Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

The Marvel Civil War is perhaps one the most memorable stories in recent memory and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 loosely follows the events of that epic struggle. You'll hack, slash and web sling your way through various areas like Latveria, New York City and the African nation of Wakanda as either the Pro-Registration or Anti-Registration side. But not all is well with this tale as the game does suffer some frequent frame rate issues, the occasional glitch, and an oversimplification that hinders what could have been the best Marvel action RPG to date.

The story in MUA2 is an amalgam of two separate plot lines in the Marvel Universe, The Civil War mini-series and The Secret War mini-series. Vicarious Visions has done a wonderful job at combining both mini-series into one cohesive story, but comic book fans may not be appreciative of the liberties that were taken in order to get that story to fit within the confines of the game. The story is played out in three acts: Act I begins with the Secret War and events leading to the Civil War, Act II is focused solely on the Civil War, and finally Act III is supposedly dealing with the aftermath of the Civil War.

The story begins with your team being lead by Nick Fury, in an unsanctioned covert attack on Latveria, in order to bring down Lucia von Bardas. For those who are wondering why Dr. Doom is not around, it's because at the conclusion of MUA he was suffering eternal torment at the hands of Odin for stealing his powers and almost destroying the world. A year after the events in Latveria, Lucia von Bardas returns with a devastating attack on New York City, and in the aftermath, the government begins contemplating instituting the Superhero Registration Act; thus begins the events leading to the Civil War.

The story in and of itself is good, but feels a tad disjointed when the events that lead to Act III unfold. A big selling point for MUA2 has been the Civil War, but this portion of the game only happens in Act II. What's really disappointing is that Act III focuses primarily on trying to defeat the nanit infected army of the Fold that were used in the Civil War, but there is little impact to choosing a side because both Pro-Reg and Anti-Reg forces ultimately join sides to face this new enemy. The other problem is that no matter which side you choose, they play out in almost the exact same way. There's really no reason for playing through the game a second time.

Gameplay is nearly identical to that of MUA - you have a light attack, a heavy attack, can grab opponents and pummel them and you have access to four super powers. This is where the oversimplification will bother long time fans of the series. Gone is the multitude of super powers that were at the disposal of your hero in MUA, instead you have four and only four powers, each mapped to a different button on the controller. What's worse is that many of the Super Heroes play similar to each other because of this. Gone too are the various loot items dropped from boss fights, a staple of the series since X-Men Legends. No longer can you customize each individual hero with loot, but instead you have what are called boosts. You can equip up to three boosts at a time, mixing and matching as you please, and the boosts affect your entire super group. Boosts can be obtained in a number of ways: from defeating bosses, accomplishing heroic deeds and some can be found in random areas.

Even with the limited number of super powered attacks, the combat is still a whole lot of fun at times. You can do combos by mixing light and heavy attacks, but the meat of the combat in MUA2 are the super powers. The animations and effects of many of the super powered attacks are wonderful. Early on you'll learn that many of the environments have various destructible items scattered about that can be used in combat as well. There are few things as satisfying as seeing the son of Odin charge into a group of enemies, sending them flying in all directions, while simultaneously laying waste to boxes and crates and anything else unlucky enough to get in his way.

The lack in variety of super powers coupled with some balance issues does hamper the combat some. Most of the characters are balanced, but a few are fairly underwhelming. Luke Cage, Venom and even Ironman are not as strong or interesting to play as one would hope. On the flip side, Thor is truly a god in MUA2, and newcomer Songbird has some really devastating attacks at her disposal. This leads to the problem of the game becoming a button masher once you have found that certain combination of characters and attacks that seem to work best. The AI controlled teammates can make things complicated, too. At times they will get stuck on something in the environment and be unable to move, or they will be caught in an endless animation loop running across your screen. Then there's my personal favorite, when an AI party member decides not to attack and contributes nothing to the fight whatsoever, something that happens on a consistent basis in MUA2.

The biggest and only real addition to MUA2 is the Fusion Attacks. You will gain something called Fusion every time you attack an enemy or an object. Once your Fusion meter is full, hold down the left trigger and press the corresponding button for one of your three teammates to perform a spectacular super attack. There are three types of Fusion attacks - Target, Guided and Clearing. Target Fusion attacks are just like the name implies, you unleash an attack on a target and a small area around them. Guided Fusion attacks are when you and another teammate steam roll through anyone and everyone that stands in your way. Clearing Fusion attacks will attack any enemy within a certain radius around the player and are best used when heavily outnumbered. The Fusion attacks are great to watch because they look splendid and cause loads of damage to enemies and the environment. But it doesn't take long to discover that there is little variety with the Fusion attacks as they do become repetitious. Spiderman will always perform the same clearing attack not matter who his teammate is, same with Jean Grey and Target Fusions or Captain America and Guiding Fusions.

Visually, MUA2 is impressive and a vast improvement over the first game. The character models have a stunning amount of detail as you can practically see the stitching on their costumes. The outdoor environments are wonderful - Latveria is a dark, dingy, cold and uninviting place, Iceland has beautiful snowy forests, and Wakanda's lush green jungles are all magnificent. As beautiful as the outdoors are, the indoor areas are on the bland side and not nearly as bright and colorful. Regardless, both indoor and outdoor environments have an incredible amount of detail, character models are great and animated well, and the effects of most super powers are equally impressive.

In general I found the difficulty to be all over the place in MUA2. Some parts are laughably easy, and other times, like when facing some of the mini-bosses, the game gives you a virtual swift kick to the groin and laughs at you. A lot of this has to do with your AI controlled teammates. Not only do they tend to stand around and watch, but they like to charge and engage enemies in melee combat rather than use their awesome super powers.

MUA2 does feature up to 4 player co-op either local or online with Xbox Live. Playing co-op would be the preferred method due to the computer AI issues, but that’s easier said than done. The first problem that players will run into is that there is no browser to find co-op games, instead you either join a random game or need to have friends that you can invite to a game. Then there’s the little issue that come from the Gamestop pre-order bonus character, Juggernaut, if you have him then you cannot join a game if the host does not, something that should have been worked out long before release.

There are a few extras found in MUA2, including collectables such as artwork, simulator discs, dossiers and audio recordings. In MUA, simulator discs were specific challenges for specific Super Heroes. Once completed, you were awarded by how well you performed with a bronze, silver or gold award. In most cases a gold award would net you an alternate costume for that particular Super Hero. Those who have played MUA will be disappointed to know that there are now only 12 simulator discs, and they are generic, dull, uninteresting and often too difficult to play through for such little reward. Speaking of alternate costumes, those have been trimmed from the 3 that you could gain in MUA down to 1. This would not be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that most of the alternate costumes are outright hideous.