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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

05:23 / 09.03.07

Anyone playing this? I rented it the other day. It starts off quite strong, with an amazing opening sequence featuring Nick Fury, Cap in his Ultimate uniform, Spidey, Wolverine, and Thor in his Ultimate costume defending the hellicarrier from a Dr Doom planned attack.

After a little gameplay I'm not sure. I haven't unlocked any characters yet. At some points i feel like i'm playing a better graphicked Avengers arcade game from back in the day.

But there's a bunch of little things I like. Characters having four different costumes each, Beta Ray Bill, USAgent. The villians always make me smile when I confront them. Fin Fang Foom?! How cool is that? And then MODOK! Like the designers were reading Barbelith or something.

I'll put in some more hours and see how it goes.

18:04 / 09.03.07

I'd be very interested to hear what you say after a few hours - I hear alternatingly good things and less good things about Ultimate Alliance - good plot, good graphics, but possibly pretty repetitive - and I'm intrigued, but not intrigued to splash out the £20 without hearing what other people think.

That said; Beta Ray Bill! And, of course, Deadpool. I have an irrational liking for Deadpool.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

18:07 / 09.03.07

I played through about 2/3 of it before it succumbed to the effort-to-inevitability ratio that kills a lot of games for me -- it started becoming repetitive work, where it was mainly just bullheaded persistence that was going to win the game rather than tactics or skill.

The first half (up to about Mephisto's Realm) was hella fun, but it just starts to grind after a bit... button-mashing, head-down smashing things is a hoot but starts to get tedious. Nowhere remotely close to Freedom Force for fun super-hero action, f'rinstance.

06:42 / 10.03.07

Man, I've loved this game. Having played through it a few times, I can confirm that it is super-repetitive. The mini-games can be a little frustrating if you've remapped/homebrewed your controller, and some of the models and voices leave a bit to be desired; MODOK was a particular disappointment, but I did like the 4th grade science quiz he attacks you with.

Anyway... I keep playing it because there's a pretty dedicated mod community around the game. Since most of the code is straight from X-Men Legends II, many of those modders have moved on to this. There's a couple of Freedom Force modders there too, repurposing their homebrewed models for MUA. The current focus is on modding a veritable boatload of Marvel characters into the game, although there are attempts to change sounds, missions, and dialogue. Worth checking out if you're playing this on PC, and don't mind a little reading. Check the forums at www.marvelmods.com. Be warned that adding, say, Cyclops to your game will break your savegame compatibility.

07:57 / 14.05.07

I spent most of the weekend (like, 20+ hours - a really ridiculous amount of time) playing this game, and it felt like taking a weekend break in the Marvel Universe - it's a real fun romp and a far better piece of comic-fiction than the Spider-Man 3 movie. I can't really argue with the claims that it's repetitive - it really is just smash boxes/ villains, but it's really addictive, too. Plus the shear variety of places you get to visit helps keep it fresh. When you consider a game like F.E.A.R. lets you spend seven hours shooting it out in the same office block, the consistent changes of environment here helps really keep things fresh.

The same is true of the sheer volume of characters you get to play with. Swapping out all my regular guys for four characters I hadn't played with added a huge amount to the game, and got me thinking about different combinations of tactics, meaning the game was a lot richer than it first appears. Plus it means I got to see the unspeakable carnage that erupts when Mr Fantastic combines 'Rubber Fists' with 'Propellor Arms', leaving me gurgling with delight.

I understand the comment that at times it seems like you're playing an Avengers arcade game, but really I think that's what the game is - a modern version of those side scrolling beat-ups. Basically the same gameplay, but deepened by a RPG element and massive character selection.

So anyway. I really loved it. On the occasion I managed to drag myself away from it I found myself logging on to the Gamespot forums to read about tactics. And then I realised X-bOx live hada downloadabole heros+villains pack including Cyclops, Hulk, Nightcrawler, Venom and Magneto. So I bought that, too, and settled in to replay missions and level up some of those characters. Truly pathetic. If I didn't have a job and a partner, I can't see how I would ever put this game down.

lord nuneaton savage

09:12 / 14.05.07

I agree about the game being repetitive, but did anyone else think that the 'special powers' (activated by holding down R2 on the PS2) were a bit underwhelming? In the end practically everything could be destroyed via button mashing and the lack of clear instructions in the booklet didn't help matters any.

I'm gonna give it another go once I've completed God of War II though.

09:22 / 14.05.07

I didn't even realise how to use special powers until about Act 2, but they're pretty essential from that point on. Some of them - like Mr Fantastic's Rubberband Recoil and Thor's Wrath of the Gods are great fun. Some of them are really naff, though, it's true. Elektra and Blade have got just about the most underwhelming powers imaginable. Some special sword strikes and the ability to throw stars at people.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:38 / 29.06.07

Okay, so I could just about forgive the annoying pointlessness of how easy it is to slog through this game without really needing to think about all the different characters and powers on offer (Wolverine, unchanged since the first X-Men: Legends game which this faithfully copies, still always makes a level easier and it's good to have some ranged attacks, especially ones that don't need to be aimed, but otherwise...) - yes, clearly the absurd number of characters is there for the geeks, and that's it. What really baffles me about this game, in terms of it seeming only half-finished, is the way that certain characters are programmed to recognise each other, yet if you take Dr Strange into his own sanctum, say, and talk to Wong, the first question that it suggests you ask him is still "Who is Dr Strange?" - I mean, how is that not going to irritate the fuck out of regular gameplayers and geeks alike?

Even worse is the fact that after the last level of each of the bigger chapters, you go back to the base for that chapter but the characters you can interact with are all still programmed to think the time is immediately before the level you just played. Is there no such thing as quality control anymore?