Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review page 2

15 Oct 2009 at 10:27:14 by Spanner Spencer
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Along the way you unlock a huge number of beloved Marvel characters, with the ability to swap your quartet of superheroes as you battle your way through a good seven or eight hours of gameplay. The RPG aspects also allow you to upgrade those heroes; both individually and in their abilities to operate as a team. While it's very much a one-character game, interaction between the superheroes is brought to the surface, and building up that team's resistance to certain kinds of attacks, or increasing their group intelligence so all four members remain as active and helpful as possible is an interesting tent pole holding the fighting aspects aloft.

In fights, you build up a fusion meter, which allows you to combine the powers of two members of your team into a super attack. Essentially this would be a smart bomb in any other game, but the extra control and option between different types of fusion attacks (targeted or clearing) means you can be quite specific about how you apply your powers, depending on whether you're being overwhelmed by minions or teaming up against a super villain.

Which, finally, brings us around to the fighting mechanics. Unfortunately, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 falters here, as it reverts to the rather brainless button mashing of its predecessor. Very basic combos can marginally speed up the time it takes to thrash a handful of henchmen, but you'll undoubtedly find a system that allows you to slap the controller without care, to maximum on-screen effect.

And as spectacular as the game looks, the camera work does nothing to improve the anaemic fighting system. The environments are far more expansive, varied and detailed than the ones we saw previously, with sprawling, destructable cities and ominous underground lairs aplenty, but viewing them is the stuff of migraines.

The scenery regularly blocks your view of the action (just as well that you can carry on randomly button mashing without too much concern of being killed), while the locked camera during the fights often leaves your superheroes so far in the distance it's almost funny - assuming your blows are landing simply because of the ‘zapp' ‘kapow' sound effects and scurrying activity of the armoured ants way off on the other side of the battle.

Coupled with the mood lighting, unless you choose a very obvious character like The Thing, telling the difference between the hero you're controlling, the other members of your team and the throng of enemy drones is nigh on impossible. The ambiguity of the fighting mechanics means this really doesn't matter too much, since the button mashing takes care of things whether you're watching or not, but it's hardly a plus point for the game that you can watch TV at the same time as playing and not miss anything.

But - and this is an important but - as uninvolved as the fighting sounds, the combination of fascinating experience building, RPG elements and a great, Marvel-worthy storyline really do go a long way toward salvaging Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and even manage to make the brawling quite solid and enjoyable.

It offers little in the way of intellectual challenge, but for a Sunday morning/afternoon hangover distraction, this game really does come into its own. Its shallow depths are noticeable when you consider that Thor and the Invisible Girl are essentially the exact same character from a gameplay perspective, but followers of Stan The Man will struggle not to find some part of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 endearing.

In the end, this is a beautiful looking, action-packed game featuring all your favourite superheroes, and manages to throttle just enough quality from its stronger parts to camouflage the tedium of its mindless button mashing.

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