Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Bundle Review (PS4)

This bundle was provided by Activision for coverage purposes.

 This set of reviews are going to be broken down into two segments, which each consisting of both games in this bundle. For this article we played with the Playstation 4 copy of the games. Ultimate alliance 1 was a smash hit back on the Playstation 2, Xbox360 and Playstation 3 back around 2006. The original developers Raven software behind the helm at the time. Now the devs’ over at Zoe Mode worked on the enhanced ports to Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC. Later on PSP, and Wii got a port by the folks at Vicarious Visions. Pretty much the first game had its way around the room for ports and most of them being pretty solid, notability on the Xbox 360.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was made by Vicarious Visions on the PS3, X360, PS4, and XONE, and PC. It was a step up in terms on graphics. It was released in the states on September 15^th, 2009. It had some good success with very favorable reviews back among its release. It carries off where the first game landed. You start off in Doom’s castle in Latveria, fighting your way in. The story then breaks into the Civil War arc, that Marvel currently is rolling around with still with a blockbuster movie. You choose a side and then depending on that side you are bound by a collection of characters pending on which side you do choose. A cool thing, is there is not a complete list of characters who are all bound, just a few in a fairly short list luckily. Now with the break down of each game, lets discuss how solid these ports are, in segments. As well as the general quality of said games.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Mind you I have received both games on the PS4. Luckily with the issue on PC does Not exist on this port of the game. Some issues do exist which I will break down for this part of the coverage. Ultimate Alliance starts you off with a set of four characters: being Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, and Iron Man. They then settle you into the game with brief “how-tos”. Then, it’s straight into the fray to smash down enemies. The game itself is pretty much a brawler infused with RPG like progression. You can build characters with a currency, as well as defeating enemies or doing tasks on a time to time basis, in Stark’s Tower. At first I did combat a light hick-up in the controls, where in order to move I had to hold R2 for a moment and it reset my controls letting me use the left analog stick. You use the usual two button combo for attacking, Circle usually has a stronger charge attack, and X is your default melee attack. If you hold the R2 you are given some extra powers to use along the way, which consume power pints which replenish when you break objects or beat enemies.

The games campaign lasts over Five acts in total. Having some fairly lengthy levels per each act,  giving you plenty to smash and zap along the way. The idea of being able to mix and match heroes is pretty cool. If your heroes might kiss Lady Death on the lips for a while they are passed out, making you have to find a S.H.E.I.L.D point and swap out them for another. Levels themselves,  all look pretty great for this port over the original games core graphics. Each area has a tiny bit to explore and welcomes the whole co-op vibe to it. Making the concept of Gauntlet come to mind, when you visited the cab for Dark Legacy. Enemies all offer some good balance and variety, mixing up some new mechanics from time to time, like healing monks or shielded foes.

The heroes themselves, all have unique special powers (I would hope so). By default they all just melee. When you toggle to their four specialty powers,the fun really begins. When your heroes, or hero is charged up, they can then unleash a huge attack or team aid that changes the playing field. For minor enemies, it is pretty much one shot kills. For bosses, it knocks them down a peg, if they’re not the mega bosses you fight along the way that require a certain pattern or requirement to damage them. Along the way,  you find chests or minor bosses of some popular or niche enemies, through out the Marvel universe that drop gear for certain heroes or general items for any hero to wear. These  give a pretty darn good stat increase or decrease. Depending on how it is balanced of course. The heroes do get the choice of only one item, so it requires you to pick one item and stick it to that character. Making it a juggling act to find the right item. I found this sort of a joy to find.

