Before the dissection begins, I’d like to say that this review is very nostalgic for me. Not because the game in question features the characters that defined a good chunk of my development into the aberration I am today, but due to the fact that a review of the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance was the first article I ever had published in any outlet. In a sense (i.e. the warped looking glass all creative types look at the world through), this series set up the dominoes that fell into this website’s existence.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the original with some makeup, one new mechanic, and a suicidal narrative choice.

New series developer Vicarious Visions boasted of rebuilding the game’s engine from the ground up. Unfortunately, while recreating the original’s experience they forgot to add anything new to the mix. While the gameplay retains the same fun, fast-paced action first established in Raven Software’s X-men Legends titles, little has been done to address the faults of the franchise. The RPG elements remain a bit too shallow to fully satisfy fans of deeper customization. The auto-upgrade system eliminates the stock excuse of alienating casual (read: inept) players. The oft-repetitive nature of the core combat remains unaddressed as well.

As for the story, it’s a semi-direct adaptation of the Secret War and Civil War crossovers. If that statement leaves a bit of black bile in your mouth, you’re not alone.

For the lucky few among you that aren’t basement-dwelling morlocks (and probably didn’t get that joke), here’s a bit of background. The “Big Two” comic companies, Marvel and DC, rely heavily on the use of shared continuity for the bulk of their cash-cow superhero publications. The positive result of this business model is the creation of a unique universe with a proud legacy, filled to the brim with the creativity of three generations. The negative result is the creation of a dark maze of continuity, the endless recycling of storylines, and the ability to burn decades of quality storytelling with a single creative or editorial misstep. Civil War was one such misstep.

Civil was a crossover event which depicted a split in the Marvel superhero community over the Superhero Registration Act, a measure requiring all metahumans to serve under the U.S government. One side fought for the right to continue to save the world their way, free from government influence. The other created a supervillain army and tried to send Captain America into the Negative Zone. Readers were intended to sympathize with the latter.

Of course, I’ve always been one for making my own fun. On my first playthrough, I plunged right into the opportunity to join the pro-registration side and create what I like to call “Team Fascism”, a league of the greatest goose-stepping heroes the storyline had to offer. Who better than Iron Man to crush the world with an iron fist? For its’ own good, of course.

As a completionist, I played through the (far less psychotic) anti-registration campaign as well. In most games in this vein, differences in branching storyline are relatively superficial. For better or worse, this is untrue in Ultimate Alliance 2. Unless you have my sense of humor, the narrative is simply far more satisfying to play as the anti-registration faction (as for the gameplay divide, Iron Man is amusingly easy to turn into a death machine).

With all these complaints, the game does have a saving grace. The characters bleed personality. It’s clear that Vicarious Visions did its’ research about the house Lee built. Hordes of fan-favorite characters are present and fully realized, from the obvious (Spider-man, pre-bullet Captain America) to the obscure (does anyone really still care about the Titanium Man?). The level of detail even impressed my jaded persona: an in-game character encyclopedia exists, and even wording of the dialogue options shifts based on the character selected.

The dedication to the comics extends to one unfortunate area: the one-liners. The puns in this game flow like water. If you can’t handle Iron Fist spewing one-thousand variants of “Ha, I punched you in the face”, this game is not your cup of tea. Yet again, we find a flaw that appealed to my sense of humor. I assembled the most talkative heroes of the Marvel canon (Spider-Man, Ice Man, Johnny Storm, and, of course, Deadpool) and forged Team Insanity, with the goal of driving my opponents, my unfortunate friends, and myself mad with a constant stream of ill-concieved jokes.

Despite the missteps of the new developer, there’s still some fun to be had in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, especially for the dedicated comic fan. Just be sure to bring a friend with a high tolerance for puns.

Supplemental reading:
Mightygodking's I Don't Need Your Civil War