Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

"Marvel's Strongest Lineup Unite To Save Us From Boredom!"

What happens when you force all of Marvels characters to fight side by side to save the world? You get a formula for an awesome game, that's what! Marvel: Ultimate Alliance took me completely by surprise, let me tell you the why's and how's.

Story:
Something bad is happening, a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier has just been attacked by Dr. Doom's forces and Nick Fury has sent a distress call. Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America and Wolverine answer the call and arrive at the helicarrier to help Colonel Fury get the situation under control. After a few minutes of exploring you meet Scorpion who tells you that Doom has gathered some of the Earth's most diabolical men to form a group called the “Masters of Evil”, so you naturally have to figure out what Dr. Doom and his companions are planning and how far the plan spans. Along the way you will encounter loads of famous Marvel heroes and villains and you will get to visit some of the best Marvel places ever created.

Overall the story in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance feels very genuine, it manages to keep you going with interest all through out, and feel like a real comic book story. In many ways Ultimate Alliance reminds me of the classic “Secret Wars” where all the villains teamed up to battle the heroes, because that's pretty much what happens here. Other than that the story is kind of hard to describe, I don't want to spoil it too much so I'll tell you that it takes some very nice twists and turns and I'm not going to say anything more to spoil it!

Gameplay:
The gameplay in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is one of the game's weak spots, because except for the super powers it feels pretty standard. You punch and kick by combining the A and B-buttons and press the right trigger plus one of the four main buttons to use special character abilities when needed. However it's the combining of abilities that make the game really interesting, because Raven Software have obviously put a lot of thought behind the powers to make them feel unique and balanced, and in most cases that is true. However some powers are just plain unbalanced and feel either too weak or too strong for that particular character. This being said the game still manages to keep its character feel really good; some characters are faster than others whilst others are slower and more tank-like in their movement.

The game's camera works pretty well and maintains a pretty good view point from above the characters. This works all right throughout the entire adventure and never really gets on your nerves.

Beside the fact that all the heroes have their unique attacks, you can receive team bonuses by choosing characters that interact especially well to each other. For example if you choose to have four X-Men as your team they will get a bonus, and if you choose Spider-Man, Venom (this combo requires the expansion pack), Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom (again, expansion) you will get an arch rival bonus. This mechanic works really well and testing all the combos is really entertaining, unless you end up with a team you completely can't stand in which case you probably will just ignore that combination completely. Overall the team bonuses add a level of depth to the game's fighting system.

Other than that, the game has a few minor things to try and make it seem new, for example in certain parts of the game there are quick time events that interrupt the fighting to allow you to deal damage to certain characters, get out of the way of traps, etc.

The game also has some puzzles, however the puzzles never really come off as anything special and usually just depend on you pushing a box into a certain position, putting 2 of your characters on different panels or something else like that. So the puzzles never really come off as anything special.

In general Marvel: Ultimate Alliance plays pretty well and reminds more than a little of Raven software's two previous X-Men games, however this is certainly nothing bad and if you are new to it the formula can easily be learned by playing through the game on easy before upping the difficulty.

Visuals:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance suffers a tad in this department, mainly I think this is because it's a game made mainly for last generation that found its way onto the 360 and PS3. The game's visual are decent, but never really make it above that line, but then again they never go below the line to poor either so the game is pretty much decent all through out.

What makes it all feel all right though is that the environments in the game are pretty colourful compared to those in the X-Men Legends-games, which makes you a little more engaged as to where you are going and what you are doing. That being said doesn't mean that the environments couldn't have been better, because they hardly ever strike you as next generation so even though they are colorful they could have looked a lot better on the 360.
Other than the environments the main focus of your Marvel-experience is of course the characters, which honestly could have looked better in most cases. The characters are often so very shiny and look more like action figures than actual humans, now this could be intentional but with the quality of the pre-rendered cutscenes I doubt it. However most of the characters look decent and the character models never go below what feel acceptable. Other than that the game is pretty much a decent game visually and even though it feels all right you can't shake the feeling that it could have been a lot better looking on the 360.

Audio:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance has a lot of voice actors and music that help add to the experience, and even though some of the less important ones come off as sort of stale and wooden most characters deliver their lines pretty well. If the voice actors have any problems it probably is that their catchphrases get used too much, after playing the game for about ten minutes with the same character you will have heard the same phrases probably two to three times each all ready, and even though it doesn't really hurt the overall audio, some more clever remarks would have made it seem a little more natural.

The dialogue in the game is really good though, it gets the comic book feel just right with dialogue that feels kind of cheesy but only in a good way. The game is full of references to old Marvel-moments, and certain characters interact differently to each other so for example if you bring in Elektra to the fight with Bullseye he will comment on how he remembers killing her and wonders how she has come back to life. All this dialogue helps add to the atmosphere and can in some cases even help justify a second play through.

The music in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is also pretty good, it's a classic sort of action music that is pretty expected of a game of this type, it gets the tone of the game done pretty well but sometimes feels a little over the top. In some scenes the music can get so loud that you can't even hear what the characters are saying, this really makes you appreciate that the game has all the dialogue in text at the bottom of the screen. Other than that the music is doesn't really have any problems and mostly works in the game's favour.

Overall:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance takes the formula that Raven Software used in the X.Men: Legends-games and makes it even better by adding a much greater cast of characters, more depth into the Marvel-universe and better environments. The game basically takes all the stuff that the X-Men: Legends-games were known for and improve it in almost all aspects. The gameplay is good, with loads of abilities that are sure to fit everyone's taste in one way or another, and even though some power ups are confusing and contradict some of the other stuff that you might already have “upped” the game has a surprising depth in its equipment and gameplay.

The game is also filled with clever dialogue that any Marvel-fan will love, and most of the character's personalities are pretty much intact in the game. Basically if you love Marvel you will probably love this game as well, if only because of its charm. That being said the game itself is hardly a masterpiece and for non-comic book fans, this game won't really do anything since it lives for its license. So if you loved the X-Men: Legends games, love Marvel and can look past some last generation drawbacks, this game is great and should provide you with loads of fun filled hours!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/07