Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Preview

By Joe Haygood | June 19, 2009

Its a few weeks late, but Brinton Williams was nice enough to give some of the press, including Aeropause, an early look at Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, showing off a lot of the new fusion combos that will be used and the inside line on the Civil war storyline.  We did not get an answer on how the Hulk could be there, but we did find out that regardless of what side you play, “you get to kick the crap out of Iron Man”.

After the huge success of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, it was a no-brainer that there would be a sequel.  The only two questions most could come up with were “which characters would be included” and “where would the story take place”.  We now know that the sequel will take place during the time of the Civil War, and you will have heroes taking sides in the battle.  We also know that you will be able to play either side of the conflict with different heroes becoming available to your cause based on the side that you play.

At the start of our presentation, Brinton started us out in Latveria, on a mission that is actually set in the period of Nick Fury’s Secret War.  Our party consisted of The Hulk, Iron Man, Venom and Wolverine.  In some missions you will have a special fifth character that will follow you, and can be used in fusion attacks.  In this mission, Nick Fury is storming Latveria with us, and he can be used in your fusion attacks.  At this point we get to see our first combo, and for comic book fans it was a joyous occasion, although a little modified, as we got to see The Hulk pick up Wolverine and toss him, in similar fashion to the Fastball Special.

We are told at this point that there will be 24 playable characters “at least”, opening the door for a few more unlockable characters, similar to the way you could unlock Daredevil, Black Panther and Silver Surfer.  While there was no official word on this, one would think the “at least” comments would lead towards it.  We also were told that every character can combo up with another for fusion attacks, creating at least over 500 different fusions.

At another point we also got to see Deadpool, Human Torch, Thor and Spider Man lead an attack on The Thinker, a nemesis of several Marvel characters.  The battle took place in The Tinker’s Lab, where we saw our enemies fight cybernetic organisms with grafted weapons.  The attack was muted by the fusion of a whirlwind created by Thor, with a flame column inside provided by the Human Torch. 

At certain points we also found boosts that can power up characters.  The boosts will take some searching to find, and there are over 100 boosts that can be found throughout the game.  I was not sure if these boosts replaced the equipment drops that were in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, or if they would be in addition to equipment drops.  Character customization will be available from a quick access menu, allowing for skill upgrades and consume changes, eliminating the need to find a save spot to make changes to your characters.

The last area we got to see was Washington D.C. on the eve of the Superhero Registration Act bill signing, and we find that a group of enemy commandos have stormed the area looking to cause trouble.  During this battle, we have Songbird, Juggernaut, Storm and Captain America as our team, and the Juggernaut is a site to behold.  He is a very powerful unit and can cause a lot of destruction, as he has a ramming attack that can destroy just about anything he attacks.  Confronted with a large group of units all at once, Storm performed a fusion attack with Captain America, using a lightening attack with Captain America’s shield to shoot lightening at all the enemies.  Songbird and Storm also teamed up with a fusion attack to form a Sonic Prism.

At the end of the presentation, we got to see a montage of characters that will show up in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 at some point, either as playable characters, enemies or special characters.  The characters in the trailer included Luke Cage, Iron Fist (go Heroes for Hire), Mr. Fantastic, Green Goblin, Cloak and Hercules.  These are on top of the characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Storm, Juggernaut, Songbird, Venom, The Hulk and Thor.

Now for those that complained at great length about the co-op play in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, you voices have been heard.  Co-op has been completely revamped from top to bottom and it will be easier to join games, and choose characters.  This is a big plus in my book as co-op was such a chore in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  I was never able to select characters properly when less than four players were playing in co-op, and it never felt 100% stable.

From all the gameplay that was shown in our presentation, it looks like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 will be bigger and more refined than the first game.  The new camera system allows you to get in far closer to the action, more characters seem to be available and a more solid co-op system will be great for fans.  The addition of Songbird was a bit of a downer, as I feel there are far more characters that would be better for that slot (Wonder Man anyone?) but overall, Vicarious Visions and Activision look to have another solid sequel that will please fans and non-fans alike in September 2009.