Australian Gamer Review :: Marvel Ultimate Alliance

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Available on: PC, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation Portable

Despite all the bad first impressions, the dodgy name, the up-close graphics and the dated gameplay system, this game could easily be nominated for surprise of the year.

Players: 1-4 (4 Online Co-Op)
Genre:
Release: 2006-11-01

Developer: RavenSoft
Distributor: Activision

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I’m terrible at coming up with names for things. I think, right no worries it’s just a name I’ll come up with something witty, descriptive and altogether snazzy in five minutes, no worries, two or three words, what could be more difficult? Two hours later, with the end of the pencil, pen or trout that I’m holding chewed into oblivion, I’m still sitting there, my mind running at 100 miles an hour but going nowhere. I’m sure you know the feeling, but then again, you might not because you, dear reader, could be gifted at naming things. I however, am totally, utterly and very annoyingly inept at the task.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you view things, God gave us marketing people, who as it turns out are usually very good at naming things. So good in fact, that they can come up with heaps of names and have a meeting about them. Then they have a discussion at the water cooler, then a meeting; a conversation over a latte; a meeting; then a study conducted on a cross section of the population located in key and strategically selected locations in capital and non-capital cities across several countries which comprises of questions designed to make the study-ee implode; followed by another meeting; another latte; then a proposal which is drafted in a series of more meetings; followed by a meeting with the director who says “That’s rubbish you can do all that again. Paula? Paula!!? Where’s my latte?” Or at least I think that’s how it works, I couldn’t be bothered finishing my marketing degree. There were too many meetings known as ‘lectures’ and ‘tutorials’. See these crazy marketing people are even naming the meetings you need to go to before you even have the degree which qualifies you to go to a meeting!

I found all this largely confusing, which might explain why a game with the name ‘Marvel Ultimate Alliance’ could possibly make it to the shelf, let alone to the tray of my XBOX 360. On first impressions, this is a game that should fail. It should fail miserably, based on the name alone. Maybe it was the director, who was sick of sending the team back to their meetings, lattes and studies so he just said “That’ll do team, that’ll do” as he reached for his golf clubs.

What’s in a name I hear you say? Well, a lot really, for I have my doubts you’d buy Gears Of War if it was named ‘Locust and Friends’ or World of Warcraft if it was named ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’. So along with the marketing and box art, the name of a game is paramount to the masses’ impressions of it on the shelf. The problem here is, as soon as you read the first word, ‘Marvel’ things are looking grim for the innocent box and disc on the shelf of your preferred emporium. Marvel obviously points to the fact that the game is based around characters from Marvel comic books. Sure there have been some solid middle of the road comic games, but none you’d actually call good. I’ve been thinking about this for a good month now, I cannot recall in my history having ever played a truly good game based on a comic book. The second word, Ultimate, can only mean one thing. Desperation. The three marketeers must have been reaching right into the depths of their feathered Cavalier hats and come up with a bogey because Ultimate is a cheesy, unconvincing cliché that tends to be burdened upon the most unloved and ghastly games. Games like Ultimate Spider Man, Ultimate Demolition Derby and Ultimate Yahtzee. I make an exception for Ultimate Frisbee, which is ultimately cool. But that’s not a computer game though is it? Though now that I’ve mentioned it, expect to see EA Sports Ultimate Frisbee 2008 in a game store near you soon, followed closely by Ultimate Frisbee 2K8. Alliance is also worrying. I read it and I assume that this game features all the Marvel characters all rolled into a supergroup. There hasn’t been a successful blending of franchises like this since ‘The Flintstones and the Jetsons: The Space Age meets the Stone Age.’ To get to the point; the name Marvel Ultimate Alliance does not provide any sort of hope that it is going to be a good game.

So MUA is handicapped from the start. You think “Oh joy, another cheap, shoddy excuse for a game where the publisher is just throwing a couple of big franchises in to make a quick buck.” It’s actually half the reason I put my hand up to review it. I thought “There’s no way this game can be good, a few licensed characters, a tacky name and box art, I’ll be able to write a big, scathing review where I use a lot of nasty words.” So receive the game I did, and very shortly after it started to spin away in my XBOX 360’s drive, I realised that the marketing people had done this game a monumental injustice.

