Marvel: Ultimate Alliance offers a superb gaming experience for both hardcore comic fans and casual gamers.
Those who have played the previously released X-Men Legends series or other series such as Diablo will find the game play and interfaces familiar and should pick up the mechanics of the game almost immediately. Those not used to Action RPGs will also find it relatively easy to pick up within about half an hour of playing time. The most difficult part is figuring out how to navigate through the various menus of the game due to the menu controls being somewhat counter-intuitive, especially in your Hero Details menu (for instance, the Y button brings up details instead of the A button like you would normally assume). However, after a few waves of trial and error, the menus became navigable.
The system for distributing experience points is easy and intuitive, although it will be difficult if you’re just starting out in the game to decide which powers are most effective or best tailored to your playing methodology. Hence, finding the right powers for each of your heroes is a matter of trial and error. All is not lost when you assign experience points to powers, though, because you can always redistribute points to other powers if you find another power to be more effective in swatting down those pesky AIM Troopers or Doom Bots. Each hero has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and nearly all of them are capable of mowing down swaths of AIM Troopers and Doom Bots. In addition, there are special superpowers called “Team Xtreme” powers which can be activated after at least one of your heroes have filled their momentum meters, indicated by a swirling concentric circle around your hero’s status bubble. These Team Xtreme attacks do considerable damage to both bosses and hordes of villains alike.
A unique aspect of the game is the ability to create a superhero team. Not only do certain configurations of heroes grant various bonuses, such as the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, but as you complete quests with your team, you receive reputation points. After every hundred reputation points, your team levels up and you’re given the choice of several attribute boosts. While only members of your team will benefit from these bonuses, you can add as many as ten of your favorite characters to your team after sufficient leveling up.
The game itself is extremely easy to play. The easy-to-use movement and camera controls make it very easy to find a preferable camera angle. At times, though, the camera does tend to have its hiccups, but only in certain areas of the various levels and nothing that cannot be corrected by changing the camera angle. Some of the boss battles have a “fixed-point camera”, reminiscent of actual comic book panels. These “single vanishing point” angles (for those of you who are artists) can be cumbersome to work with, but after a couple of such battles, the controls become tolerable. Attacks, combinations of attacks, and superpowers are very simple to execute and consist of easily accessible button combinations. The game gives you two basic attacks, three combination attacks, two aerial attacks, and four assigned superpower attacks.
Of course, what superhero video game would be complete without flying? Heroes capable of flight or other means of aerial transportation have their own special advantages and disadvantages. Flyers have the unique advantage of being to retreat from a fight quickly and have the ability to access some areas normal heroes aren’t capable of getting to. While flight-capable heroes have the ability to dodge some attacks, they cannot recharge their energy levels while in flight which prevents players from raining a steady stream of destruction from above unchecked. There are also varying types of flying heroes including traditional flyers (i.e. Iron-Man, Human Torch), web-slingers (e.g. Spider-Man and Spider Woman), and teleporters (e.g. Deadpool and Dr. Strange). Thus, the flight aspect of the game is sufficiently balanced such that it doesn’t grant too much of an advantage.
In addition to the main game quests, there are also plenty of secondary quests, secret areas, unlockables, and collectables. Most notable are the comic book missions, some of which may be played with your team while most focus on a single hero. These missions come with their own unlockables, such as alternate skins or attribute buffs. Comic missions can also be used to gather extra experience points outside of the mainstream game. This is useful if you are stuck in a particular area and need some experience point boosts. In addition, simply playing with a particular hero enough will unlock extra skins, which give their own unique stat boosts or bonuses for a certain credit investment. Most importantly, there are several unlockable heroes, such as Ghost Rider, Blade, and the Silver Surfer, as well as purchasable hero packs on the Xbox Marketplace.
The multiplayer modes are fun and easy on both Xbox Live and on a single console. It is extremely easy for anyone to jump in and out of a game in single console mode. However, it is frustrating to play at times on Xbox Live with players randomly disconnecting or leaving. Arcade mode presents a different twist on the game, allowing for a sort of cooperative competition. Standard campaign mode is equally as entertaining in multiplayer mode, but can tend to get repetitive over time. While M:UA’s primary strengths lie in its single player mode, multiplayer has its own unique feel and doesn’t feel like it was tacked on as an afterthought.
Graphically, the game takes decent advantage of the capabilities of the Xbox 360. Individual characters are well-rendered with seamless movement. The movies interspersed throughout the game are well done and very realistic, taking full advantage of the Xbox 360’s capabilities. The game’s environments, while middle of the range compared to graphically powerful games such as PGR3, work well enough to immerse you in the Marvel Universe. The environments have some destructibility and many objects can be destroyed or used as weapons. The lighting is at times not quite on par with many recent Xbox 360 games, but most areas are given the proper lighting for the situation, adding to the immersive nature of the game’s varying environments. Some particularly memorable touches are the visibility of the chain-mail on Captain America’s suit and the detail work done on Deadpool’s blades. Those of you with HDTVs will be happy to know that the widescreen version looks proportional and clear.
Overall, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance offers a well-balanced, almost epic ARPG experience for both hardcore fans of the Marvel Universe of comics and casual gamers. While it has limited replay value, there are just enough Xbox 360 achievements and unlockables to make it worth at least four or five replays in single player mode. The multiplayer modes offer the most replayability, requiring a decent amount of dedication to unlock multiplayer achievements. To sum it up, M:UA is an excellent Xbox 360 game which is well worth the attention of any dedicated gamer, comic book fan or not.