Customer Reviews

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

What new buyers may not know is that Activision has removed and canceled their DLC support as well as terminated (allegedly are moving) their online servers for this game.

No. 1 the DLC. Activision released this statment:

"The Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Downloadable Content was a limited time offer, expiring on December 31, 2009."

What this means is that their DLC packs featuring Juggernaut, Psylocke, Magneto, Carnage, Black Panther, and Cable are no longer available.

What's worse is that people who have downloaded these characters before will not be able to join you online because you would need a patch downloaded by Activision to join their missions, however Activision has also removed that patch which they do not host anymore.

So whoever buys the game now, cannot only download the extra characters mentioned above, they cannot also play alongside players who already own them.

To add insult to injury, Activision added Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophy Support for the 6 characters above, but since you won't be able to download those characters, you will be stuck at 1000 out of a possible 1250 achievement fulfillment.

However, Activision's statement above was also a lie. The DLC mentioned above was released in November of 2009. Activision released this statement on January 6th, a whole week AFTER the service had already been canceled. Meaning, there was no consumer warning about this at all for their loyal fans. Also, the content was removed at least a week before the 12-31-2009 date they stated. I checked on 12-26-2009 after I had received some points for Christmas the day before, and it was no longer there. Some people on Activision's message boards have said that it wasn't already available even before Christmas.

The online servers are currently down but said to be temporary as they are trying to move it to another server. With what's been going on right now, I wouldn't be surprised if Activision just continues to axe its fans, and this too was just later canceled.

Activision has dropped the ball on this game big time. Just Google this mess, and you will see for yourself.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Pros:
- button mashing as well as well thoughout button combo mashing is just as effective (easy to pick up and put down)
- you feel compelled to play it twice to experience the entire storyline from both sides as well as unlock all the alternate costumes
- 23 playerable characters + more I'm sure on the way through downloable content
- if you're a fan of the Civil War Marvel storyline, you'll love this
- great fun with 4 players
- graphically a great improvement from it's previous incarnation

Cons:
- sometimes the camera angle will be against you
- you must play it through twice to unlock every alternate costume (once anti-reg, and one pro-reg)
- there's only 23 playable characters, downloable content will probably cost some extra $
- If you're not a fan of the Marvel Universe, you may not enjoy this as much as the next button mashing game
- no bad in single player more, but unless you can team up with friends in multiplayer, it loses it's replayability after you beat the 1st time through
- If you're looking for an entirely new experience from it's previous incarnations or similar games, don't expect too much other than better graphics and a more well developed storyline.

Over all I enjoyed it a log, I was glued to my seat for about a week playing it. Going back to find hidden bonuses and power ups in the simulator mode which allows you to redo missions much like the xmen's danger room. The cast of characters certainly makes it a lot more fun, and team bonuses depending on which character combinations you pick reward you for having say all women on your team or all xmen etc.

It looks like the left plenty of room for downloadable content in the future, be that more playable characters, more alternate costumes, and/or additional mission packs. I'd recommend you play this with friends. Multiplayer games are always more rewarding when played together. If you're not a big Marvel comic book fan you may not get as much entertainment value out of this, but if you are and a True Believer, you'll certainly appreciate the all the game has to offer and maybe more.

I really wanted to love this game. After playing Batman, I really really wanted to love this game. But...after putting about 6 hrs worth of work, I like it. MUA II is pretty much the same game we have played since X Men Legends for PS2. That's not to say that it's a bad thing but after 6 years and four games, the formula hasn't changed all that much. So this time around for all of you Marvel-heads that have kept up, teh Civil War story line gets played out in this game and so far with very little deviation it plays pretty closely to the storyline and that is a big plus for this game so no worries there.

What I would really advise (and the game does this as well) is once you reach the point where you have to choose sides, save your game because for those of you who choose to go back and play as the opposing side of your choice would probably not want to go back and grind out from the beginning to reach that point.