Strangely enough, the game starts with a meeting. Sure it’s a brief meeting on an airborne battle cruiser that’s under attack by Dr. Doom’s drones where Captain America delegates a quick plan to Spiderman, Thor and Wolverine, but it is a meeting of sorts. The cutscene that ensues is beautiful, with some classic comic book exaggerated drama and tongue-in-cheek humour but it’s the Hollywood quality pre-rendered visuals that will take your breath away. As far as first impressions go, it’s a monumental hammer blow to the naming gaffe and you realise that there is some quality craftsmanship behind the creation of this game. It’s not the only one of these cutscenes either; there are more spread throughout the game. Strangely, not all the cutscenes are presented in such a manner. Most of the minor plot points are outlined by simple cutscenes which are cut from the game engine. This is a shame, because up close the graphics are nothing to write home about.

Up close, the visuals are decidedly last-gen. The textures aren’t really very high res, and the models lack a few polygons compared to what we have become accustomed to with our shiny XBOX 360s. They haven’t been designed to be viewed up close though, because the gameplay is a rarity in the modern climate of 1st and 3rd person games. It is more like a classic, sky camera action RPG. This means the camera is never up too close, making the visuals next-gen acceptable, rather than last-gen average. The lighting effects, explosions and fire do deserve a special mention; it’s the details that can lift an average looking game into something that is pleasing to the eye. This game is a perfect case in point, proving that the textures and models don’t have to be top notch if the lighting and effects are done right.

So you’re thinking ‘Great, a visually mediocre game with old gameplay styles, just what I’m looking for from the next-gen.’ The thing is, and I suspect you might be starting to detect a theme here, it’s actually rip-roaring good fun.

The premise is as old as Stonehenge: there are maps with a start point and a finish point and then a lot of baddies on the way to the head baddie. Repeat on different maps until all the head baddies are dead. It doesn’t get any simpler. Of course there’s an over-the-top comic book scenario which includes the aforementioned airborne battle cruiser, a massive moving research lab, plenty of Greek mythology, a space station and a Mediaeval castle which ties it all together, but the setup of the game couldn’t be any simpler. This works in the game’s favour, as there’s no real thinking to do, all that’s required is to select your team and smash some delinquents. I should point out that if you want an action RPG where you’re required to think, skip Marvel Ultimate Alliance. There are a couple of puzzles along the way, but you’re never really delayed any more than a minute or two while you nut them out. The point of this game is to smash baddies in the rather cool super hero style. Don’t despair, because it isn’t as mindless as it sounds. The mechanic is much like a fighting game but without combos, replaced by easy to execute super moves which you have to balance with your usual kick/punch/grab type moves or you tend to drain out of super energy blue stuff. Of course each hero has many of their own unique moves that you can equip, three at a time and you unlock more moves that become more dramatic and more devastating as your heroes level up.

A not insignificant point of difference in MUA, is rather than selecting one hero at a time, you operate as an Alliance of four heroes. Funny thing that, considering the name. You play as one of the four, the other three controlled by an AI, but you have the ability to switch between the four at will. This opens up some real possibilities in gameplay flexibility as you don’t get hemmed in to using only one hero for each passage of play. Within the first five minutes, you realise that the game has been designed for co-op play, but the best bit is, you can play co-op with up to four players. You can add and remove players on the fly too, which was absolutely fantastic when my housemate would come in to watch me play. Switch on the controller, add the player in the pause menu, and he could play along as well.

Aurally, the game is a wide and varied and tiring collection of sounds you imagine when you’re reading ‘POW’ ‘WHAM’ and ‘THWACK’ in a comic book. Thankfully, this is backed by a superb original soundtrack that varies from hard rock in ‘get pumped’ situations to epic orchestral crescendos in boss battles.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is an excellent game. It’s superb fun and playing it co-operatively just adds to the experience, especially with four human players on board. Despite all the bad first impressions, the dodgy name, the up-close graphics and the dated gameplay system, this game could easily be nominated for surprise of the year. It certainly surprised me, there’s no way I expected it to be remotely good. Maybe that’s what the marketing team thought too.

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Final Verdict

Biggest surprise of the year so far, dodgy first impressions belie a truly good, largely unique and highly enjoyable game.

Pros
A-Level over the top fun, playing with four heroes at a time means four times the options, over the top story that you know you should hate has a strangely endearing quality to it, simple controls for a simple game that is executed perfectly, superb original score.
Cons
Some passages of play can drag a bit, puzzles are a bit too easy and few and far between, ‘POW’ and ‘WHAM’ sound effects can get awfully tiring.