If you were anything like me growing up as a child, then many of your summer days were spent playing with action figures (don't you dare call them dolls!) or pretending that you were a supper hero with your friends.
I believe that this is what Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (MAU2) is trying to capture. While you don't really feel like you are a hero, you do feel like you are playing with little action figures. Even at the ripe old age of 32 this is still a whole lot of fun.
The game's story is based at least partly on the wonderful Civil War story arc. If you have not read this please do yourself a favor and go to your local comic book store and pick up the trade paper back now. The rest of the story is based on what happens post Civil War (not nearly as strong). The basic idea behind the Civil War is that after a explosion caused by a Super Hero/Super Villain fight the government decides that super humans should be registered to use their powers. This would pretty much turn all of the capes into S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. As you can imagine this doesn't go over well with a great many of the heroes. With Cap on one side and Shell Head (Iron Man-post Robert Downey Jr.) on the other you must go toe to toe with a great many of your former friends.
This is really what this game does best. In what other game can you use Spidey to beat down Cable? The view is 3/4 top down perspective. You can switch from not only any character in your team on the fly, but you can switch your entire team on the fly as well. Each of your 4 character team has their own unique abilities they can use, just as in the first game. This time, however there is more. You can perform fusions with other heroes. An example of this is when playing on a team that has both Gambit (one of my favorites!) and Storm. You can summon a tornado that whips around the screen causing damage, while there are charged playing cards being thrown into it creating even more destruction. I had a blast going through all of the different hero combinations, just to see what kind of crazy fusions I could do.
The other new addition is the heal/rez anywhere function. During the course of your battles you will pick up little icons that allow you to heal any member of your team, or bring back a fallen comrade. This is a huge improvement over MUA1 where you were forced to make it to another S.H.I.E.L.D. access point before doing this. Other than the changes mentioned above the controls remain vastly unchanged from MUA1. You access any of the 4 onscreen heroes by using the D-pad. Use A and B to attack, Y to jump, and X to interact with the world. Using any of your super powers is as simple as holding the right trigger and pressing a face button. That's really all you need to know about how to play. Find bad person, punch in face, find next bad person, kick to gut, find next bad person crush with car, etc., etc. Don't worry though, all of that repeated violence is actually really fun. Even if it is the 1,000th time you punch someone, it still feels great!
There are two costumes for each character (there maybe one that only has one, either that or I just haven't figured out how to unlock it). These are obtained by fulfilling the requirements of that character's "Heroic Deeds". Each character has 3 heroic deeds, such as defeating a set number of enemies. One deed unlocks the aforementioned costume and the other two unlock boosts. Boosts effect your team as a whole. These boosts range from greater exp earned to less damage taken from certain types of enemies.
There are also some very light RPG elements to the game as well. You gain exp for defeating characters, answering trivia questions, and generally progressing through the game. For each level you gain you are awarded a point that can be used to upgrade your special powers. The other exp that you pick up during the game is spent on things such as more damage, more health, regaining stamina quicker, etc. I'm usually a pretty big RPG nerd, but I just let the computer auto level for me most of the time and I don't feel that I really lost out on anything.
MUA2 has significantly less characters that it's predecessor does, but the graphics do look much better. I feel that DLC will be a huge part of this games longevity going forward. I expect that there will be much more for this one than the last. There are just too many great characters out there to be ignored. Comic book geeks of the world unite and buy this game. The rest of you "normals" at least give it a rent. Until next time, Make mine Marvel!!
Overall Grade: B
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