Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Posted on September 19, 2009 at 09:29 PM.

(5)

I've posted some impressions in the forums already but I'll put some greater detail out here for my early impressions. I must say I haven't gotten overly far in the game, probably about 2 or 2.5 hours in to the story but have done those parts over at least a few different times. I've had some issues with the autosave saving over some files (both myself and my son had campaigns going) so I've seen some things at least 4 times. Use the manual save when you have the game!! Autosave may be deadly! I also restarted on Super Heroic difficulty level as the game is a bit too easy and I think everyone would find that level challenging but fun and still not frustrating. Anyways, here are my initial thoughts after close to 10 hours of playing together with my son, by myself and also with a 4 person co-op for an hour.

The graphics are a lot better than the first game although I find the audio seems to jump volume between stuff (too quiet and too loud depending on cut scenes). I do turn up the character voices and turn down everything else a bit to hear the characters easier during the fights.

The sequel is largely the same as the first game plus fusion powers so if you like the first game, you should like this game as well. I must say the Fusion powers do add quite a bit to the game. Quite often the bad guys will swarm you and it's great to use a Fusion power to wipe them out. For those that don't know, there are 3 fusion powers: clearing, guided and target. I don't use guided too often which is a decent fusion but I stick to clearing which does a smaller amount of damage but a large area. Perfect for clearing out the ton of drones that can overwhelm you at times. The target is good for bosses to isolate one person and do a lot of damage. Lots of different combos between characters but it can be hard to pick the one you want since the action is usually nuts and I hit the L2 button and quickly scan my teammates to see which fusion effect I can use (it will show Target = circle, Clearing = X, etc. over the guy's heads). You can load up to two fusions in your meter at a time from beating up bad guys so it's definitely something you need to save when you really need it since you can't just do them whenever you want.

The story is done well too. They really did spend a lot of time on cutscenes, the characters and voice overs. I'm still early in the game but this looks to be a nice improvement over the original game.

My team is usually a flying guy, two medium guys and a slow but strong guy. Thing is perfect for my strong guy and I will gladly use the Hulk there when I unlock him legitimately (he's very similar to the Thing if you use the Hulk cheat). Wolverine is always a favourite for a medium guy but I will also be using Deadpool when I unlock him soon (my son has him already - did that part legitimately twice due to corrupt save). Captain America is good but I'm souring on him as I'm leaning pro-registration.

Gambit is OK but I barely know him. I love Spiderman from the comics but I don't really like his powers that much. A little too quick and not quite enough of a basher.

For flying guys, there are quite a few to pick from. From the first game to this one I like the Human Torch and IronMan. Both are very similar in this game although Iron Man gets the nod because he's stronger and can pick up cars. But both have shooting powers and a radius power move where they can knock down anyone around them. Storm is cool but I don't quite like her powers as much. She has lighting strike down which is OK. She doesn't have a radius move but does have a powerful wind move where anyone in front of her gets blown away. That is a better move IF you can ensure all the bad guys are in front of you. Ice Man is pretty cool too. I'm going to have to use him more. He has a fusion with Wolverine that leaves ice all over him.

Ms. Marvel looks good and is pretty cool to use. You automatically get three powers with her. Both the Hulk and the Thing have a couple strong smash moves to use right away. Thing's third move is a rampage/charge move. Definitely better than Luke Cage who I know nothing about and isn't as easy/good to use. Wolverine was sweet last time and sweet this time. Quick and very powerful strikes.

I would agree that the difficulty is too easy. I do think Super Heroic is perfect for me right now. That's the hardest difficulty available until you beat the game. I've had one or two people die on me quite a bit but I usually can revive them right away because there are constant heal/revive tokens you pick up along the way (can only hold two at one time). I like the challenge of a harder difficulty set.

Tried the basic simulator today and that was good for teaching me the different combos available in the game. One of my favourite moves is just grabbing a drone, then giving him two light shots and a heavy shot while holding him. That easily kills them on the lower difficulty levels but doesn't usually finish the job on Super Heroic. Luckily a quick (light attack) foot stomp on them after you toss them will take them out.

Definitely liking this game so far. If you liked the first game you should own this one. It's a nice change of pace from sports games and I love the freedom of playing 20 minutes or 2 hours. It's not a strategy game or anything like that. It's a full on arcade game full of action that is just fun to play. CFav worked on this game and has also made some comments in the OS forums here: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...iance-2-a.html . Join the party!

Comments

# 1 stlstudios189 @ Sep 19

loved the first game, I still have not unlocked everything yet. I will be getting this game for christmas I think so I will have to wait. Enjoy the game with your son man.

# 2 LingeringRegime @ Sep 19

Thanks for this write up. I never played the first one, but I may buy this tomorrow sometime.

# 3 Millennium @ Sep 20

Great write-up, Rudy. Very good impressions, and I agree whole-heartedly. Love the Super-Heroic difficulty, can't wait to unlock one higher.

BTW - Anti-reg FTW!

# 4 rudyjuly2 @ Sep 20

Thanks guys. This game is fun to play with your kids and doesn't have the gore that the Wolverine game had. That game is something you can't play with your kids.

One thought for a future Marvel game. Currently you can use your powers and they only affect the bad guys. No harm happens to any of your teammates. Maybe that should be more of a factor on a really hard difficulty level. The ability to hurt your teammate.

# 5 rudyjuly2 @ Sep 21

Songbird is really fun to play with. I like what she can do. The game has a nice progression of characters that unlock as you play.