Marvel action
RPG games have a long and illustrious history that features titles like X-Men Legends, X-Men
Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and now the
latest from Vicarious Visions, Activision (PS3 and Xbox 360) -
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
Join, Captain
America, Iron Man and
other classic Marvel characters as you mash buttons in a wild frenzy,
monitoring health bars and stamina meters while making your way
through dungeons/maps.
Marvel:
Ultimate Alliance 2 takes the
tried and tested formula of taking a team of four heroes into battle
and levelling them up via orbs and XP. This time around however the
game features new Fusion Power moves that allows two of your
characters to unite resulting in one massive attack.
Apart from the
Fusion Powers there
doesn't seem to be anything new to the game, but lots of fun to play none
the less.
For those of
you who aren't familiar
with the Marvel Civil War storyline,
here's the gist - the just-passed Superhero Registration Act requires
mutants/superhuman individuals to register their identity with the
U.S. government or face imprisonment. This Act splits the superhero
community, with pro-registration people justifying the increase in
national security, while the anti-registration heroes see the act as
an infringement upon civil liberties.
So this is where the game splits in two, choosing
Pro-Registration
sees Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, and Songbird lead the fight, while
Anti-Registration is Captain America, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. Some
missions differ slightly but the general layout remains the same,
depending on which side you are fighting with.
However, your objectives change (a Pro-Registration
team might be
tasked with defending certain locations - while the Anti-Registration
team will most likely want to destroy or vice versa). You will
also come across different boss challenges.
No matter
what, you will constantly be
in control of a team of four characters. At any stage during a
mission you can switch which member of the team you're controlling
and most of the time you can even swap in and out any number of the
24 heroes and villains roster that you have unlocked i.e Spiderman,
Iron Man, Gambit and Deadpool, ect.
Ok, so now
that the basic storyline
is out of the way lets get into the game play - the base gameplay is a
lot of fun, especially when your brawling with superheroes. In
addition to the basic light and heavy attacks for each character, you can modify your attacks by
pulling the right trigger, which turns them into a special attack, there are
also grabs, throws and a couple of combos to master.
Fusion
Attacks, as mentioned before,
sees two heroes combine their unique powers to pull off one powerful
attack that deals massive amounts of damage to anything that gets in
its path. Experimentation is key. You’ll find that there are more
than 250 unique variations of the same three basic concepts of
“Clear”, “Guided” and “Target” Fusion attacks.
The
RPG elements of the game has great depth. If you like
micromanagement in a game – there is plenty. Upgrade abilities,
powers, unlock new moves and boosting your characters is featured a
lot. You can make the necessary changes to your characters by using
the Pause menu, or make use of the quick, in-game menu, which doesn’t
let you switch between characters as you upgrade.
Another element
of the game is the
dialogue engine. When you talk to people, you can choose to answer in
an aggressive, diplomatic or defensive tone. This feature has very
little to no effect on the game once the conversation is finished –
which is a little odd. There isn't much quality in the way of
voice acting during dialogue.
As far as
action and game play
I rate this game a lot of fun. The graphics engine and camera weren't
too bad, with only a couple of bugs in terms of camera angles and
floating objects.
I think
Vicarious Visions and Activision
have done a great job in taking over the series from, Raven
Software.
Whether your a
fan of Marvel, played the previous
games or new to the franchise, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is sure
to please.
Now if you will
excuse me I've got some
superhero business to attend to....
