version – and while you aren’t sent on a series of missions where you have to find people to talk to this time around, you do need to have a certain number of “unique” conversations if you want to unlock achievements. As in previous games, the HQ portion of the game is tedious, and really breaks up the flow of the game. There is nothing about these boards that couldn’t be accomplished with menus outside the normal structure of the game.

There are also dialogue encounters in game, where you are given three choices in how you respond to the character – Aggressive, Diplomatic, and Defensive. Honestly, this system really didn’t add much to the game. You do eventually get some bonuses for sticking to one kind of response throughout the game (getting enough “points” in a certain category to achieve the reward), but the conversation plays out pretty well the same no matter how you reply. I could have done without this feature all together. It adds nothing to the game, and really does nothing beyond breaking up the action.

Power Fusions are the core attraction of Ultimate Alliance 2. They definitely added something to the game, but not in the way I expected. The marketing for this game promised unique Fusion combinations for each and every playable character combination, but that isn’t exactly what we got. There are some basic kinds of Fusions – and they are varied, but they are hardly different for every single combination. Two big bricks will invariably jump up and down in a clearing attack, where pairing a brick with Wolverine will almost always give you some variation of a Fastball Special. Yes, there are different animations for every character combination… but only because there are different characters in every one. But more often than not, Hulk is either jumping up and down or picking up a huge rock in his fusions.

While the pairings themselves don’t end up being as diverse as you might have expected, the combinations themselves lead to important tactical distinctions. There are three different types of Fusions – Clearing, Guided, and Targeted – and each has specific situations they are best used in. Each Fusion has a minimum number of “hits” you need to achieve to earn an health pack (which can be used to heal or revive a character), which result is almost as important as the damage you cause. Targeted Fusions require you to hit a boss or leader, where Clearing Fusions want you to hit a certain number of opponents. It does you no good to use a Targeted Fusion on a board full of grunts, just as a Clearing Fusion isn’t much good when it is just your team against a boss. If you don’t diversify your team, you might find yourself in a situation where you don’t have the right kind of Fusion available when you need it.

Of course the save spots from previous games have been eliminated in this version (a positive change), so swapping out a character is as easy as hitting pause, but there is a small element of strategy to be had when planning your team.

Graphically, the game is a lot cleaner than previous incarnations, the powers look more impressive. But there were some definite glitches, to my dismay. I can remember one in particular when you are in Wakanda, and have to face-off against the Green Goblin, Venom, and a few waves of nanite-infected enemies. I remember Goblin disappearing at one point during the fight – I just assumed he was dead, and I missed the normal “boss-pause.” I defeated Venom, and then fought wave after wave of grunts. Eventually the waves ended up being trickles, and I started to wonder what was wrong. I couldn’t get out of the room, and there was nothing to activate.

Finally, changing my team to include a flier revealed the trouble – close to the top of the screen, the Green Goblin, trapped inside the elevator. He couldn’t move, and nothing I could do pulled him out. I couldn’t see his energy meter, so all I could do was find a flying character with an AoE attack and hope that did the trick. Thankfully it did – but I was at the point where it looked like I was going to ahve to redo the boss-fight, something that was most irritating.

That wasn’t the only example, but it was the most glaring. Another instance occurred during co-op play, when as Thing I picked up a train-car, and stuck it into the side of a cave wall, which blocked the board. Thankfully there weren’t any enemies, and the obstruction was quickly passed, but throughout my time with this game there were several similar instances that added some needless frustration to the game.

Speaking of co-op, I did get a chance to try out the co-op mode with our own Mark Blicharz. What did you think of the multiplayer mode Mark?

 

Co-op play is virtually the same as single player mode. The big change is I was able to throw cars and buses at Craig, which was fun. Sure it didn’t hurt him at all, but having a bus landing on his head was amusing none the less. The game does become more fun with a friend.

I couldn’t agree more – co-op play does add a great deal to this game, for more than the fun-factor alone. The AI for the computer-controlled allies isn’t that bright… having an actual human playing along with you does make your team function that much better. Plus, difficult opponents always seem to target the character you are controlling in single player, whereas in multi-player they actually just target whichever one of you happened to be closest. That fact alone allowed for a lot more flexibility in tactics, and made things a little less stressful.

And I have to admit, I did enjoy setting off ammunition piles on Mark… who wouldn’t? 

Though if you do play online a headset is needed or you’ll end up saying to the TV “Why is he going the wrong ******* way?” often as I did with Craig.

This is a must. You don’t have to have the headset, but it is better to have one, simply so you can tell your ally what the heck is going on. In this game it can be easy to get turned around, but sometimes one of you will want to go for the main objective, while another will want to go towards an optional objective or a hidden Rune or something to that effect, and you end up with the inevitable tug-of-war.

If you plan on playing any game co-op, get a working headset. That’s just common sense! 

The biggest downside is if you have Juggernaut and the person playing with you doesn’t, he/she would have to download a patch first. Overall the co-op is much more fun than the single player and is the way I’d recommend this game. Solo the game gets repetitive very quickly.

Once again, I have to agree. This game is a lot more fun in co-op. If you have that option available to you, take advantage of it.

I am not sure if this is the case on PS3, but it is definitely true on X-Box. This does lead me to wonder if that will be the case when DLC characters like Carnage become more commonplace, will you need a patch for each of them? This problem does end up highlighting a problem I have with online content – you should get the entire game when you pay for it. The game cost $60, and was actually kind of short for the price. Instead of working on more content, the developers had to spend time prepping a DLC Pack that included more characters for later, on top of “Exclusives” like Juggernaut if you pre-ordered at Gamestop, or Blade and Cyclops on the Wii. The DS version of the game even has a playable She-Hulk! Exclusive characters and post-release downloadable content have hurt the gaming industry, and this game is a good example of that. We paid for the game, give us the whole game! But I digress.

Where this game is simple, it shines. In many respects, this is as close to a modern sidescroller as we will ever get, but for some reason Activision keeps wanting it to be more, to its detriment. You still have some control over how your character levels up if you so choose, but there is a default “Auto-upgrade” mode which is nice, but not quite enough. The RPG elements of the previous game and X-Men Legends were the biggest weak-points, yet they continue to plague the franchise. This game is a smash-em-up, outside maybe making the characters more powerful as they progress through the game, there is no reason at all to go into any detail with customizable stats and power levels. Pausing to level your character breaks the flow of the game and adds nothing to it in the long term. The same goes for the wide array of team-bonus levels you earn and can use in this game. They add next to nothing to the gameplay, and ultimately end up being a distraction that breaks the flow of the game. In almost every respect, this game would become worlds better if it embraced what it was, and stopped trying to be an RPG. Giving the characters a basic power-set that stayed uniform throughout the game, eliminating needless bonuses (pretty much everything except the perks you get for using the Fantastic Four together, for instance) and upgrading, and cutting out those obnoxious Headquarters maps all together would make this game miles better than it is.

Even with the flaws, this is a fun game – I’d even go so far as to say it is better than the predecessor. Ultimately, though, this game would be ranked much higher if the RPG elements, HQ maps, and Diplomacy Conversations were removed – essentially this is an outstanding game with a bunch of extra stuff added that isn’t so good. If you enjoyed the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game, you are sure to love this one. Heck, the Slingers fan in me is happy – at the very least Prodigy is in the game, and a boss to boot! If only we got Speedball instead of Penance…

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