Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (played on the Playstation 3)
Available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii
Players: 1-4
Published by Activision

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the sequel to 2006's Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This time, you are (mostly) playing through two storylines from the comics: Secret War and Civil War. Before its release, the game's developers Vicarious Visions announced that this time the game would be following the popular Civil War storyline, but ultimately the game was a bit of a letdown, in so much as if you played the prior title (or X-Men Legends or X-Men Legends II) there is a distinct feel of been there, done that. This is not to say that the game was bad, just maybe a little too familiar.
You start off with the crew of Iron Man, Captain America ,Wolverine and Spider-Man who are currently being led on a secret mission by the head of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury. The 5 are currently in Latveria operating only on Fury's word that they need to be there. This mission is essentially the training level and set up leading to the drafting of the Super Hero Registration Act. It is not until the super hero group called the New Warriors botch the capture of a super villain (during the live broadcast of their reality TV show) that the Act becomes law, and divides the heroes. Here the player will have to choose a side: go with Iron man and the Pro-Registration heroes, or tell the government to suck it, and side with Captain America and the rebels. ***Spoiler Ahead!!***The game sticks close to the premise of the Civil War storyline, but suddenly deviates from it to a lame one note villain, put there simply for the purpose of bringing heroes back together. ***End Spoiler***

Depending on whose side you choose to take will determine the heroes (and villains) that you have access to through the majority of the game. This by no means dilutes the selection of good heroes however. It just means that you will have to wait a bit to control Mr. Fantastic if you sided with Captain America. No matter which side you choose, you will have access to the new combo this time out, which are the fusions. These are the combination of two characters powers, which when unleashed do a pretty good amount of damage. The powers fall into 3 categories: Clearing Fusions, Targeted Fusions and Guided Fusions. With the amount of heroes to control in the game (25), there are multiple combinations that you can try out, but some of the fusion animations are pretty similar. The game does support online play, so you can get three other buddies and hero it up.

The problem that this game could not overcome (for me) was escaping the feeling that I had done all of this once before. Once again you are in the 3/4 top down format, following your four chosen heroes as you pound on generic soldiers and then participate in a boss battle against another hero or villain (or group of heroes or villains) on the other side, just like in the previous entries. Powering up your heroes is still done by collecting experience from your victories, answering trivia questions and collecting the odd hidden power up icon. The "If it ain't broke" axiom may apply in most cases, but I am beginning to see cracks in the structure. And if there is a Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, (possibly following the Skrull Invasion storyline), Vicarious Visions may need to do a little more than the option of combining powers to save the franchise.

Final Verdict: A good rental, that will fill a good 8-10 hours if only going through it once. Not a hard game by any means. Decent graphics though not groundbreaking. The Civil War storyline is here in spirit, but has been changed from the comics, and not in a good way. Overall, I'd give the game 3 stars out of 5.