IGN
We spend a few hours playing Activision's beat-em-up to discover what makes this game a Marvel fan's wet dream.
When Activision's Marvel Ultimate Alliance was announced, many in the IGN office instantly dubbed it "X-Men Legends III featuring Spider-Man." After spending extensive time with the upcoming action-RPG on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, we can assure you that there's more here than just an XML clone. Ultimate Alliance is a Marvel geek's wet dream, filled with both popular and obscure characters and locales. And it has Pitfall. But more on that in just a bit.
Avengers Assemble!
There are more than 20 playable characters in Ultimate Alliance, which allows for a diverse number of possible teams. After passing the Hellicarrier training levels (which unlock a healthy number of heroes for use), you are able to create your own team. We're not just talking about sticking four guys together and coming up with a slick catchphrase (FYI, "Dumbasses, Get to It!" has been taken by IGN). In Ultimate Alliance, you'll name your team and choose a team icon. Who you select is important, because the longer these four characters fight together, the higher your teamwork bonuses. Though you can freely swap in other characters, the more you play with one team, the more efficient your characters become at stomping baddies.
You can choose to use a pre-made
Marvel team, if you lack creativity. The Fantastic Four are available early on, so if you want, you can choose to play as Marvel's First Family. Just as in
X-Men Legends II, if you assemble a classic Marvel team, you get a special bonus. But these hidden bonuses are also determined by the costumes each character wears. So you can assemble the Avengers or you can switch costumes and place Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and another playable character we can't talk about, and you have the Ultimates. Now you're stacking bonuses, as you earn both the teamwork benefits for playing together and a special bonus for playing as the Ultimates. You can still name the team whatever the heck you want, but your team name earns a modifier. So if you are playing as The Cowlickers, you would become The Ultimate Cowlickers.
Does This Spandex Make Me Look Fat?
Each character comes with four costumes, though most must be unlocked through gameplay. Unlike your typical skins, these costumes have an influence on gameplay. Remember how overbearing collecting and managing the numerous items became in XML 2? This time around, items you find (which are Marvel-specific and no longer generic) are locked into your costumes as upgrades. This means you can turn Spidey's Iron Spider suit into an offensive force while making the Symbiote Suit tuned to defense. This way you can switch costumes based on your needs for a particular mission. The costumes make the man (or woman) in Ultimate Alliance.
A few of the characters' costume changes are a bit of a stretch. The Fantastic Four have not had any major costume changes over the past four decades. Each of their alterations is a little underwhelming. On the other hand, Iron Man, Wolverine and Thor have some very distinct looks. It's too bad that there couldn't be a few more costumes for some of the characters. It would have been nice to have 2099 Spider-Man or Age of Apocalypse Wolverine (with the one hand and all), but with two-dozen playable characters, there are limits on how much time can be focused on giving characters different colored Underoos.
Explore the Marvel U
There are seventeen different locations in Ultimate Alliance, each broken down into five or six levels. Activision allowed us to explore five different areas. And though we'd seen most of them in previous demos, this was our first chance to dive in and explore on our own. The game begins on
the SHIELD
The game was in full swing (and our characters at full power) when we crashed the Mandarin's house. This classic Iron Man foe had scores of ninja minions to send at us. Like all of the other levels in Ultimate Alliance, there are several mini-bosses to fight on the way to the final boss battle. This is a perfect solution to X-Men Legends' repetitive thug battles. Just when things are starting to feel slightly stale, another classic Marvel villain is tossed into the mix to liven things up.
In Mandarin's house, we were forced to deal with the Gray Gargoyle, a somewhat obscure baddie from the (huh huh) annals of Marvel lore. He's tough enough to constitute a true boss. Some players are going to die by the Gargoyle's hand (if you get too close, he'll turn you to stone). But that's okay. XML II needed the notch up in difficulty that Ultimate Alliance appears to provide.
We also journeyed to the Underworld in a search for Mephisto. This bad dude (who once held Doctor Doom's mother captive for decades) has a legion of gremlins that you'll battle throughout the hellish world. These little bastards are elusive and if you're not careful, might just hop on your back for a ride. Before we ever fought Mephisto, we had to tackle dark dopplegangers of our own characters. This is a classic comic-book device and finally answers the question: Spider-Man, why do you keep punching yourself in the face? Sadly, a final fight with Mephisto was out of the question as we had our asses handed to us by Blackheart (you may remember him from Marvel vs. Capcom 2). He's a bit of a tricky villain, requiring that you destroy his three Dark Heart re-spawning chambers before he's finally taken down.
Ultimate Alliance's Greatest Pitfall
Perhaps best of all the levels we were shown was Murderworld. Home to the insane
Arcade, Murderworld features carnival-themed levels. One of the larger areas is a giant pinball
game. This gauntlet of murdering clowns and giant rolling pinballs, is as colorful as it is deadly. There are also two more sub-boss fights here. Shocker is surprisingly tough. Who knew he could stand up under the heavy poundings of four spandex-clad men? Rhino is decked out in the Ultimate gear, meaning he is a large, mechanized weapon of destruction in MUA. Both fights are simplistic, but nice diversions from the throngs of killer clowns. Muderworld shines brightest with its clever mini-game. An item needed to progress towards a showdown with Arcade is hidden inside an old arcade cabinet. The heroes must travel inside the game to obtain this item. The game: Pitfall.
