With the huge success and fan base that Marvel Ultimate Alliance brought, it was a no-brainer that a sequel would be coming out sooner or later. This time however, the main developer of the first game, Raven Software, passed the reins onto Vicarious Visions. Under new development Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 set its sights on being bigger and better in every sense, and in most ways it doesn't disappoint.
First off, Vicarious Visions decided to stay true to the comic books and go with the widely popular Civil War story arch which places super heroes on opposite sides, battling against one another over the Superhuman Registration Act. This requires the player to make a choice about one third through the game of either joining Iron Man's team and fight for the government or joining Captain America's team and fight against the government, with each side having three exclusive playable characters. Being taken straight from probably Marvel Comics' most famous series, no one can really complain about most of the story, and I say most because the last third or so of the game is a new story line, made just for the game, that is apparent when that point in the game is reached. The story takes a sudden turn, causing a drastic change in the tone of the game, and goes in a direction that the player can tell was written by the developers due to its over the top feel for the setup of the final stage/boss battle. When the player finishes the game it almost leaves a thought of "...that's it?" running through their head, and if they're a long time comic book fan that's familiar with the story it will just leave a sour taste in their mouth. Although compared to the last game which was all story written specifically for the game, I would still have to say that Vicarious Visions made an improvement. There are moments in the game where the player actually feels like they are in the Marvel Universe and must fight through enemies to save Captain America in time or make a desperate escape from the government, and this is exactly what a person wants out of a storyline.
The visuals are definitely a step up in the new installment. Being developed as an Original Xbox game that was just moved to the 360, the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance wasn't exactly the most cutting edge in the graphics department, to put it lightly, so that kind of made VV's job easier. Bringing in a comparison to all other 360 games, the visuals are a tad above par. It's easy to see when the camera zooms in that the character models received a lot of attention, but sadly the same amount of attention wasn't given to all aspects of the game as seen in the on screen explosions, destroyed debris, and super hero's powers that look extremely outdated. This may seem like a minor set back but when Vicarious Visions promotes the fact that almost all of the environment is destructible the player would think that destroying everything in sight should look good. The fact that the entire team will be either blowing things up or using super powers at nearly all times makes this really noticeable.
The gameplay is about the same as the previous installment. The player runs into a level, beats up the bad guys by mashing buttons, finishes their objectives, gets lifted back to headquarters, gets their new mission, and then starts the whole cycle over again. Even though this is one and the same as the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, VV did do themselves a favor by making each character a unique experience as opposed to the last game in which every character within a category (ie. brutes, focus users, etc.) played the exact same. It's possible to put Hulk and Juggernaut in one's group and tackle the bad guys, pummeling their face into the ground with the jolly green giant, and then switch to Juggernaut and have a different kind of fun elbow dropping people. Adding to the character aspect of the game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has one of the most diverse character lineups anyone will ever see which helps out the fun factor. No other super hero game before this will let the player run through Washington DC playing as Green Goblin, Deadpool, Thor, and Jean Grey at the same time. Even in comparison to the previous installment, this is extremely diverse. The re-playability of the game is also in the improvement. While in the previous installment there was only one linear story line, the civil war gives two stories for the price of one. Once the player is done with their first play through they can restart the game with their upgraded characters and choose whichever side they didn't take during the first run through, or pick the same side if that's what they want.
Other new components that Vicarious Visions added to the game include the fusion system, power buffs, and boosts. While new aspects are always welcome, I feel like there was more the development team could have done with their ideas. Take the fusion system for example. This is the first game to finally do what was promised as far as doing different combination of powers. The other games would just say "combo" at the top of the screen when one target was hit with two different abilities and add 10 damage to the attack. This game actually has a special fusion bar that let's the player take two characters and fuse their powers together to make one "super move" with a special animation and do a devastating amount of damage. The problem I have with this is that after a while I started seeing the same 4 or 5 types of fusions, just different colored. For example, if the player fuses Storm's and Human Torch's power they get a fire tornado, and if they fuse Jean Grey's and Iceman's powers they get an ice tornado which looks about the same just white for the ice instead of red for fire. With around 250 different combination amongst all the characters however, I guess VV had to have some kind of overlap somewhere. The power buffs, also known as passive abilities which are always active, are another addition to the game, although I would call them more of a return since they were present in the X-Men Legends series. There are no complaints here. The buffs only add to the gameplay and help to make each character unique which is the biggest strength of a game featuring 25 playable heroes. The final addition is the boost system. In this game boosts are essentially equipment in every other Role-Playing game. All they do is give the characters additional perks to help the player survive. The difference in this game however is that boosts may be earned by doing special objectives such as defeat a certain number of enemies with a specific character. While some may find this annoying, I found it to be a nice distraction or goal to aim towards to take away from the repetitiveness of the game.
