Don't we sometimes ever dream of shooting webs out of our hands, fly across the sky wearing a modern war suit, or have a retractable claw? Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 lets you do all that again, for the second time!! Let's roll Spidey

Graphic

MUA 2's environment is pretty bland. You will feel that it's the same place over and over again. The only place that feels different was the rooftop level but even the prison 42 did not help me to enjoy my stay longer. The level's design bleeds out quickly and fussy gamers might complain about it longer, I, have other reason to love this game.

Marvel Characters looks great but that is how they are supposed to look like anyway. My main complaint is the lack of awesome looking secondary outfits. Each characters have only one alternate outfits, unlike the previous MUA where a characters have up to four. To make matter worst, most alternate outfits looks more like Paris Hilton's wardrobe. It is either fashionable ugly or just too horribly ugly. Even my PJs look much better.

From left to right: Deadpool, Daredevil, Iceman and Gambit. Seriously? These are the whackjob alternate suits they gave us?

With great powers comes dreaming about using those powers on helpless goons. Marvel characters have awesome powers but if the graphic does not help to translate those powers as incredibly destructive and cool looking, the MUA 2 would have suck, big time. Fortunately, I enjoyed playing most characters in MUA2 just because they unleashed cool looking, destructive powers. Whether I was torching, slamming, psychic-ing, slashing or just shooting, I felt a wave of euphoria as I mow down a battalion of enemies. Solo journey too can be gratifying if your powers looks cool and powerful.......except for Mr Fantastic. It's hard not to mistaken him for a clown with flexible body.

Storyline

MUA's 2 storyline is more serious as compared to the fantasy of MUA1. In MUA2, the storyline is taken from the Civil period in Marvel timeline. As the Superheroes actions are being questioned following various disasters caused by superpowers, the United States government has laid down Superhumans Registration Act (SRA) that requires people with superpowers to register and work with the government to fight crimes. SRA splits the superheroes into two factions, those that register and those that opposes and eventually being hunted down by those that register. I like MUA2 storyline's as compared to MUA1. For once, in a superheroes game, it got me thinking who will actually win the war (Yes, I did not read the comic).I enjoyed my ride across this topsy turvy marvel superheroes civil war.

Good vs......umm...good!!

This is the part that I dislike. I prefer to see some superheroes characters performing the real briefing instead of some crappy PowerPoint presentation. Bad decision from Vicarious Vision. Minus point for you. More CG would be good for my Marvel souls.

Gameplay

We could not make out what genre would MUA2 falls into. Some says its an action RPG, some says its a button mashing game, some says its a party game and I says its a Marvel Superheroes games where you can obliterate an entire platoon of army with awesome looking powers. Why? Read On

MUA 2 truncates its power lists. You have only four powers for each characters and each powers is map to a face button. Each level you gain, you obtain one skill points that are used to increase the power of your powers. You also gets points to to be put into passive boosts by destroying boxes. You can readjust any points anytime you want, even during boss fight when you find out the 'clearing' power you are using is ineffective against the bosses. Each power can only be powered up to a certain extent until you reach the required level to power up further and this makes it easy to have 2 out of 4 powers at its maximum potential most of the time. The lack of punishment for lack of judgement during levelling up makes MUA2 less of an RPG. It is up to you to decide whether its actually a problem for you. For me, I just enjoy obliterating foes with my favourite power and I appreciate having my power at full blast. However, deep inside me, I do wish to play a marvel superheroes game, oblivion style. Someday, but not today.

Just a cool picture, ain't it?

Yes, at some point, you will have to choose which side to choose, to support or oppose. I supported initially and opposed for a little while. I found both side of the coin to be rather similar. The differences lie only in the briefing and objectives. Plus, only only 3 characters (which I do not mind losing) were so adamant to choose a side that they are locked for the other side. Ironman, Mr Fantastic and Songbird supported the RSA while Captain America, Luke Cage and Ironfist chose otherwise. Trust me, you won't miss any of them.

How good is MUA2 may be down to character selection. The current lineups has quite a few powerhouse and likeable characters with Wolverine, Gambit, Spiderman, Jean Grey, Human Torch, Iceman, and of course Deadpool leading the line of characters we love. Plus, each and everyone of them is nice to use in a way. Characters that we don't care like Luke Cage, Ironfist, Songbird are also in. It didn't make much difference if they are in or not but we do hope that more known and loved characters are in instead of these stooges. We would like to see War Machine, Bishop, Cable (all these in the story but unplayable), Cyclops, Nightcrawler, The Punisher, Magneto (DLC content not counted). More famous characters will make this a much better game.

Part of the party but we do not care about flexible boy

The game claimed to have over 200 fusion powers but truth be told, most looks the same and have the same effects. However, that doesn't detract the fusion powers are actually the plus points of MUA2. There are 3 distinct types of fusion powers  that have 3 different effects. Clearing: to clear a large amounts of enemies that are simultaneously kicking your arse. Guided: to guide 2 heroes to destroy everything in a guided path. Targeted: to cause massive damage to a single enemies. The fusion powers are a great addition to the game and the is nonetheless cool and destructive, just not as varied as they claimed.

Teamwork never feels so cool....or hot

Yes, I found some glitches and they are downright annoying because it caused me to restart from previous checkpoints which is quite a distant.

Instant 1, an NPC refused to open a gate for me. Darn it, open the damn thing. I replayed from previous checkpoints and she did answered my prayers and open the damn thing for me

Instant 2, the boss disappeared and I fought waves and waves of goons spending almost half an hour. In reward for my patients, I found him stuck behind a wall. No idea how he got out of the sealed room but my powers were able to penetrate wall without destroying them. If I restarted from the previous checkpoint, I would have choke the person beside me

Instant 3, the game freezes but this might be caused by my Xbox. Box oh Box, never die on me, please!!

A paragraph has to credited to this insane guy who thinks he is in a video game. Can anyone doubt him? His smart mouth and wisecracks makes playing solo more bearable and fun.He is the cracker of the party. We should have him in every game!!

Bahahahahahaha......I have no idea why I laughed

I like Marvel Ultimate Alliance, 2 a lot and I daresay more than the first just because the powers looks more destructive and cool. My other partner in crime dislike the step back Vicarious Vision took in chucking out the optional costumes with different perks system and truncating the power list but I look this as more of a action game rather than RPG. That being said, both of us did enjoy playing the game, even on the solo journey and we believe you will too. Roll on the power, baby. Boom, Kapow