Around the time that Wyatt Wingfoot shows up, it's easy to tell that Ultimate Alliance is a very attractive gift to legions of Marvel zombies. Building on the bedrock established by the X-Men Legends franchise, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance manages to improve on its predecessors in nearly every conceivable way, and tell an entertaining, bombastic comic book story married to genuinely fun gameplay. But the attention to geeky detail is what will keep the true believers coming back. Dr. Doom has reformed the Masters of Evil (by recruiting basically every Supervillain ever, except maybe Hypno-Hustler), and after a bold attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, Nick Fury charges the player, via a team of four Marvel heroes and heroines, with finding out just what Doom is up to and stopping it. The resulting adventure stretches from the bottom of the sea to Asgard, home of the Norse gods, and to the reaches of space. The scope of the game is impressive, and it keeps going after numerous points where you'd expect a rushed resolution.

Gameplay, like Legends, is a ¾ top-down affair, and the camera is dynamic enough to prevent any complaints about it. At any given time, the player controls one hero while the others tag along, controlled by a surprisingly capable AI (I've only noticed maybe one instance of characters running mindlessly into walls, for instance). Switching characters, using superpowers, and issuing team commands are all done seamlessly in play, and the action is pretty fast-paced. Most of each mission consists of standard beat-‘em-up play, but the boss encounters tend to require a bit of puzzle solving. Characters still find items strewn about the world, but it seems like there are less of them than in X-Men Legends and its sequel, and each character only has one equipment slot to manage. To keep things from getting stale, there's a good amount of exploration required to complete the optional sidequests that various NPCs hand out, and also to find the game's healthy array of unlockables - concept art, training missions, and unlockable characters Black Panther and Daredevil (both of whom are definitely worth hunting for).

Ultimate Alliance offers cooperative multiplayer play, both locally and on Xbox Live, and this ratchets up the fun even more. Online play is painless, and didn't suffer any instances of lag or random dropped connections.

The playable characters (nearly 30, factoring in some of the alternate skins like Beta Ray Bill, US Agent, and Phantom Rider), offer a lot of variety, and also a lot of fan service. I mean, why else is Luke Cage there? Speaking of different skins, each character can unlock multiple costumes. Costumes aren't just cosmetic, either, because each one offers a unique passive power set to its wearer that can be upgraded throughout the game. Other passive upgrades can be obtained from the team mechanic integrated into the game - players can create a unique team roster, choose a name and logo, and purchase unique team benefits as the team's reputation increases. Bonuses include extra damage, health, or energy for team members as long as they're together in the field. On top of that, certain specific lineups (recreating teams like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, or Avengers, as well as thematic lineups, like using only female heroes, or using only heroes that are romantically involved with each other) offer their own distinct benefits.

The production values of Alliance are every bit as high-quality as the rest of the game. Character models are beautiful, with a lot of attention to detail. The levels themselves are well-designed and most offer a fair amount of variety. The score sounds epic and driving. The voice acting, too, is generally good, though it's kind of irksome that most foreign characters (like Doom and Radioactive Man) don't have anything remotely resembling the correct accent. And no, Deadpool isn't voiced by Demi Moore, but yes, he totally should have been.

On the downside, the gameplay can get repetitive, especially in single player, despite Raven's efforts to the contrary. The levels are large and full of enemies, so naturally, running or flying around punching dudes can start to get old, especially in lengthy play sessions. Another complaint is that skill points, the currency used to upgrade costume powers, don't accrue automatically, and instead drop like coins. This leads to Thor running around the room, looking like a doofus, trying to snatch up all the coins. It takes the player out of the game. Of course, there are also the nitpicks, like the addition of more characters. Having Luke Cage, one wonders why there's no Iron Fist. Why are there only four X-Men? In a perfect world, at least for the Xbox 360 version, the Marketplace is a panacea to this in the form of downloadable content. In addition, it should be noted that there have been some frequent bug reports floating around online, but I haven't encountered any in play.

Die-hard Marvel fans can adjust the score on Ultimate Alliance about ten points higher. The character dialogue alone will cause numerous geek-outs, chock full of obscure references as it can be. All other comers will find a capable, high quality action RPG that offers a huge amount of customization and a lot of unique characters that are far more than sprite swaps of each other. Anyone in the market for a good party game or a fun beat ‘em up should definitely join this Alliance. Excelsior!

Score: 89%

Oct 30, 2006 | 0 comments
Jeff Stolarcyk