For many of you that already know about the split and other minutiae of the game I won't bore you with what you all already know. But, how does it play? Well, if you played the other 3 then it's pretty much the same fare. Choose your teams and go for broke. Most of you already know about the cusomizations that you can do for your characters but what about the Fusions? it's really the only new thing that Activision added in this year and some are pretty cool and some are forgettable. So far, I have seen 3 different types of fusions and they work as follows:

Guided - means you guide your Fusion to the target(s)
Clear - A wide angle fusion which clears out an area of baddies
Targeted - a fusion that hits a target that you specify.

What I did notice is that while some are indeed unique, there are some that are the same no matter which combos you use. Example: Gambit fused with either Juggernaut, Luke Cage or the Thing give the same fusions. Beyond that however, at least you don't have to learn an impossible button combo to execute. Just make sure you are using the right ones for the job especially boss fights.

The boss fights are a bit more fun this time around as in some cases you have to really use your head instead of jumping straight in pounding away and getting beaten in the process. I would say out of the four bosses I have encounted (I chose Anti Reg BTW) von Bardas and Bishop's fights were satisfying.

One more upside is that the graphics have improved quite a bit BUT...camera angles still suck and it's quite easy to lose sight of where you are in a mob. This is something I was hoping addressed from the last version. One small item I did note was how they used the fonts from the comic which really added to the attactiveness to playing a game based on a comic story.

Another downside is that the voice acting is not great at all altho the lip synching has been fixed and some of the CGI cutscenes could have used a little more life to it. Not to mention there is one somewhat corny cameo by Stan Lee I think we could have done without. I am really waiting for the day they could take the CGI work from those scenes and use it IN the game...heh!
Also you would think that now games are doing full on voicework (like Mass Effect) with a lot of RPGs now, having simple boxes to pick from and no dialogue to accompany it is so last gen.

As far as sound effects, the game sounds really good and on a good surround system it's incredible especially when you have characters like Juggernaut stomping around on screen.

Also this time around, the alternate costumes are mostly gone and you only get (so far as I have seen) one for each character and they don't augment their ability like they did in the last game. I think this was a bad move and I hope Microsoft and Activision don't try to nickel and dime fans by making it a paid ietm via DLC.

There is a lot of replayability to be had because of course you have 2 sides to play and also a lot of unlockable content so fans of this game will have many hours of play before they find everything and then of course multiplayer is included (something I plan on trying over the weekend) and is pretty much lag free and also allows players to jump in and out of games with ease.

Lastly, the big question: Is it better than Batman? No for 2 reasons.
For one, most of us know the story of the Civil War whereas the Batman story was an original creation.
Secondly, MUA II is a mostly been there and done that whereas Batman altho taking cues from Bioshock is a somewhat fresh concept on how the Batman game should be made, so IMO, it's kind of hard to take a game with 4 iterations to date and rank it over a game that finally got the overhaul and new feel that it needed.

In the end, this is a no brainer for comic fans, Marvel fans specifically, but you may find yourselves really wanting more out of this and praying that if there is a Secret Invasion or Dark Reign game in the next few years, Activision simply won't rehash this game.

This game is a total blast. I played through it once when I got it, purchased the downloadable extra characters, and played through it again on the hardest level. I had a blast. I have been an X-men fan for as long as I can remember, so I played the game mostly with characters from the X-men universe (Wolverine, Storm, and Magneto are very good additions to your ultimate alliance). So I can't speak for how well all the characters work in the game, but I can tell you there are A LOT of teams you can make and try out.

If you played Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1, the general game play is the same: beat baddies, crack open crates, find hidden objects, level-up your characters. There is an added "Fusion" combo power that uses two of your team members' powers to make an awesome bad-guy smashing attack. Graphics have been upgraded from MUA1. Great story with two diverging story arcs to play.

I am not great at video games (generally speaking), and I hate jumping-at-precisely-timed-moments-to-avoid-bottomless-pits-only-to-fail-and-restart-the-whole-level genre, So I LOVED Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I play to relax and have fun not for frustration-induced stroke. MUA2 is wonderful game that has challenges without headaches. I loved it so much that I bought my brother a copy for Christmas (2009).

