Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

The ultimate team up for the rights of superheroes!

That sounds like a pretty awesome concept, right? If that was the synopsis you first heard of this game and you didn't read comics, it would sound pretty awesome. Does this game live up to that one sentence?
Yes and no. It's definitely not ultimate, but it's pretty cool for comic geeks like myself. On with the pros.

The roster of this game is huge, and although it takes out a few great characters from the first game like Dr. Strange, The Hulk and Ghost Rider, it's all necessary in the context of the story. Now, if you read the Civil War mini-series and played this game, you know that the developers took some liberties with the story (Mind controlling squiggly blue things... I don't remember that), but it mostly stays within the bounds of the awesome civil war story. It may not have the epic ending of the actual comic, but it works.

The gameplay is much like the first game, with the over-head camera and button mashing craziness. If button mashing isn't your style, you probably won't enjoy this game, because it's ALL button mashing. I replayed a bit of the first game and then the second one, and I found very little differences in the core gameplay other then the RPG elements being somewhat stripped down to the bare minimum. (and only 4 powers per hero? Sad face) Each character can use their powers by holding the right trigger and pressing a face button, and most of these look pretty awesome, in particular Penance's B attack and Deadpool's sword attack (either A or B, can't remember) As I said, most of the gameplay is the same, except for the new badass fusion moves. It's when 2 characters pair up and do this room-destroying Devastator, and they're almost always bad ass save for the few that are just two guys running around a room in pairs hitting people. LAME.

Speaking of looks, the game looks pretty good. And when say look, it's great to see the action when the camera isn't stuck behind a cardboard box and you're getting your ass kicked without knowing until your character shouts out something like, "Not to bother you guys, but I'm DYING." and you have to heal him with one of your two health packs. The game has a different art style then the first, going for a more realistic look on al the characters, which is good and bad. Some of the main characters looks retarded (i mean actually mentally ill) like Captain America and She-Hulk in close ups, with their bodies at really weird proportions. What the hell is wrong with Cap's face?! Well, during gameplay that doesn't matter because most character models work great with the characters.

The Bad (most of it was slipped into the above paragraphs...): The game is kinda glitchy and the game in general can get a bit repetitive. It's not nearly as glitchy as all the big sites are saying, with a glitch only happening to me maybe once every two hours, but when they happen they can be really annoying, like getting caught out of bounds and having to start at the last checkpoint. As I said, if your not a fan of button mashing, don't rent this. If your a fan of Marvel but not button mashing, rent this, because the stories told through some pretty cool cutscenes. (But it takes out the big Thor moment in the mid-area battle)

Final Rating: 8