Whenever I hear someone ask "What's your favourite comic book related game?" I always hear ARKHAM ASYLUM. Occaisionally Spider-man 2 will crop up, however I have never heard anyone say Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I just don't get why not.
Coming off the back of the 2 X-Men: Legends games (which in themselves were awesome), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is an RPG which allows you to create a team of 4 Marvel heroes from a very impressive selection to take on the Masters of Evil.
OK, so lets break it down...
1. Characters
One of the things that made this game so epic were the characters used, both playable and non-playable. Here, they have collected a giant range of the best Marvel characters, from the famous to the more obscure.
The game allows you to set up your Marvel dream team, allowing you to combine the likes of Captain America, Silver Surfer, Blade, Thor, Doctor Strange, and sop many others. What Marvel geek does not dream of doing that?
As well as the dream team, the number of supporting charcetrs is incredible, from Clea to Valkyrie to Black Widow...Senator Kelly even finds time to make an appearance.
The villain cast is immense! Firstly, Doctor Doom (in all his menacing glory and not at all like his FF movie counterpart) is the main bad guy, assembling all of Marvel's greatest villains around him to form the Masters of Evil. His inner circle comprising of Loki, Baron Mordo, Ultron, and the Enchantress. This is a game which has collected the likes of the Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, Shocker, Mephisto, Destroyer, Galactus and the Super Skrull all into one epic story!
2. Locations
Latveria
Asgard
SHIELD Helicarrier
Atlantis
Valley of Spirits
Mephisto's Realm
Murderworld
Niffleheim
Valhalla
Attilan
All in one game.....epic!
3. Marvel Lore
By talking to the supporting characters and by playing the main quests, you can pick up on so much Marvel history...it's all in there. There are even in-game quizzes which aren't for the lighthearted Marvel fan. This game goes into so much depth about the Marvel world it's incredible. It was so great when playing through it to see everything I loved brought together.
4. Story
OK, so for those of you reading you haven't played this already may be thinking that all of this content in one game seems too clustered...but no, it works. The story is engaging and true to the characters...Doom wants to be all powerful, Loki wants to take Asgard, Galactus just wants to eat planets. I won't reveal spoilers but the story works so well and it's everything a Marvel fan would love to play through.
5. Extras
This game is long. The story is epic and engaging and there are many side quests along the way. Throughout you can collect challenges and concept art, and the chance to unlock many alternate costumes for your characters.
6. Gameplay
I loved the gameplay. The powers were all really well done and I liked how you could choose which ones to upgrade. I also loved all the big special powers for each hero. The gameplay was similar to that of Champions of Norrath (another of my all time favourite games). It was really fun to play and mixed with the Marvel back story made the gaming experience perfect.
I recently replayed through it with one of my friends and it was just as fantastic as the first few times. I feel that it doesn't truly get the recognition it deserves, and I know that it was very well rated on release but it seems to have disappeared now.
The sequel was really good, playing through the Civil War story was awesome, but compared to the first one it was such a disappointment. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance may not be as well defined or as challenging as Arkham Asylum but the content and gameplay are incredible. It is definitely my favourite comic book game, and one of my all time favourites as well.
Now I know that most people on this site have probably played this, what are your thoughts? For everyone who hasn't, I strongly urge you to go out and buy it now.
One last thing, my favourite dream team:
Thor
Moon Knight
Silver Surfer
Doctor Strange