Gamernode: Previews - Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Preview

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Preview

Coming into Comic-Con, the game anticipated by most was Marvel Ultimate Alliance. It is a comic book convention, after all. I was lucky enough to spend some time with a few of the game,s creators during a Gamer Node test play session, and trust me, it did not disappoint.

For anyone living in a cave this past year, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision which will span every next-gen console, as well as the PS2, Xbox, and PSP. In it, players will be able to take control of over 20 playable heroes from the Marvel universe and play through a game world populated with over 140 Marvel characters. Like the X-Men Legends games, a party of four can be on the screen at any time, and up to four people can play cooperatively.

Ever since E3, the gaming world has been waiting with baited breath for more news on Ultimate Alliance; the wait is over. Today, three new characters were confirmed as playable and two new levels were revealed. The characters confirmed were Human Torch, Sue Storm and Iceman; the levels were Mandarin and Murderworld.

The Mandarin world takes place in a beautiful mansion with some incredible shading and texture effects present throughout. Floorboards look different from one another, and carpets add a nice touch of variety to the environment. I,m not quite sure at this moment if the Mandarin level actually houses The Mandarin, but if it does (and given the name it,s very likely) it quite possibly means that Iron Man will be a playable character in the game, given The Mandarin is part of his rogue gallery.

The other new level revealed was Murderworld. Murderworld has the appearance of a fun house, and is filled with many deadly traps which players will need to destroy in order to survive. There is one unique aspect of Murderworld which won,t be found in other levels, though: players fight themselves. Well, robots of themselves, at least. Fighting robot clones of your own team added a nice variety to the mix after a few levels of attacking generic henchmen. And while they couldn,t officially reveal the name of the villain you,ll fight at the end of Murderworld, anyone who knows comics knows that Murderworld and robot clones means one person: Arcade. So add him to your list of rumored characters in Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Speaking of characters, it,s about time I touched upon the three new arrivals. None of the three new characters were huge surprises, but it,s nice to have them confirmed as playable rather than confirmed as NPCs. Of the three, Human Torch appeared to be the strongest. With large exploding attacks (such as him going supernova) and extremely damaging ranged attacks, he,ll most likely be the favorite for many gamers. One nice touch they added (for the 360 version, at least) is some unique lighting and particle deflections when flame attacks are used on metal surfaces like floors. Shoot fire towards the ground, and you,ll see it bounce a little bit before it goes out. Sadly, I didn,t hear the trademark cry of, "Flame on!" But to be fair, it is still relatively early in the process.

Iceman appears to be slightly different from the Iceman available in the X-Men Legends games in that he seems to be more range-oriented rather than a melee monster. Ice-sliding is in the game (which is always fun) and his attacks seemed to be relatively quick to fire off. I didn,t notice him being able to freeze enemies, but Iceman was only used on the Skrull level (which still has an awesome looking Galactus in the background) so I,m not too sure if it,s not in the game yet, or if the guy playing Iceman just didn,t use it.

Last, we come to Sue Storm (aka The Invisible Woman). With the addition of Johnny and Sue Storm, that brings the total amount of playable Fantastic Four characters to three. Due to the fact that Reed hasn,t been confirmed (or rumored) as a playable character yet, I,d be willing to wager that he,s going to act in either an NPC role or be part of a storyline (such as him being captured by Doom). I would love to be able to play as Reed, but I just can,t see Raven using the entire Fantastic Four when the rest of the Marvel universe is available. Sue,s powers are pretty much what you would expect from her-force fields and invisible attacks. It looked like she plays similar to the way Jean Grey played in X-Men Legends, meaning she,ll likely be most effective in a support role rather than a full-out attacker.

The play session ended just after the Skrull world (which is one part of a three-world Galactus arc), and I was shown a cutscene literally straight off of the computer of one of the minds behind Ultimate Alliance. The cutscene takes place inside what I assumed was Doom,s fortress in Latveria. It began with a puff of blue smoke, which led into Nightcrawler fighting some Doombots. After kicking a few using some moves which would make Jet Li envious, he teleported up to the roof and went from chandelier to chandelier, cutting the chains with his swords and sending them crashing to the ground below.

Of course, that wasn,t enough for good ol, Kurt. He then proceeded to teleport back to the ground, where he shoved his dual swords through the back of a Doombot, then teleported behind another Doombot shockingly oblivious to the action around him. After a quick quip, he ripped the head off the robot and made his way for the exit, only to be electrocuted. Cue Dr. Doom,s entrance. The cutscene ends with an ominous scene: Dr. Doom ordering his henchmen to take Nightcrawler to his lab.

This cutscene will lead into one of the main story arcs; I can only hope it ends with Kurt getting sprung from Doom,s lab. Of course, given that Dr. Doom is the main villain in the game (the main threat in the plot is Dr. Doom,s reestablishment of the Masters of Evil), things don,t look good for our favorite little devil. Other than the cutscene featuring an appearance by Doom, there was a fight against Shocker (who at one point was a member of the Masters of Evil). If you want to count the rumor that Arcade will be present, that brings the number of villains/bosses seen/mentioned in the short play session to three (well, potentially four villains given that Namor can be on either side given the situation).

All in all, I was very impressed with what went down in the private room behind the Marvel Ultimate Alliance display. With some new characters and beautiful environments, the game is really beginning to look like it will live up to the hype it,s generating. The combat system makes it more involved than other games of its type (such as Gauntlet, X-Men Legends and Justice League Heroes), and the sheer number of customization through character choices, costumes and branching story paths will make for an insane amount of replayability. I,m not even taking into account the online play (which you can use to officially let your friends know that you,re better than them at the game). If you,re a comic fan, Marvel Ultimate Alliance looks like it,s shaping up to be the best comic book game to date. If you aren,t a comic fan, the game will still be extremely fun, and thanks to "Comic Missions" you,ll be able to learn about the playable characters and their respective backgrounds.

The game is entering its final stages now, and according to the guys I talked to there aren,t any signs of it being delayed. Look for Marvel Ultimate Alliance to ship later this year for the PS2, Xbox, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. And good news for you Wii owners: the Wiimote is actually utilized in the gameplay for the Wii version.

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