Here is the big problem I have with Microsoft and Marvel about this game. I have the downloadable characters, my brother does not and CAN NOT: after January 1st (2010) the DLC was no longer available on Xbox live. So my brother and I can NEVER play this game together over xbox live because we do not have compatible versions of the game. Were I to delete the DLC from my xbox 360 (to mike mine compatible with his), I would not only NOT have the extra characters, but could NEVER GET THEM BACK because they have been removed from xbox live. So if you buy this game and your friends and family have had the game for a while, check with them to see if they have the downloadable content. If they do, you CANNOT play with them over live (you guys can of course share a console--the local multiplayer is fun too, but not possible if friends and family live far away)

Are you a Marvel fan? Did you like the first Ultimate Alliance? Then you would probably like this game, but don't buy it!

Activision had offered their DLC for this game for a whole 4 months, and then pulled it from both Xbox Live and PSN. So, if you wanted to play as Cable, Psylocke, Magneto, or Carnage, now you can't! Ever! Furthermore, the teaser packs for the game were pulled as well, so say goodbye to playing online with pals that already downloaded the content. Activision basically saw some of the mediocre reviews out there (see other reviews from Amazon customers...) and decided to kill this game. There will be no more DLC and the player base is severly divided. I actually was 'lucky' enough to get the DLC, but now I can't find anyone online to play with.

If you don't care about DLC, then this game is good fan service for the Marvel Universe, it has a competent story, and plenty of hero-on-hero melee madness. Consider buying the first game, which has more characters, unlockables, and has a bit more freedom in how your heroes powers are developed.

I've been looking forward to this game since I first played MUA1 (my ATF game). I probably should have known better. The online hype machine was in full-effect early, but pre-release game review or demo DL never materialized. I was expecting another Epic experience, including a full spectrum of characters produced by a team that truly understands/appreciates Marvel history... but I came away unfulfilled.

Essentially MUA2 is a stripped down version of MUA1. You'll read a number of supporters (whom I suspect could have been compensated) tout the improved graphics. I notice no such improvement, primarily because I can't see what's going on half the time. It's often hard to discern where your character/s are on the screen or what is actually happening. Lots of explosions and no real story, ergo my bad hollywood sequel analogy. Ofcourse this sequel doesn't include the starring/returning cast (voices). I'm not sure what happened here, but it's not the same studio/team that brought us X-Men Legends 1, 2, and MUA1... and it SHOWS.

Disappointments include:
- Fewer powers (from 8 to 4)
- Fewer customizations (a maximum of 1 alternate costume per character, which has no effect on powers/abilities)
- Enhancements locked out (depending on Pro or Anti-registration)
- Many characters locked out for much of the game (again depending on Pro or Anti-reg)
- Poor voice-overs for some (especially Spider-man & Thor)
- Powered down characters (I'm usually all for this, but Cap & Iron Man are complete wimps in this game)
- Confusing gameplay... busy effects, and hard-to-differentiate characters leave you hitting buttons and hoping for the best
- HORRIBLE camera that only works 25% of the time
- No on-screen Map
- Non-playable guest 'ride-along' AI characters... a nuisance which often look just like the 'bad guys' you're supposed to fight
- Missing favorites (e.g. Cyclops & Spider-woman)... I admit many people didn't like Spiderwoman as much as I did
- Returning favorites who who are now less enjoyable (since 4 past powers no longer exist)
- New characters: Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Penance??? does anyone really care about these guys?
- Enemies: Soldiers, robots, and more soldiers. BORING as heck. No sign of the refreshing variation of Asgardians, underwater battles with Atlanteans, Arcade clowns, etc
- UI displays powers as A,B,X,Y instead of some graphic to remind you what each does during game-play
- DLC content more expensive. MUA1: 500 MS points for 4 characters or 800 MS points for 8 characters. MUA2: 800 points for only 5 characters... and 2 of those are Black Panther and Cable, sheesh!!!
- Boring Boss battles. No chance of facing off against the classic X-men here
- SHORT. Feels about 30-40% shorter than MUA1, but in all honestly I kinda wanted it to end already.

