Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

[Vigilance]

With the exception of the Hulk all the Marvel heavies seem to be playable. Who are your faves?

I have to say, since we know the game contains Dr Strange, Namor and Silver Surfer, if you cant unlock the Hulk and play the Defenders, then that sucks. I'd love me some old school Defenders action!

Chuck

 

[Seonaid]

Your starting lineup in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance consists of Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, but after a few levels playing with these heroes, you're given the option to create your own custom team.

Don't let this fool you, though--the "few levels" go by very quickly and it doesn't seem like an issue that you're only given these four to start. I didn't realize that I couldn't switch out until I read this, actually.

My biggest gripe is that each character has a separate "bank" based on how many coins s/he collects individually. This seems to be a hold-over (if it can be called that) from the arcade-style co-op. It would make more sense (to me) to have an overall amount when in the non-competitive co-op, so if Wolverine needs an upgrade, he can take money from the pool to do it, instead of waiting to find some of his own. If there's a way to transfer money from one character to another, I haven't found it yet!

The other thing that I haven't liked is that the characters start off with automatic levelling and equipping. I didn't realize this when I started, and wish I had turned it off. It's not a huge deal, but it seemed strange to me that that is the default.

Overall I love it. The cinematics are (so far) terrific, gameplay is similar enough to X-Men but improved, and the two different ways of multiplayer make it interesting. I've played with a partner so far, but I'm excited about the single-player and I'd like to try three- and four-player as well.

 

[Vigilance]

Well according to the review if the computer does something through auto-leveling you dont like, you can "unspend" the skill points. I think that option is on by default to make the learning curve less steep.

 

[Lazybones]

I've gotten a good stretch in playing SP and it's a lot of fun. Wolverine can take a tremendous amount of damage (I ended three boss fights thus far with just him left standing). I have only played about 1/3rd of the available characters thus far, but the powers and special moves are very fun. And from looking at the character stat sheets, I've only unlocked about 1/4th of the available powers thus far just for the ones I'm playing.

This one may push me to reactivate my Gold account once I've finished the game in SP.

 

[Seonaid]

Well according to the review if the computer does something through auto-leveling you dont like, you can "unspend" the skill points. I think that option is on by default to make the learning curve less steep.

::nod:: Which is why it's not a huge deal for me. But it's still strange as a default. I guess it goes along with the whole "make the puzzle solutions obvious" thing one of the reviewers noted.

 

[Vigilance]

BTW... there are codes in the gamespot hints and cheats section to unlock Silver Surfer and Daredevil for those interested.

Chuck

 

[stevelabny]

Gah I just posted a whole reply and ENWorld went down when I hit submit. Why did it crash on a Sunday? sigh.

Anywho, I'll try again.

Does anyone have a full character list including system exclusives? I've seen tons of different lists, and would love to see a final list.

I know there are multiple cool characters that are PSP exclusives (blah) and according to a user list on CBR, Moon Knight is a next-gen exclusive. Which would explain why sometimes he shows on lists and sometimes he doesn't and nobody has mentioned playing as him yet.

I have to create my own minority and say that the playable character list sucks. While some are complaining about the apparent lack of Hulk and Punisher (due to licensing issues) I will complain about the moronic inclusion of multiple X-Men and the Fantastic Four. We can already play these characters in multiple other games so why not give some time to shine to other characters?

Where are the classic Avengers? Vision,Wonder Man, Hawkeye (Clint is a PSP excl?) , Namor, Yellowjacket, Black Knight, etc

If you want to be more "modern" where are the Young Avengers and Runaways?

And how can you have a game with Cage and not include Iron Fist? Despicable.

My biggest conern about this game is whether or not it fixes the major problems from the XML games. Having to manage my inventory and level-up every 5 minutes drained all the fun out of those games. Has this been fixed? I'll go nuts if I still pick up stat boost items from every bad guy, have a roster of 32 characters, and still only have 20 inventory spots total. And while levelling up is supposed to fun , doing it 5 times every level is way too much. I want to PLAY the level, not constantly pause the game so I can have enough power to beat the boss. And both of these problems were made worse by the unreadable font size and color of XML2.

Can anyone tell me if they've fixed these problems?

 

[Vigilance]

Where are the classic Avengers? Vision,Wonder Man, Hawkeye (Clint is a PSP excl?) , Namor, Yellowjacket, Black Knight, etc

And how can you have a game with Cage and not include Iron Fist? Despicable.

I'll address these two: Vision and Namor are on the list at the official site, so they are either in the game as NPCs or as unlockable characters.

Also, the official site has "Henry Pym" listed as a character which could mean two things: one is that he's an NPC and the other that, since each hero has four costumes, his costumes are Yellowjacket, Giant Man etc (that would officially make this the best game ever btw).

On the Power Man/Iron Fist thing... I would love to see Iron Fist in the game and he might be. I dont think any official list of unlockable characters has been released yet. But if he's not, it's hardly a travesty in my book. Cage is an Avenger now and hasn't teamed with Iron Fist in, like, 20 years? 10 at the minimum.

Chuck

 

[jonathan swift]

Played a good bit last night. Thor is a best no matter what he does. And the Fantastic Four work really well as a team setting up the big time hits from Mr. Fantastic.

 

[Lazybones]

I'll address these two: Vision and Namor are on the list at the official site, so they are either in the game as NPCs or as unlockable characters.

Also, the official site has "Henry Pym" listed as a character which could mean two things: one is that he's an NPC and the other that, since each hero has four costumes, his costumes are Yellowjacket, Giant Man etc (that would officially make this the best game ever btw).

I've encountered Vision, Namor, and Henry Pym as NPCs. It's possible they might be unlockable later, but I don't think so.

I can't believe people are dissing this game for not having enough playable heroes. Already I am swapping out folks all the time, and I can see that there's going to be tons of replayability.

And the game does automatic leveling by default, so you don't have to worry about that aspect at all if you just want to jump in and beat up bad guys.