The ultimate superhero video game! (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS2))

Member Name: randomreviews

Product:	Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS2)
Date:	25/10/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tons of heroes to choose from, great plot, RPG elements

Disadvantages: online play is garbage for ps2

Once again Activision and Marvel capitalize on the success of the X-Men Legends franchise and this time launched an even bigger project which in the end falls short of what I had expected. It is available for PS2, PSP, XBOX, and Wii.

This time heroes from all across the Marvel universe assemble to take on the Masters of Evil, a huge group of supervillains led by Dr. Doom. You can play as characters like Spider Man, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Ms Marvel, Captain America, Nick Fury, Blade, The Fantastic Four, and tons of others.

Its an action RPG however unlike the X-Men Legends games you can't customize stats or equip multiple items. When you level up, your characters stat growth is controlled and predetermined by the game. With cash you can upgrade your costumes which have various stat benefits - each character has 4 costumes you can unlock - usually outfits they've worn through various generations of their series. Each provide him or her with a different set of skill boosts. When you do level up, you earn points that strengthen various techniques which you can use in battle. You can also remove points from techniques and put them into others incase you wish to change up your strategy or realize the move you previously had wasn't as effective as you thought.

Combat is relatively easy to get a handle on but battles are extremely chaotic at times and you may have some trouble early on trying to make sense of it and finding yourself. Basic physical attacks can be performed in various combo strings however they're relatively weak and require you to exhaust yourself to pummel your opponent to death, so you'll find yourself relying heavily on special techniques which are more flashy and appealing and also target groups of opponents since you're constantly being charged at by hordes of enemies. There's such a variety of skills to select which keeps the combat system interesting - and being able to switch to anyone in your team of 4 helps you out depending on the situation you're in.

The game really plunges you deep into the Marvel universe, giving you insight to the history and legacy of each hero and it ties everything together quite well. If you're not too familiar with the comics or animated shows, you'll really learn a lot from a game like this. Consider it Marvel propoganda - once you play it, you'll be addicted to all of their heroes!

There are some situations where depending on the character you're using, you may get more dialogue in the story - for instance in the battle against Mysterio, who's a villain from the Spider Man series, if you play as Spider Man, they'll exchange some additional words - so that's pretty cool since it adds a little more to the experience.

The graphics are pretty well done however are mediocre in comparison to those on the XBOX 360 version, however they're still impressive. Setting up online play for PS2 sounds confusing, I never even attempted to do so but from what I hear its not a very stable or fast connection, so online multiplayer is a useless feature for this PS2 version. You also miss out on other cool tidbits like downloadable content like new characters that are accessible to the XBOX version. Since the game is pretty cheap now, if you haven't played it, I would recommend you go for the 360 version over PS2. There is a sequel out now however it apparently didn't do as well ratings wise so while you wait for that price to go down, consider picking up this one! You won't be disappointed!

Summary: One of the best superhero games ever.