Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Review (X360)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance takes the XMen: Legends experience and makes great improvements on it. Ultimate Alliance is a beat 'em up style game with role-playing elements for added depth. The game offers many characters from the Marvel universe, including well known heroes such as Spider-Man and Captain America to some lesser known characters including Moon Knight and Doctor Strange. All of these characters have their own unique costumes to unlock, as well as their own set of powers and moves that you can upgrade.
The game's plot is right out of the Marvel comics. Dr. Doom has created a master plan to take over the world, where he is the absolute ruler. As a result the forces behind SHIELD have called upon the heroes of the Marvel universe to fight against this threat. Here you are introduced to the heroes available to play. The game begins as you controlling Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, and Captain America. You must fight your way through Doom's forces of evil.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is not only a simple beat 'em up game, there are role-playing elements for every character in the game. You can level up each character by earning experience points (like most role-playing games)
by defeating enemies throughout the game. While you defeat more and more enemies and super villains you will also unlock hidden costumes. Every character has four of their own costumes that are unlocked by defeating a certain number of enemies and completing that character's comic mission. These comic missions, known as Stimulator Discs, are scattered throughout the game's five acts. By earning the listed amount of points during these missions you will unlock the character's costume, as well as some added power-ups.
The game play in Ultimate Alliance is based around your four hero team. Anytime you come across a save point during the game you may change your team. You can create a random team of heroes if you would like and be unique or you can create set Marvel teams, such as the X-Men or the Avengers. While the teams are set to four heroes, you can remove these settings if you would like to play as just one or two characters. You have the ability to switch between characters of the fly by pressing the D-Pad, which will replace your current hero with an AI bot. You can only control one hero at a time, but the AI works well enough that you will have plenty of support.
The game offers cooperative multiplayer so that you and up to three friends, either on one console or through Xbox Live, can team up and save the universe. This is where the most fun is in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance because playing with actual people is better than playing with three other AI controlled bots. Although playing with friends through the Xbox Live service is enjoyable, I have encountered a few hang ups. For example when I loaded my save file to play with my friend the data seemed to be missing. I did not have the unlocked characters or costumes that I had before. This seems to be solved by loading a previous game save and then loading your current file. Another issue is that when there is a hint of lag the game can be very annoying. While playing I once had a characters begin floating out of the level the rest of the players could not move as a result. Glitches such as these should not have been included in the retail version of this game.
The single-player portion of the game however is not free of game play hang ups. While playing the game characters can often become caught on the game's environment. For example while playing you may experience you AI allies getting stuck in a wall and not being able to progress until it is back to normal. These glitches do not happen often, but do stand out over the course of the game.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance offers new character downloads through Xbox Live. These hero packs offer a total of eight new playable characters for use during the game. You may purchase these heroes in a bundle pack for 800 MS points, which includes all of the heroes or you may purchase them in the seperate packs. One pack offers four new Marvel heroes to play as including The Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Hawkeye. The other pack offers four new Marvel villians to play as including Magneto, Sabertooth, Venom, and Dr. Doom. These packs also add 250 more achievement points to the game which can be obtained by unlocking each hero's costume sets and by having certain characters interact with each other. For example at the end of the game before you face Dr. Doom, you can unlock an achievement for having Dr. Doom have a conversation with himself. These packs offer a great new addition to the game for anyone who is looking for more content.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a great addition to the Marvel franchise's list of video games. The game offers many characters in the Marvel universe which everyone is familiar with, like Spider-Man, and some characters who comic fans will recognize. The game features many options for upgrading characters and keeps the game fresh. Although the game has it's share of hang ups, the game is worth playing. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a great addition to any Xbox 360 owner's collection who is looking for a different kind of game play experience.
The game's plot is right out of the Marvel comics. Dr. Doom has created a master plan to take over the world, where he is the absolute ruler. As a result the forces behind SHIELD have called upon the heroes of the Marvel universe to fight against this threat. Here you are introduced to the heroes available to play. The game begins as you controlling Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, and Captain America. You must fight your way through Doom's forces of evil.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is not only a simple beat 'em up game, there are role-playing elements for every character in the game. You can level up each character by earning experience points (like most role-playing games)
by defeating enemies throughout the game. While you defeat more and more enemies and super villains you will also unlock hidden costumes. Every character has four of their own costumes that are unlocked by defeating a certain number of enemies and completing that character's comic mission. These comic missions, known as Stimulator Discs, are scattered throughout the game's five acts. By earning the listed amount of points during these missions you will unlock the character's costume, as well as some added power-ups.
The game play in Ultimate Alliance is based around your four hero team. Anytime you come across a save point during the game you may change your team. You can create a random team of heroes if you would like and be unique or you can create set Marvel teams, such as the X-Men or the Avengers. While the teams are set to four heroes, you can remove these settings if you would like to play as just one or two characters. You have the ability to switch between characters of the fly by pressing the D-Pad, which will replace your current hero with an AI bot. You can only control one hero at a time, but the AI works well enough that you will have plenty of support.
The game offers cooperative multiplayer so that you and up to three friends, either on one console or through Xbox Live, can team up and save the universe. This is where the most fun is in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance because playing with actual people is better than playing with three other AI controlled bots. Although playing with friends through the Xbox Live service is enjoyable, I have encountered a few hang ups. For example when I loaded my save file to play with my friend the data seemed to be missing. I did not have the unlocked characters or costumes that I had before. This seems to be solved by loading a previous game save and then loading your current file. Another issue is that when there is a hint of lag the game can be very annoying. While playing I once had a characters begin floating out of the level the rest of the players could not move as a result. Glitches such as these should not have been included in the retail version of this game.
The single-player portion of the game however is not free of game play hang ups. While playing the game characters can often become caught on the game's environment. For example while playing you may experience you AI allies getting stuck in a wall and not being able to progress until it is back to normal. These glitches do not happen often, but do stand out over the course of the game.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance offers new character downloads through Xbox Live. These hero packs offer a total of eight new playable characters for use during the game. You may purchase these heroes in a bundle pack for 800 MS points, which includes all of the heroes or you may purchase them in the seperate packs. One pack offers four new Marvel heroes to play as including The Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Hawkeye. The other pack offers four new Marvel villians to play as including Magneto, Sabertooth, Venom, and Dr. Doom. These packs also add 250 more achievement points to the game which can be obtained by unlocking each hero's costume sets and by having certain characters interact with each other. For example at the end of the game before you face Dr. Doom, you can unlock an achievement for having Dr. Doom have a conversation with himself. These packs offer a great new addition to the game for anyone who is looking for more content.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a great addition to the Marvel franchise's list of video games. The game offers many characters in the Marvel universe which everyone is familiar with, like Spider-Man, and some characters who comic fans will recognize. The game features many options for upgrading characters and keeps the game fresh. Although the game has it's share of hang ups, the game is worth playing. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a great addition to any Xbox 360 owner's collection who is looking for a different kind of game play experience.