Few bright spots:
- New playable characters: Jean Grey (Phoenix), Green Goblin, Songbird, Juggernaut
- Online multiplayer allows you to use previously saved (offline) attributes

Overall, it seems that Marvel or Activision, or whomever cut corners or just didn't understand what made the first game so great. It feels pieced together, sloppy, and stale. Did they knowingly decide to cut the budget?, or truly feel this was a quality product? I'd really love to see Marvel redeem themselves with a 3rd installment, but they'd first need to understand how this iteration missed the target before I'd buy again.

I had fun playing this game but it was way too short. I was also very disappointed by the selection and amount of characters to choose from. The first Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends 2 had lot more playable characters to choose from. I expected a lot more.

Less characters, missing characters, not enough pro/anti registration chapters, and both paths are the same except for the boss battles and who you can use on your team. Since all of the characters are good guy/hero types, you never really beat any of the opposition boss forces, they take off when they're near defeat. Well, except for Goliath and Hank Pym, who do fall down and go boom. However, none of their background battle seems anywhere near as real or intense as Galactus upon the Skrull homeworld in the orignal, and it's certainly not as long nor as fun as the movie with the Surfer vs. his old boss.
As for characters, Nick Fury the nanite is more like a Borg, and Penance is a very odd choice indeed, Deadpool is sick enough on his own. The one plus is the addition of Iron Fist, who ISN'T in the PS2 version (see below).
There is very little replay value, and on a side note, the PS2 version really got short-changed this time, once again unlike the first, and far better, Marvel UA. Characters are missing, there are no team bonuses...what up's with that, Activision? If you want to make a cheapo version, it should say all that on the box.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is still among the titles that spring to mind when I think about my very favorite games of the last 10 years. It took the extraordinarily fun and detail-oriented action-RPG gameplay of the X-Men Legends series and took it to new heights with dozens of playable characters from every corner of the Marvel Universe with unique abilities and powers and a story that was not only epic enough to fit them all in, but had several possible endings depending on your actions, a customizable superteam option that allowed you to handpick your favorite characters and form a grouping of heroes with their own identity, and much more of the stuff that comic fanboys dream about such as multiple costumes for each character that had varying ability boosts. Surely a sequel would offer even more awesomeness while keeping everything we loved about the previous game. Surely.
Or not. "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" takes a whole lot from us and offers us precious little in return. It's still awesomely fun to play, but the little things that are missing really hurt. Thankfully, the massive Civil War storyline that split the Marvel Universe down the middle over the Superhuman Registration Act translates extremely well to video game form and this title still kicks loads of ass.

So what's missing? Well, there's only one unlockable alternate costume for each character whereas the first had 4. Petty, I know; but how about the over 30 playable characters (on the Gold Edition, that is) being whittled down to 24? 25 total if you got the pre-order code allowing you to unlock The Juggernaut (and I did). Among the MIA are Ghost Rider,Blade, Elektra, Moon Knight, Dr Strange, and Silver Surfer. And not only are they not playable, they aren't even in the game at all. Spider-Woman, Black Panther, and Colossus are present but not playable. And this list of omissions is not counting the amazingly great extra downloadable characters from the last game that were included in the "Gold Edition" re-release of MUA. But at least you get to play as Penance. Because I know everybody thinks "Penance" when they think of the ultimate Marvel superteam of their dreams. Speaking of superteams, that option is completely gone as well. And still no Namor, Vision, or Punisher (yes I know about the licensing thing). And each of the fewer characters only has 4 powers total compared to the original's 6 or so. Also, the totally killer individualized grappling attacks are replaced with generic throws in the new game. As if The Invisible Woman would lift a robot above her head and throw it across the screen. Ugh. In the first game she'd turn invisible and pull a sweet judo move on a confused enemy. That sort of thing was great. Speaking of Sue Storm, I was also sorely disappointed that you can no longer control telekinesis-type attacks the way you used to. Those were my favorite, jerks! And whereas before you could equip each hero with their own set of "medals" which would boost their powers in various ways, this time you may have only 3 equipped. And there are over 200 to choose from. How likely are you exactly to equip a medal that increases your team's fire damage when The Human Torch is pretty much the only character who'd benefit from such a thing? THINK, DAMN YOU! It would make perfect sense if you could equip characters individually, but you can't so what the hell? Lastly, while there are still simulator mission you can play, they amount to little more then time trials. The last game had personalized missions for every character where you had to go solo which was a great feature for learning each character's strengths outside of the chaotic group combat. Those are sadly gone as well as are the multiple endings. A lot to be ticked off about here.

