Lita Ford's comeback tour goes horribly wrong

A year and some change back I happened to pick up the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the bargain bin of my Gamestop.  I was pleasantly surprised, and then my surprise turned to anger as I realized I could have been playing it years prior.  Put quite simply, it ended up being one of my sleeper favorites on the 360.  I've played through the campaign about 3 or 4 times, reveling in the simple yet somewhat deep brawling mechanics and the sheer enjoyment of positively *wrecking* shit with a multitude of heroes.

So when a sequel was announced the preorder was made without hesitation.  I was less than thrilled to find out that the original developer Raven (Jedi Knight: Outcast, Soldier of Fortune, the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance) had been dropped in favor of Vicarious Visions--a company mostly known for crappy DS ports of popular games.  Think the Treyarch to Call of Duty's Infinity Ward.  But buoyed by 3 years of development time and a lot of positive pre-release press, I soldiered on with my optimism.  I'm still not sure if it was warranted.

For those of you who didn't manage to catch the first iteration, or Raven's equally excellent X-Men Legends II on the PS2 or Xbox, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a four person beat-em up.  In this age of gimmck-filled gameplay, it's a return to the origins of our shared obsession, owing to such giants as Final Fight and an eerily similar game called Captain America and the Avengers from way back in 1991.


What?  A completely new variation of control and movement?  Umm...no.  A variety of weapons and tactics to accomplish a well fleshed out and plausible story?  The Hell you say!  Here's what made a "video game" in my day sonny:  There are hordes of bad guys, you use your super strength/mutation/power/affliction/vaccination to pummel them into dust for God, America, and Ronald Reagan.  The End.  After that, if the kids weren't low with the rickets, we read the new serialized Fitzgerald and went to an Ether frolic.  Now get off my damn lawn!
 

MUA 2 continues this long-lived tradition. 

Most of the combat mechanics remain intact from the previous two games, except it's extremely difficult to tell what is going on when you hit large hordes of enemies.  I'm also not thrilled that they took away the option to vary your combos and throws--you pretty much have to do one or the other, there is no in-between.  There is also quite a bit of laziness on the part of the developers in terms of enemies.  Whether you pick pro- or anti- for the majority of the game the enemies are simply re-skinned robots or cyborgs, of which there are only about 5 or 6 types.  It's a lazy solution.


It claims to have 2 different story lines, but in fact it only has one and a half.  The first act is the same regardless of which side you choose, the second gives you a choice between two branching story lines, and then the third act brings everything back together regardless.  The first and second acts are actually quite good in terms of story, and the Civil War storyline makes for some pretty decent drama, but the third act shitcans all that in favor of unifying everything for the sake of the endgame.

This also brings up a big problem I had with the game--out of 24 characters (the original had 25) you only get about 10-14 for the first 50-70% of the story.  In addition, you lose 3 characters on a side when you choose pro- or anti- registration, while also losing a couple more characters on certain maps when it serves the story.  The bottom line is that three years later you actually have less characters to play with.  And story or no, I shouldn't have to wait until the last act to unlock 3 characters.
 
                                                    The most violent filibuster in U.S. history

The first MUA was madness, the giddily convoluted story sent you to several radically different worlds to do battle with tons of different types of enemies--variations yes, but still different.  The worlds all had a coherent and interesting theme, whether it was fighting your way through a giant pinball machine in Murderworld or taking down super-villians in Valhalla.  MUA 2 has you going through lots of corridors with the occasional street scene or shipyard--it's just not as much fun.


There is also the issue of uniforms.  In the original, different uniforms (3 per character) had bonuses you could level up which really made a difference in the way the game played.  In this game the one (!) alternate is simply a re-skin, and most of them aren't worth bothering with anyway.  I didn't mind that the other RPG elements were taken out, stripping some of that stuff out was a good idea as I got sick of having to sell equipment constantly just to make inventory space.  But for the four of you out there who enjoy putting equations in your calculators to maximize your percentages vs. certain enemies this one isn't going to thrill you.


More laziness abounds in the powers department.  The original had new special moves and different powers every 10 levels or so--completely replacing earlier ones with different, more powerful attacks.  In this game you get the same four attacks per character throughout.  True, they add power and some buffs as you level, but your character never does anything particularly different.  Underwhelming considering this is supposed follow the sequel rule.  About halfway through the game, I was ready to call this one a bust, but then something happened.


                                       "I wanted to be called "Supervolt", but ohhhh no!"

The third act goes in a completely different direction, and the game becomes what it should have been all along.  Interesting environments, different types of enemies, and the majority of the characters unlocked.  The much ballyhooed fusion attacks are pretty darn spectacular at times, even though they still do the same three things with different animations.  They are enjoyable though, and the new health/revive system is much better than its predecessor.  As you become more comfortable with the differences and learn to control the fusions better, the game becomes more intuitive.


Once you get a good team put together and start firing on all cylinders the game is just good old fashioned beat 'em up fun.  My earlier misgivings were replaced with a satisfying--if not great--game.  The graphics are good, if not stellar in spots.  The voice acting varies wildly, with certain characters getting good treatment and others just phoning it in.  But even with my misgivings, and my absolute certainty that another developer could have made this much better, I enjoyed my time with the game.  My recommendation is hit a rental or pick it up in the bargain bin.  There were a ton of pre-orders so you can expect massive quantities on the used rack.

Rating: 3 out of 5 anti-healthcare zealots 
*apologies to Patton Oswalt