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MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE XBOX 360 REVIEW |
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Raven
Software, a company famous for creating
first-person-shooter games such as Quake 4,
Soldier of Fortune, and Star Trek: Voyager Elite
Force, has come out with another epoch adventure
of intergalactic proportion, as it did with the
X-Men: Legends I and II. Only this time the
ensuing battles between Super Heroes and their
arch enemies, and the explosion of Super Powers
in this latest offering, Marvel: Ultimate
Alliance, have produced a more convincing tone
that bring the very foundation of Marvel Comics
closer to home. The game features a whopping 20+
playable characters, tons of unlockable items, a
gameplay that is more superior to the X-Men
Legends titles, a much deeper campaign mode, and
a virtual world of sheer Marvel details where
only fans of this comic-based phenomenon can
appreciate.
The chapter starts with Dr. Doom who has managed
to convince several super villains (such as
Galactus, Baron Mordo, Ultron, Mephisto, and
Mandarin) to join his quest for global
domination. One of his first objectives is to
take down the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, which is
a technologically advanced air ship that serves
primarily as the Earth’s main platform for
“self-defense”. Dr. Doom has begun a new world
order called Masters of Evil to which he can
organize and carry on his evil acts. The story
never actually reveals Dr. Doom’s scheme until
the moment arrives. You'll have to put up with
lengthy dialogues between missions to tie up the
loose puzzles together bit by bit. The narrative
does a valiant effort in keeping the suspense of
the game intact. In countering the destructive
carnage of Dr. Doom, Colonel Nick Fury, head of
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s operation, has quickly summoned
the assistance of the Super Heroes. Captain
America, Thor, Spiderman, and Wolverine are
first to arrive on scene; they are the starting
varsity string for your opening campaign.
After a briefing with Colonel Nick Fury on the
objectives, players will take on a great number
of oppositions, including Ultron soldiers,
Winter minions, low-profile bosses such as
Mysterio, Blackheart, Scorpion, Bullseye,
Radioactive Man, and Fin Fang Foom to name a
few. Many of the enemies you’ll encounter have
their own Special Powers and equipments; you'll
be able to identify many of them by the glowing
rings around their feet. As you advance further
and deep into hostile territories, you have the
option of customizing the members in your squad.
You can put together a special task force that
includes classic characters (such as Iron Man,
Storm, and the Fantastic Four) and some of the
more mysterious heroes to hit the Marvel Comics
of today (such as Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and
Moon Knight). You have already close to 20
characters at your disposal, but there are still
several other characters (including Silver
Surfer, Ghost Rider, and Blade) that will
participate in the resistance at a later stage.
The control in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance makes
it easy for everyone to enjoy. The Y button
allows you to double jump or fly if your Super
Hero has that ability. The LB is used for
blocking and dodging, while RB lets you scroll
the map. Thanks to the new button scheme, you
now have greater accessibility to Team Commands;
not to mention, change characters on the fly
with the directional pad. With improved control,
it doesn’t take time to pull off some creative
combos that can produce additional damage
bonuses or special effects, especially when two
Special Powers hit the same target at the same
time. In this game, not only can you grapple
enemies for special smash attack but also steal
their shield and weapons out of their hands!
What’s more is that your Super Heroes have the
ability to pick up and wield weapons; you will
be able to recognize them by their distinct
glow. These weapons are significantly stronger
than your Super Heroes’ normal melee attacks,
but will break apart after some repeated use. |
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PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 8.8 OUT OF 10 |
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Many of the levels portrayed
in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance are immeasurable!
Fortunately, the onscreen map does a good job of
providing helpful information of where you need
to be, and guiding you to your mission
objectives. Certain areas of the map are
color-coded to easily specify which spot is to
exit and save your progress. It also tells you
which room you have already entered relative to
your whereabouts indicated by the gray shaded
areas. The game has made it easy to rack up on
power-ups, which is desperately needed against
fighting bosses. The power-ups are available
throughout the level, denoted by red orbs for
health increase and blue orbs for energy boost.
What’s nice about these orbs is that they
contain S.H.I.E.L.D. credits every so often,
which can be used towards improving your
outfits. These outfits are quite nice and they
provide some attractive alternatives to your
character’s appearance.
One of the intuitive parts of the game is that
the orbs will generally gravitate to the Super
Hero who needs them the most. Therefore, it
keeps your team updated all the time with their
powers. If all of your Super Heroes have full
health and energy, any orbs collected will be
converted into XP. If you collect enough XP,
your team will gain a new set of Stats and
Powers. Of course, there are several ways of
earning an XP: beating up enemies, completing
the mission objectives, defeating the bosses,
and more. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance puts a lot
of focus on team effort. As you expand your
stats and powers, so does your Team’s
Reputation. The gameplay in Marvel: Ultimate
Alliance is a lot more fun than any of the
Marvel action RPG-type games that came before
it. You are awarded with so many bonus points
that it’s hard to track which special items you
have unlocked or which secret super heroes you
have acquired! For instance, you get bonus
points just for building up your Team’s
Reputation.
You can even obtain additional special bonuses
if you design a team of superheroes that fits
for the task! If you choose, let’s say, Mr.
Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, and The
Thing, you can achieve the Fantastic bonus
points. This collection of bonuses can be
overwhelming at times, but they do keep the
action interesting and varied. You can expect a
few puzzle-solving, including some Marvel trivia
questions in the later stages of Marvel:
Ultimate Alliance. Solving puzzles are not that
difficult to work out, but they do make the
battle sequences a much rewarding experience.
Though the game comes with an excellent AI for
issuing different team attacks, nothing beats
good old cooperative play with your closest
friends. The game may take a good 30 hours to
complete but you can get different endings to
the story, depending on what decisions you have
made early on. What’s nice about moving on to
the next difficulty setting--let’s say the
secret hard mode--is that your team’s
accumulated stats are carried over.
Graphically, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance brings in
an impressive visual! You’ll come across some of
the most remarkable places like Mephisto’s Realm
and Mandarin’s Palace that look as though they
were ripped straight from the very pages of
Marvel Comics. The background settings are
presented in fine textures and with incredible
depth that could outsource the original
material. The environment is loaded with plenty
of spectacular lighting effects and a flurry of
flying particles that overlay a band of stellar
explosion. The problem is that you can only
enjoy these exquisite graphics with HDTV. It is
strange that the game runs rather unstable on
standard televisions, and you often experience
far more visual flops at this setting. On the
audio front, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance excels in
providing players with an upbeat musical score.
In each stage where you need to be pumped up,
the right fuse of soundtracks sets the stage for
adrenaline rush! It’s good to know the music
adjusts to what the situation you’re in.
With respect to the game's sound effects, you'll
find that many of the audio components in X-Men
Legends have been ported here. It’s nothing bad
about them but it feels as though you are
basically listening to the same source material.
In terms of speeches, the voice-over work is
great! However, the game uses a bit too much of
the same character lines that it gets tiring or
even annoying at times. Thankfully, the heady
soundtracks save most of the sound features from
wearing out. Overall, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
is an excellent action game with no shortage of
firework display on the power struggle between
Super Heroes and Super Villains. The gameplay is
well balanced. The fight sequence rocks from
start to finish. There are tons of items to
unlock and countless achievements to keep your
missions interesting. With a catchy musical
score and amazing graphical effects, you really
feel that you are part of the Marvel Universe.
This is definitely one of the Marvel games to
own considering it is the largest collection of
Marvel characters ever assembled! If you’re a
fan of Marvel Comics, this one is an experience
you don’t want to miss. |
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