My final, miscellaneous, complaint about the game is the depth of the characters. Trying to take away from the uselessness of the plethora of powers for each character in the last game, Vicarious Visions decided to give every character four powers and that is it. I have a problem with this because yeah, some of the powers may have been worthless in the last game, but they still presented options to the player on which abilities to use. This game gives one for each face button and that's it. I, personally would have liked to see more to give the player more customization over there characters.
All in all, while the game does have its minor flaws, it shines more than it disappoints. Players may find themselves sticking with their four favorite characters but when they realize that every hero/villain is unique they will have a blast trying out all of them. Also, the additions to this game bump it into the above average category but if more attention would have been given to them, the game would have had the potential to be really good. In conclusion, between the storyline, detailed character models and environments, and diverse lineup this game is far from disappointing and will be loved by any Marvel fan. I give it a 7 out of 10.
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It's good to hear it's better than it's predecessor. As you pointed out, the original was good but had several flaws, most notably in the graphics department.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your review I think I'd rather try this one out on a rental basis. While I am a Marvel fan, I'm not crazy about it, and judging by what you say here the gameplay isn't exactly mindblowing. Not to say it doesn't sound fun, but it's just pretty much standard dungeon crawler in a spandex suit.
Overall, though, well-written. 9/10?
I found the labeling of the different character attributes to be entertaining - it seems like VV is so adamantly trying to avoid having their game called an RPG that they tried to change all of the conventional titles. If you call a bird a brickshovel, but you still think of a bird and mean bird when you say it, then you're effectively saying the same thing. Sure, it might be hard to justify a super hero getting new armor or experience levels, but hey: if you can't justify it in your game, then don't include it. Players aren't stupid enough to believe "Boosts" aren't "Armor," and so on - it just seems like changing titles like this to avoid convention reeks of a lack of cohesiveness of design.
ReplyDeleteI liked your heavy involvement of the story; as someone that doesn't read but enjoys comic books, I like overviews like this and yours was clear and compact. Mostly, I just wish I had a 360 now :/ My only real complaint was a slightly-heavy use of "And the player feels..." - but they may not. My experience and interpretation of events might be radically different from your own, so it's a difficult charge to say what "the player" will feel. Changing this even to, "I found that ..." adds weight and credibility, and suggests you're drawing from your experience within the game and your life experience from without. The former does neither, and assumes every player is the same.
I think it's interesting that you gave this game a 7 when you stated that "the additions to this game bump it into the above average category." 7 is average and 8 is just above. So are you trying to say that the additions aren't that good just because they needed more attention and that they could have bumped the game into the 8 range if that attention had be given?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to supporting Daniel's comments, I wanted to write that this is a very comprehensive and thorough review, one that is as informative as it is interesting (and not just because I'm a bit of a comics fan either). As mentioned in response to other reviews, I was curious to see how some would handle game sequels, etc. I mean, if a game is little more than a refinement of the previous incarnation, what more can be reviewed? That said, I think this review provides solid evidence of what more can be written, offering a wealth of perspective on gameplay and story updates, and the ultimate review score fits with the above explanations.
ReplyDelete"I mean, if a game is little more than a refinement of the previous incarnation, what more can be reviewed?"
ReplyDelete-- that's a good question. Should it be written about/reviewed as an independent game, or as a [hopefully[ forwarding of the franchise? You can't expect that every critic will have played Street Fighter II (actually, you probably can, but my meaning should be clear), so it would seem only natural that they write about Street Fighter IV from the position of a newcomer. I find the trouble with sequels and novices to the form are similar.
Further, /should/ games be reviewed by someone versed in either the genre or the field in general over someone that is not? I'm not sure, and I've been wrestling with it for some time. I think that writers and critics new to the area bring a fresh perspective and may pick up on things the long-time writer may miss; alternatively, the novice will also lack as thorough an understanding of just how much the game franchise has progressed since its inception. Sure, both perspectives are valid and have merit - but which should an established magazine/blog/etc strive for?