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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review - Xbox 360

Introduction

The Marvel superhero universe is back in action in the second installment of the Ultimate Alliance franchise.Though still published by Activision, the creative reins have been passed to the innovative team at Vicarious Visions. So break out the spandex, select a team from over two dozen of your favorite heroes, upgrade their abilities and combine their powers. The Superhuman Registration Act is gaining momentum, and division is spreading amongst the ranks. The heroes are taking sides in what could be the first superheroes war – which side will you choose?

 

Gameplay

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a third-person, role-playing/action game that hands you control of four heroes chosen from the long list of Marvel Comics’ well-known names from X-Men’s Wolverine and Gambit, to Iron Man and Captain America. There are also a handful of heroes that can be unlocked by finding rare items hidden throughout the game. The story begins with a team of heroes, lead by Nick Fury, launching an assault on Castle Doom. Needless to say things don’t go as planned and everyone ends up back at Stark Tower trying to figure out what caused the unfortunate turn of events. This building will serve as the hub for all your operations throughout most of the game. You can chat to other heroes, hone your skills in the simulator, test your knowledge in a trivia game or chop and change your team of heroes for the next mission.

You can’t always select your favourites, because as the story unfolds more characters become available and others disappear according to the plot. Without giving too much away, the story revolves around the Superhuman Registration Act (as seen in the third X-Men film), which creates a divide between those heroes that support it, and those that don’t. Which side you choose affects not only how the campaign unfolds but also which characters you can play and which upgrades are available to them.

The upgrades section of your heroes really shines, allowing you to tailor your chosen heroes to your specific play style. As you progress through the game you earn experience points for killing enemies. When you level up (which affects all characters, not just the ones you’re playing with), you can upgrade two key areas, the first of which is combat manoeuvres. Each level gives you one shield, which boosts one of your four main attacks. These attacks themselves have a certain levelling system attached to them, and grow more powerful automatically every five levels or so. However, to stop you just maxing out one skill, they are restricted by level locks. Whilst you may have one or two moves you love, you’re encouraged to spread the shields around. The second section is passive skills, which improve your characters’ base abilities such as Focus (a bar used for special abilities that regenerates quickly), melee strength and so on. These upgrades are derived exclusively from experience points, and while they’re not level locked, each consecutive upgrade costs two to ...

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