Finally Comic Books and Games Have Something in Common... A STORY

I have been playing comic book games ever since the term was coined and we have come to see and expect... Well, very little in the way of a good storyline. Today's market demands a more sophisticated story. Gamers are grown men and women of the world now and expect to be treated as such, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance really gives a hearty helping of content and story-line. The basic premise is that Dr. Doom has put together a new super-evil group called the Masters of Evil, and has the antithesis to every good guy you can play on their side trying to take over the world. You travel an amalgam of Marvel favorite places such as Stark Tower, Mephisto's Realm, Arcade's Fun-House and eventually Doom's Castle. Its obviously the supers' job to stop Doom from taking over. To look at it from a completely graphical standpoint, close-up it isn't the prettiest game out there, but its still a contender for effects of the year in my opinion, because from the distance you are from the characters you really don't have to have that much minute details in there and the sheer scale of some of the characters and battles (Fun house robot and GALACTUS!!) you really get a sense of the enormity comic book characters must feel going into battle against some pretty insane odds. The first few times you are a little hesitant to jump in, but by the time you get a few hours into the game you are in the fray tearing apart anything in your way. Controls for the XBox version were pretty simple. One of the criteria for purchasing a game at my house is: Are the controls simple? The second criteria is: Is the game co-op? You see, I play games with my wife as a family bonding time. She doesn't really get into many games, but she does like the ones where we get to be on the same team. We are both fiercely competitive but she doesn't have the luxury of having played thousands of hours a year for the last 20 years to really compete. And, when she loses, I lose, too. So, is in my best interest to keep those two criteria in mind if I want to get much play-time in on any game. The simple default control scheme is really something that any 3rd person top-down adventure player will be used to. You hold down R for your special moves, L to block and your buttons are layed out to where all moves are very easilly attainable. It took my wife only about 10-15 minutes to really get the basic hang of it if that tells you anything. The voice acting was pretty good in some places, and pretty bad in others. I think they tried hard and meant well with it, but it just could have used a bit more refinement for me. The rest of the game felt very meticulously planned out, but the voices sounded like a last-minute slap-on to me. I felt that Doom, Loki, Wolverine and Fury were the best of the crop. Others were pretty much O.K. at best. As far as overall fun - I say that the variable missions plus the comic book missions, trivia, and (mostly) optional sub-plots make for a robust game that will eat up many hours of your time. At the time I'm writing this, my wife and I are almost through the main story, but I plan on playing all the comic missions and sub-plots before we do. Sometimes we bicker about whether to move on or to talk to that one last guy with an exclamation point over his head. I gave it a 4.25 because it really was a great game. Well above-average for the genre. However, it was really not anything spectacular or ground-breaking. The team system we've seen before, if not in this exact iteration, and the sound really detracted from some of the enjoyment for me because it just was hard to shut it out. I still highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun single or multi-player experience.