The classic Pitfall is perfectly recreated. It's as if our next-gen console suddenly transformed into an Atari 2600. The characters are fully rendered in 3D, with requisite next-gen shine, but the game world itself is a throwback to Activision's earliest days. It's a good laugh seeing Spider-Man leaping on crocodile heads and hopping over rolling logs. Though there are no other Activision games remade in Ultimate Alliance, we were promised there are some similar mini-games throughout that will offer respite from mashing the faces of countless Hydra and AIM agents.
G-G-G-Galactus!
Saving the best for last, we had a chance to play two levels on the Skrull Homeworld. Galactus has come to devour the Skrull capital and it's your mission to stop him. First, you need to battle through the followers of Galactus, who seek to allow their master to consume the planet. The entire time, Galactus is wandering in the background, smashing buildings in search of a Big and Tall shop (he doesn't find one). You can throw objects (and even enemies) at Galactus. They'll hit the behemoth, but he won't pay any notice. This is the World Eater we're talking about. He's not going to be disturbed by a few stray gnats bouncing off his shoulder. Still, it's nice to see that Raven Soft covered such instances. Eventually the characters catch Galactus' attention. That's when things turn bad. You'll need to navigate the environment (filled with plenty of obstructions to slow you down) in order to avoid Galactus' grasp. If he catches you, a mini-game initiates, where you must tap a button (or shake the controller on the PS3) to free yourself.
There's only so far you can run before Galactus catches up to the team. The good news is, Silver Surfer has decided to take his job as Herald of Galactus and shove it. As the nigh-invincible Galactus swings and grabs at the team, you're tasked with deactivating three consoles. Once done, you gain control of the Surfer.
You do not get to fly freely around Galactus as the Surfer. Instead, a mini-game initiates, requiring that you hit a series of timed button presses in order to evade Galactus and strike him with cosmic blasts. As with any good boss battle, one hit isn't enough and you'll need to repeat this sequence several times to take down the Devourer of Worlds.
On Tilt
For PS3 owners, the Galactus battle is a perfect example of how the tilt control makes for a unique experience. While 360 owners get the standard button taps to beat the mini-game, PS3 owners tilt the controller to match the commands onscreen in order to defeat Galactus. These are essentially the same mini-games between the two consoles, but the tilting gives far more sense of control. The timing of the mini-game feels slightly off, but Activision still has several weeks to tune before Ultimate Alliance must be submitted for approval for PS3.
There are two more common uses for the tilt control seen throughout Ultimate Alliance. Charged attacks (normally charged by holding down a face button) are charged by flicking the controller downward. It's a bit awkward and the timing isn't intuitive, but after a few tries, it's easy enough to manage. It doesn't seem to add much to the experience, however. You can also use the tilt to toss enemies. Grab an enemy and tilt the controller in any direction to chuck the enemy aside. There are a few powers that use the tilt control in a similar fashion. While the charge-up move using the tilt control seems unnecessary, tossing enemies about is a great use of the PS3 functionality.
Competitive Play
Marvel Ultimate Alliance supports four-player online and offline co-operative play. This is your standard XML set-up, where players assist one another to beat bosses. You can switch to any open character and perform team-up moves with well-timed attacks. At the end of the game, everyone gathers for a big group hug before running through a field of lilies. Co-op is fine if you're the sensitive type (not that there's anything wrong with that), but real gamers play competitively. The new competitive mode takes you through the main story, just like single-player or co-op. You are still a team of heroes trying to defeat Doom and the villains who have joined his nefarious alliance. In many ways, it is almost identical to co-op. But unlike co-op play, where everyone earns a happy ending, competitive players are fighting for points and medals. Points are earned for destroying the environment, defeating enemies (he who has the last strike earns the goods!) and completing tasks. At the end of the level, medals and bonuses are given for the most kills and other impressive achievements. The player with the most deaths (called the Perry Award), loses some points.
This creates a healthy atmosphere for scavenging kills and rushing to complete objectives. Mr. Fantastic is a great scavenger as his long-ranged attacks are perfect for sweeping in at the last moment for the final punch on a boss. This is the perfect mode for those who like talking trash to their buddies. This is the rare game where you and your friends are on the same team, with the same goals, but each working to come out as top dog. Just like a real hero.
Best of all, both co-op and competitive play can be entered and exited at any time. So you can start an online game, have your friends pop in for a bit and then exit after you've schooled them on the ways of the superhero. Unfortunately for PS3 owners, there is no headset support for this game. Feel free to give Sony the stink eye if you don't like it.
Comic-Book Geeks Unite!
Anyone who digs button-mashing action games (there's little of that "talking" crap in MUA), are likely to have a blast with Ultimate Alliance. But the Marvel geeks will have just a tad more fun. There's never been a comic-book videogame with this many characters before. It's insane just how many villains Raven Soft crammed into this game. Ultimate Alliance has M.O.D.O.K. (giant floating head) and Fin Fang Foom (dragon with purple underpants)! Marvel Ultimate Alliance is not a revolution in game design. From what we've played, it's not a major advance beyond X-Men Legends II. It's prettier, has better moves, more characters and some cool touches that should make it superior to its predecessors. For Xbox 360 owners, Ultimate Alliance hits shelves in just a few weeks (October 24). Future PS3 owners will have to wait until November to get their hands on this game. We can't wait to play through both versions and discover all of Marvel Ultimate Alliance's cool secrets.