Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

The four-player mayhem of the previous Marvel Ultimate Alliance and, before that, the X-Men Legends series continues in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. It is based on the Secret War and Civil War comic book storylines. Following Nick Fury’s unauthorized super-hero assault on Latveria and a fight gone wrong in Connecticut, the government passes the super-human registration act, which requires all super-powered individuals to reveal their identities to the government. At one point in the story, you must choose whether to support or oppose registration, and certain heroes will always be on one side or the other, locking them out if you take the opposite path. After this point, the game changes depending on the storyline you select. You begin with a limited number of characters and can unlock more by completing bonus simulator missions, which give you a particular task, such as blowing up cars. All four heroes are always active during the game unless they are knocked out. Every character has a health and stamina meter. To change characters, use SHIELD access points, usually at each level’s beginning and middle. The stamina meter recharges itself and regulates power usage. Each hero has a jump (which, depending on the character, can also be used to double-jump, fly, or web-swing), a grab, a quick strike, and a powerful strike. These can be used in conjunction to perform actions such as jumping attacks, picking up an enemy and punching them, and so on. When these are combined with a modifier button, you can use powers. Each hero possesses a wide range of abilities. Leveling up grants you points to spend on improving your abilities. You can reassign the points and switch between powers at any time. Defeating enemies and smashing environment items grants you health refills and issues to upgrade each hero’s statistics. You can also carry items that provide stat bonuses, such as increased HP or a prize for a specific damage type. Adding fusions and two-character team-up attacks is a significant change from the previous game. This is controlled by a four-star meter. This is filled by defeating enemies or discovering an item that instantly fills the meter. You can use one star to resurrect a fallen teammate or all four to launch a fusion attack. Every possible pairing of two characters has its distinct fusion. There are three fundamental types: Specific fusions, such as Things throwing Mr. Fantastic at someone. These deal much damage to a single target and are great for bosses. There are also clearing fusions, such as Storm reflecting her lighting off Wolverine. These deal damage to all enemies within a certain radius. Clearing fusions help get rid of a swarm of enemies. Finally, there are guided fusions, such as Iceman and Human Torch shooting their powers at each other and then mowing down anyone in their way. These are useful for clearing out enemies who are dispersed.