Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is an action adventure RPG that incorporates two story lines from Marvel Comics: Secret War and Civil War. The first of three acts involves the Secret War against Latveria, Dr. Doom’s country. Nick Fury, commander of SHIELD, enlists superheroes to invade the nation to take down the new leader in the wake of the supposed death of Dr. Doom. After a retaliatory strike from Latveria on New York City, the federal government decides to enact the Superpowers Registration Act which will force super powered individuals to register their identities with the government. This splits the superhero community in half. The Pro-registration lobby is led by Iron Man while the Anti-registration rebels are led by Captain America. The story is not an exact copy of the Civil War comics it does parallel the premise close enough to thrill fans.

As the player, you will have to choose which side you are on. Whichever side you choose will change how Act 2 is played out. While the game officially has 51 levels, you will only play 39 after making your choose of sides. An additional playthrough on the opposite side will be required to play the other levels.

Just like the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance, you earn experience points to level up your heroes by defeating enemies. All player-controlled powers are maxed out by level 60, but the support abilities will take a bit longer since they require collection of orbs to update. Instead of being able to choose which powers you like to use as you did in the first game you are given four powers that can only be upgraded and not switched out.

Although the four-man fighting style is primarily the same as it was in the first Ultimate Alliance, Vicarious Visions incorporated powerful combination attacks for each character to perform with one another which they have dubbed fusions. There are three types of fusion: clearing takes out an ever growing area from a central location, guided gives you control of the heroes as they run around the room doing damage, and targeted which focuses on only one enemy, but is by far the most powerful. There are almost 300 fusion attacks that can be used with any combination of characters. Using fusions will make the many boss battles easier.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has 21 playable characters that can be unlocked throughout the game, but you should also be on the lookout for collectable audio files, power-ups, and character unlocks. With the collection of 5 of each character unlocks (Asgardian Runes, M’kraan Crystal, and Gamma Regulator) you will gain three additional and very powerful characters. HINT HINT

Multiplayer can played over Xbox Live or on the same system through the same three acts as the single player mode. However, remember that teamwork is the key. Fusions can not be performed with a desired character if that character is being controlled by another player unless both players press the button to trigger it.

The trivia game and simulation rooms from the first game make an appearance. But instead of each character having their own simulation there are only 12 types like protect, destroy, survival, etc.

One playthrough on legendary takes about 15 hours since you will have to play the game at least twice to get all the collectables and levels. Expect a gamerscore of approximately 670 for both playthroughs. Overall, I have you give high marks to Vicarious Visions for creating an enjoyable game.

Tim Fischer
Managing Editor
Gamertag: porkroll1711

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