When Marvel Ultimate Alliance came out from Raven Software and Activision, it was a comic fan's dream.  Now, the companies are back with a new game and have attempted to re-bottle the lightning with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Unfortunately, while the sequel has some advantages over its predecessor, the new game lacks much of the heart of the original.

More after the jump:

The first Marvel Ultimate Alliance came out in October, 2006.  The game allowed you to combine powers of Marvel's greatest characters (24 in the PS2 and Xbox versions) in a story based game that took you to various locations in the Marvel Universe.  The game also had some great extras, including character interaction, costume choices and bonuses for certain team combinations (e.g., the Avengers, Fantasic Four, and Marvel Knights).

Here is the opening scene form the game.

Now, it's three years later and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has come out.  And while the game has been upgraded to be available in several platforms such as XBox 360 and PS3, I unfortunately haven't upgraded.  So, this review is based on the PS2 version of the game.
 
The game has essentially three storylines.  The first two are loosely based on Marvel's Secret War (the Bendis version not the Shooter version) and Civil War. The Third story is an original one made for the game.  Like the first game, players are taken to several popular places in the Marvel Univers, including Latveria, Stark Tower, and Wakanda. 

And while the game touts the ability to choose a side in the Civil War (Pro or Anti Registration), this doesn't really make that much of a difference to the gameplay and only lasts for a couple of missions.  Like the original game, there are bonus missions that can be used to unlock extra playable characters.   I am not an avid gamer and was able to finish the game, including the bonus missions, over the weekend.

The official website can be found here.

Here is the trailer:   

Game play is very similar to the first game (which itself came from X-men Legends--another great game).  Characters (there are 26) earn points and level up based on combat experience in the game.  You can personally allocate power to your characters or let the computer do it for you.  But, where the original game gave each hero an individual all-destructive power move, the sequel  allows for the use of fusion powers, where two characters on your team can combine their powers (this is such an original concept that the game was originally called MUA:  Fusion) to destructive results.  A couple of other minor changes (indicative of an underlying problem I have with the game) are that the alternate costumes are gone and that individual boosts have been replaced by team-shared medals.  (For example, in the original game, a character could equip the White Ring of Mandarin and be able to do more damage. In the new game, players earn generically named medals, which affect the entire team.).

There is a lot to like in Marvel Ultimate Aliiance 2. The cut scenes bring some of the better moments of Civil War and Secret War to life. The power fusion combinations are fun to play with.  You also get to play as some villains.  And while the game play is similar, the game lacks the heart of the original.  I didn't get the feel of the Marvel Universe that is present in the first incarnation.   There are no winks to comic fans.  The fact that Marvel specific awards and alternate costumes are gone exacerbates this fact.  Moreover, the way to accumulate extra coins is by smashing property and that's not very heroic (especially when Captain America was destroying NYC--it was kind of un-American).  Another problem (on the PS2 specifically) is that the game took forever to load and there were at least two glitches (one in New York and another after you face Bullseye) where the game glitched and had to be reloaded before you could continue. I looked on line and apparently lots of other people experienced the same problems in these spots.

All in all, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is not a greatest game. But, it's not a bad one either.  It is definitely worth a rental.  Otherwise, I'd wait until it's on sale.  And if you do buy it.  Get it at Amazon here and help this site..