Oct 9, 2009

REVIEW: marvel ultimate alliance 2

The Story: It is Iron Man vs Captain America as the heroes in the Marvel universe fight against themselves in a Civil War.

The Good: Fusions - The best thing about this game is seeing how different characters' powers interact. There are a couple different types (guided, target, clearing) to give a lot of variety. Replay value - There are basically two stories in the game (pro-registration and anti-registration) so playing the game again and choosing a different path yields a different story.

The Bad: Venom - What a disappointment! Not all of the characters are unlocked at the beginning of the game. Okay, fine. After defeating Venom once, he should be available...nope. The second time I fought him, I thought for sure I was going to be able to play as him...wrong. It was after the third or fourth time (can't remember if he was thrown in as a mini boss along the way) before he was a playable character! Doesn't Marvel have thousands of characters they could use? Why make us fight the same characters multiple times? Venom Pt II - His voice, his dialogue, his costume, his moves...all terrible! I cringed whenever he was talking in a cut scene. As for the costume, the designers must of looked at the first issue he was a Thunderbolt, made him a little more bulky, and threw in a hundred more bulging veins all over his body (the above pic is his alternate costume...way better!). And his game plan is horrible! His 'special' attacks aren't anything special, his defense is all but nothing, and his fusions aren't interesting.

The Overall: 1 outta 5. After loving X-Men Legends and the first Ultimate Alliance I was really pumped for this game, but it was a let down from the beginning. Wolverine is way too powerful (as always), there are a ton of Spider-Man and X-Men villains alone that I could name that should of made an appearance, and there didn't seem to be any consistency in the levels (from Latveria to another dimension to an African jungle). This video game version of Venom is just as bad as the 'Spider-Man: Friend or Foe' version. I would not recommend this game.