Now I know that is a mighty big list of grievances, but I'm here to tell you that this game is still loads of fun. Here are some improvements. First off, the in-game graphics are amazing. Each character's textures are very lifelike so they look much more realistic as opposed to the comic bookish look of the last game. Second, the voice acting is much improved in that the game doesn't mix text-only and spoken bits as sloppily as the first game. However, in the base sections prior to each mission your character is annoyingly silent when conversing with your allies. However, you do get to choose from one of three responses on any given topic of conversation (one aggressive, one diplomatic, and one defensive) which is a great idea. Also, every character has individualized dialog, which is great. For example, when I was asked to either register my identity and become a dog of the state or escape and fight for freedom for all people, I was controlling Deadpool (my favorite comic character ever) who broke the 4th wall in hilarious fashion by explaining my non-fascist choice of non-registration to the confused SHIELD director by stating that he can always register on the second playthrough. That was killer. Every character seems to have their own personalized reaction to these scenarios which is actually really impressive. You'd have to play through this game dozens of times to see all of the dialogue for every character. I don't see that happening, but it's a nice thought. The Stan Lee cameo is fun. New playable characters include the much-aligned previously-mentioned Penance, Songbird (who is awesome), Jean Grey, Iron Fist, Green Goblin (surprisingly awesome), Gambit, and an all-new version of Nick Fury that does not impress me in the slightest. Hulk and Venom also made it from the Gold Edition, which is good.

Then there are the "fusions". This is the premiere new feature of the game and it allows any combination of two characters to do a team-up attack that combines their powers. For example, Storm might summon a tornado you can steer to suck up enemies while Deadpool tosses grenades into the vortex, Gambit can embed charged playing cards into a chunk of concrete that The Hulk rips out of the ground and then then smashes onto a spot of your choice, or Iron Man can reflect a beam off of Captain America's shield to create a prism effect that takes out all enemies in the vicinity. This is really a great feature. Problem is, there are a large percentage of "stock" fusions that are repeated with numerous character combos. For example, Juggernaut and Thor's fusion is the same as Ms. Marvel and Hulk's fusion and Venom and Luke Cage's fusion and so on. It doesn't exactly ruin the fun, but more creativity would be in order considering they pointed at all the individualized power fusions as being a reason there were less characters in this game.

So basically, if you thought MUA was game of the year material, you are still going to have a great time with this. It's essentially the same gameplay and concept. The story is excellent and being able to choose your path (and allies) makes for good replayability. And can you say "4 player co-op"? Sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Plus whooping Hank Pym is something I've wanted to do for a long time now. Busting a Spidey/Wolverine webbing fastball special into his gut and seeing the giant stumble back clutching his boo-boo was mucho gratifying. Like I said, it's the little things. Sadly, to many of those little things are missing for this to compete with it's predecessor. It's still a great game and if the first one had never come out, I'd rate it 5 stars in a second; but I just cannot abide the massive amount of great features and characters that were dropped from this game. That just should not happen. Ever. Less is never more in a game like this one. I'm definitely playing through it again, but I'm going to wait for the inevitable downloadable character pack. There'd better be Bullseye, Magneto, and Nightcrawler too. And Psylocke. And Emma Frost. Yeah, so I'm an X-Men fan; sue me.

Final verdict: MUA2 is a must-play for Marvel maniacs, but it pales in terms of fanboy wealth compared to the previous game.

I just got this game in yesterday and spent a couple hours playing it with friends. We all had a great time jumping around as Spiderman or Ironman. Have yet to play it online, but local multiplayer is fun. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes co-op games. I don't see it being as fun by yourself, but not to the point where it becomes a terrible experience.