My review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is up. I enjoyed the game, but it didn’t have quite the spark that the first one did for me (which I finished). My biggest beef with it is how far they strayed from the Civil War storyline, both in terms of actual occurrences (which I can generally forgive) and emotional gravitas (which I just can’t in this case). Here’s what I said:
One could sum up my issues with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 by the liberties that were taken with both the story and the characters. It’s the only thing in my mind that keeps the game from being truly great, because the gameplay mechanics and leveling system are really top-notch. Certainly some of this is due to having to make some of the dialogue work regardless of which characters are being played, but hearing Iron Man call Captain America a traitor over and over again just one cutscene after he’s telling him about how his efforts to work with the government is a necessary compromise for them all just rang false to me. So much of this game comes so close to nailing it, it just hurts when it doesn’t. Certainly these criticisms skirt dangerously close to ‘Comic Book Guy’ overzealous nitpicking, but with a property as storied and coveted as the Marvel Universe, it comes with the territory.
You can read it here.
