SAVE $1 - Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 $28.99

An Unimpressive Addition To the Series You see more and more the PS2 system getting the shaft on new games. Developers see there's enough of a user base out there that they don't want to pass up the customers, but they also know they'll charge less for the games and won't have the visual eye candy, so they try to trick people into thinking they're getting almost the same game as you see in the ads showing the PS3/360 version of games. I've seen everything from very nearly lying to just leading people to the wrong conclusion. As someone who cannot afford a next gen system right now, it's irritating. For every excellent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, you have a buggy mess like Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a completly different from the next gen game like Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, or just a rip off like Tomb Raider: Underworld. After having played the X-men Legends II and the first Ultimate Alliance on PC I was so disappointed to find out that Ultimate Alliance 2 would be for consoles only. At the time I only had a PC, but later I got a PS2 and to my delight they announced Ultimate Alliance 2 on PS2! I thought it'd be great, if it's just the same level graphics as Alliance it'd be so cool. What a dissappointment. The graphics are a step down even from the Legends games in my opinion. I normally don't care about graphics, but you'd think they could have done a little better than this for $30 new. Also, an obvious lack of play testing hurts this offering too. There are more bugs than a you should resonably expect in a console game where they can't offer patches. I've also read it's much shorter than the PS3/360 version, but I have no way to judge whether that's true or not. If you're like me and holding off on the next generation console, then maybe wait and buy this game cheap when you do. Unless you can get it pretty cheap or you're desperate, just collect X-men Legends I, X-men Legends II, and Ultimate Alliance 1 for cheap and get your enjoyment out of those. For most people, this should be a pass. Rating: 2 (Veil_Lord, 2010-01-30) Product reviewed: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Tossed Off I know the PS2 is a lame duck platform, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put any effort into making a game for it. Anyone who bought this at its original retail price got suckered big time because the designers did nothing to improve upon the first game and took several steps back. Everything from the menu graphic screens to the cut scenes looks cheaper than last time. As someone else noted, the selection of heroes is awesome if you like the X-Men. And while it was nice to have the villains like Venom, the designers compensated by removing heroes like Ghost Rider and Spider-Woman. And worse yet they took away the option to change what costumes your heroes wear, which I had fun with in the last game, especially breaking out the retro unis. To make it all worse, the story is far less robust than the last game. In the first game you went everywhere from New York to Latveria to deep space to Valhalla. This time around the farthest you get is a dimensional prison. Yawn. And then there was the stupid Tron-style game to "hack" computers that was just annoying because you could hardly ever see where you were going. More to the point, the whole look of it was like something for the Atari 2600. What is this, 1982? Argh. It's also misleading the description that you get to pick sides for the registration thing. Sure you do--for like two chapters. Big whoop. It's actually a pretty small amount of the game dedicated to that. Very deceptive and misleading. And even in those two chapters it only takes a couple of heroes off the table. Ooooh. There was just nothing to like about this game. Most of it is the same bashing and brawling as the first game and the X-Men Legends games, all of which are better and probably cheaper by now in terms of price. So if you haven't played those, go ahead and try one. If you have, then don't bother with this inferior product. That is all. Rating: 2 (BJ Fraser, 2010-01-25) Product reviewed: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

OK,but don't waste your money As I went to my local Blockbuster I decided to rent a game.Of course,I choose Ultimate Alliance 2.In this game you choose through a variation of characters and battle villians.Now here are some pros. 1.Many more charcters than the first. 2.A very large amount of villians you face.(a few i don't know about) Now over to the cons. 1.Very small characters. 2.When you don't touch the controller your character swirvels around. Now don't waste your time and just rent the game. Rating: 4 (B. Smith, 2009-11-29) Product reviewed: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Great game, high replay value This game lets you choose which side of the story you want to play. You can choose between the pro or anti Superhero registration, and can unlock different characters by recruiting them. The character progression in the game is good, and has a great replay value. After you beat the first story, you can select to play the opposite side, with the benefit of unlocking the characters from the other storyline as well. My wife and I play this game a lot and enjoy the cooperative gameplay Rating: 5 (enrique alvarado, 2009-11-20) Product reviewed: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Bleh, just stick with the first one. There were parts of it that were good but overall it wasn't even close to as good as the first one. I will break my opinion down a bit The bad: - the camera angles were horrible and you had next to no time where you were in control of them - the graphics weren't even as good as the first one which shocked me since it is the newer game - the areas were less accessable. A good example of this was the toned down crappy version of Stark tower. - the voice acting was less and worse. They replaced Spider-Man's voice with that of an annoying prepubessant and had next to no speaking parts outside of the stupid briefings which they didn't bother animating more than shadows in front of bright colors. - there was next to no character specific benefits (you know how in the first one you got different responses and conversations based on who was in your party) - There were hardly any villians. - The fusion system wasn't nearly as fun as I hoped it would be - It was choppy (story-wise and game play-wise) - Only one costume per character and no individual character gear - Character management wasn't as good as the first game. - I absolutely hated any "hacking" minigames becauses they were complete BS and weren't even remotely fun. - The "training" parts sucked hardcore. I preferre the game hints of the first game - The score thing at the end of levels (what is this? Halo? Different game with very different goals.) I mean do I care what my report card says so long as I save the world? Also, making destruction a major thing was stupid. I mean would we want superheroes going around busting up cars and mailboxes? Lame - The "awards" at the end of each level (finisher! What is this? Lazertag?) - They took out Dr. Strang and Silver Surfer The good - They didn't mess too much with the controls - Deadpool was great and I loved the gag on him knowing that he was in a videogame (it worked as well for the game as the comics) - There were some cool new characters and the variety was nice. - The choice of the Civil War theme was nice Rating: 3 (J. King, 2009-11-10) Product reviewed: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2