Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is showing at Activision’s booth behind closed doors. It’s not playable, but we were witness to a 20 minute demo that was played by some of the folks at Activision and Vicarious Games.
MUA2 will contain twenty-four playable characters and the story is an offshoot of Marvel’s very popular Civil War atory arc from the comics. While the foundation of the story is from the Civil War story arc, the game has an entirely other narrative that lets gamers go through a large ‘what if’ scenario. I was told that there are also multiple paths and different endings to the campaign too, just like in the original MUA.
Playable characters are still being unveiled as the game marches towards its Fall launch. Right now playable characters include old favorites like Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, and Deadpool are included, as well as others like Juggernaut, Songbird, Storm, and the Iron Fist (who I can’t wait to play as).
One of the main new features of MUA2 is Fusion, whereby any two characters can team up to unleash a devestating combo. There are over 250 possible combinations, and it’s up to the player to figure out how best to use them. In the demo we saw The Hulk throw Wolverine at tremendous speed into a helicopter to destroy it. Another time we saw Storm shoot lightning into Captain America’s shield, which deflected the lightning into nearby foes. When you Fuse Songbird and Juggernaut, Songbird will cover Juggernaut in an energy shield with spikes, and then Juggernaut can lower his shoulder and run into objects with great force.
Many, if not most, of the other elements of MUA are still present in MUA2, but a lot of other features and enhancements are also included. Each character still has an upgrade path, and other boosters are also available that give small percentages of upgraded damage, etc. You can also swap out characters at anytime during battle. The engine now also supports more on screen enemies at once, so expect some large scale furious battles.
Graphically, MUA2 looks improved from MUA, but the difference isn’t night and day, which is fine, as MUA is still a fine looking game by today’s standards.
MUA2 is due out this Fall and we’re very much looking forward to it.
