Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009)

Basis:

Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

Gameplay: 3 /5 Story: 2 /5 Presentation: 2 /5 Difficulty: 1 / 5

I thought that the first game was so much fun. I love the Marvel universe and as I write this I just finished watching The Avenger: Infinity War just earlier today. It was a great movie. What brings my rating down for this title is that it just failed where the first game succeeded. In the first game, the cast of playable characters felt large and was much more diverse. In this one, it felt like you could play 3 different characters and they all felt about the same. The graphics felt very inferior which is funny since I played this game on PS3 and the other one on PS2. The bosses in the first game felt like you were actually building up to a big fight. In this game, the "boss" fights felt super recycled and only about to of them felt "epic". I really liked the quick time events in the first game which the second completely lacked. I also really liked the cinematic cutscenes in the first game which also didn't happen in this one. Sadly unlike most video game sequels this one did not build on what the first did well but just scrapped it for what felt like a much smaller budget game.

Ultimate Alliance 2 was the follow-up to Raven Software's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the third in a series of Marvel games, beginning with X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II. Unlike the previous three games, Ultimate Alliance 2 diverted from the visual aesthetic of the other games, opting to make best use of next-gen hardware. The result was that while the game ended up looking clearly superior to the previous games, many of the mainstays of the series were left behind. The game was noticeably shorter, with fewer dialogues and a story derivative of--yet inferior to--Marvel's Civil War storyline.

Gameplay, still a familiar action-RPG hybrid, managed to innovate on previous games by streamlining powers and experience gain, and introducing a fusion system, by which pairing up two different heroes could lead to dramatic damage-dealing supermoves showcasing the strengths of both characters. While the fusion system was a definite improvement, and the streamlining of powers was helpful for those gamers looking to min/max more efficiently, both contributed to a lack of depth in the game; instead of being able to customize characters in the same capacity as the original, characters felt uninspired, often reusing the same animations or power archetypes for their moveset. Moreover, alternate costumes were limited from four down to two, so while graphical quality dramatically improved on the next-gen consoles, the visual variety of character options was more limited.

Nevertheless, Ultimate Alliance 2 felt much like an improvement over its predecessor. While the content may have been shorter and less complex, the game made up for it in graphical quality, improved voice acting, and a replayable story that felt fresher than the New Game + options from the original. In virtually every aspect, the game felt like a promising glimpse at the future of the franchise--at least as regards its improvement on next-gen consoles. Unfortunately for the previous consoles, which also received a release of the game sporting a previous engine without much inspiration.

What Ultimate Alliance did wrong, though, was never try harder to be bigger than it ultimately was. With the promise of DLC, the game looked like it could potentially have legs to grow. But when no new story options showed up and with limited DLC character options, the game couldn't ever quite coalesce into everything it wanted to be. It was good, but never truly great, and some players felt let down by the overall experience instead of excited for where the series could go.

When Marvel Heroes was released in 2013, many considered the game to be the spiritual successor to the Ultimate Alliance franchise, but with its poor reception at launch, many gave up any hope for the franchise's revival. Being that the game released in 2009, and any hint of a sequel has yet to be substantiated, it seems as though Ultimate Alliance 2 may have been the franchise's last hurrah. Without anything to refine UA2's new direction, the game as it stands operates like a much-needed reinvigoration of the series's various gameplay mechanics, but without any sense of actual completion. The game's story, while replayable, still feels grossly incomplete when compared to the sprawling story of both its source content and its predecessor. If Ultimate Alliance as a franchise were to die out with Ultimate Alliance 2, then the series' end is more a disappointment than the fulfillment of a fan-favorite series.

After the great expansive story of the first MUA, this one seems a bit toned down. The hero roster seems slimmed down, with a lot of the original heroes not returning (including my favorite, Ghost Rider) and the villains seem less numerous too. And you can't use half your heroes for the first act of the game.

They adapted the Civil War storyline quite well, following a lot of the beats from the book, but after a game of killer carnivals, Atlantis riots, space wars, and Asgardian rebellions the more realistic tone of this game comes off as lackluster. I still enjoy playing this game, but it can't stand up to the original.