Overall, I was relieved to see that this game only had minor issues, over some other horror stories I heard of for PC at least. Aside from a few issues with a bug here or there for movement, the sound being wonky and not even aiming the surround sound in the right direction. I would have Logan on one end and he would ramble in the other. It is like “HUH?!”. If you are looking to bust down some super villains in the first installment,  rest assured at least for the PS4 copy it is pretty well polished. As I hear the PC master race weep. Another downside is lack of release Gold edition content, or even having it included on a game of its date. You would have hoped they just included all of this and toke their time to smooth out this area. A ton of fans were asking us if the game even had it without any mention on the store front of “coming soon” or the sort. We did see Marvel Games and Activation make mention of some fixes coming to the games way, as well as DLC. Reasonable pricing is hopeful.  Lets carry on to the second game in this bundle.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

A pretty deep step up from Ultimate Alliance 1 that is for sure. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 starts you off as I mentioned above with invading Dr Doom’s crib, you then are tasked by Nick Fury to break Dr Doom’s prized fancy vase and save the day. The game actually starts, with the heroes attacking Doom’s old base of operations: Latveria. Ran by a new leader named Lucia Von Bardas. Soon (a year later)  issues emerge. The super heroes then have to address locally around Stamford, Connecticut. A form of a counter attack from the army of Latveria. I began to really enjoy the story the game offered. It was well introduced, and the voice acting sounded freaking great. The audio issues here and there, were not as bad as I heard from the PC Stream side. Anyway, on to the gameplay.

Gameplay in this game is a huge improvement over the original game. You are given a choice of many more heroes. But a few subtracted. You get a few system exclusive characters off the bat. Like Juggernaut,  Carnage, and Black Panther. I went with Cable, Wolverine, and two random characters to see how they played. I mixed and matched heroes then, to see which kind of stat bonuses I would receive. They swapped out the currency spending thing for upgrading heroes, giving all of the heroes their own token and stat system. Which was a wonderful thing. Trust me. Prior you had to juggle farming heroes to upgrade each one.  At first,  I did not realize you could quick tab the medal perks. Which then opened a lot of awesome.  Being able to adjust perks I wanted and did not want, depending on the instance. This then opened a sort of on-the-fly-strategy, to the action fray.  The game has multi-able objectives you carry out, having you do many simple to follow things. If you do happen to get lost, you press R3 to toggle where to go, which is a nice touch. Because, (unlike the first game) there is no mini map in the game anymore, the levels felt more larger, and slightly maze like. You do come across optional objectives, which grant bonus stats or even some extra rewards along the way. I will leave that open for you to discover. All of this was pretty fun, but felt a tiny bit more narrow then the original game, which allowed more exploration. The trade off was a tiny bit iffy for me, but enjoy-able none the less.

The game is a great step up, in terms of multi-paths, of choice and decisions. I ended up having two saves to see the different sides to the game. You get a diverse selection and views within the whole game. A mixture of political style views. Of freedom of rights, and conformity of super powers clashing. I was torn which side to route for more. I did like the Captain America resistance route. Having less and to have a greater element to strive for. More or less for their own rights as Mutants/Super humans. Then you have Tony Starks/Iron Man’s side which after seeing children and the chaos from a third party perspective back on the Stamford, Connecticut genocide. He then steps up for the case for pro-registration form. I felt for the loss of life, but also still leaned towards Cap’s perspective more. Plus it has some of the cooler characters on that end, that I liked anyway. It was a pretty darn good campaign,  that will draw sides between many fans, if they have not touched on the civil war story line from the comics, movie, and the game in general.  Anyway on to my final thoughts on the two games.

In Closing:

The bundle itself is a great idea, with some issues. We would say if you own a PS4, it would be a good buy. Otherwise if you own a PC or a Xbox One you will be frustrated by the current issues with the game.  It played pretty darn well on the PS4 luckily. Aside from some heroes promised being missing, or told you must pay for. Which is a shame. Specially for the fact I would think, a game like this should have had all the bells and whistles out of the box for the consumer. I understand the concept of keeping the servers afloat. I think they could have expanded on the game, like with the idea or concept of Marvel Heroes 2016 went with adding more heroes over time. I would say the console side for now is the strongest choice. The PC side wait for some improved progress of fixes. otherwise, you will see a wall of Red marked reviews from the community telling you otherwise. I have seen folks say “oh those people are just over complaining, I will buy it myself and see if it is.” Listen to the feedback folks, hold off just for now. If you own Xbox One, and PS4. Aim for those.

Recommended: For PS4

Not as strong on: Xbox One

Wait until Fixed: PC