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Ultimate Success
By J.B. Eissac

Marvel - Ultimate Alliance is the type of game that has become a staple for Activision. Following up on X-men Legends One and Two,Ultimate Alliance allows you to create a team of four members from a cast of over twenty. Playing Ultimate Alliance you can really see what Activision has learned from the previous two. Unlike most games the updates from the previous two have really helped to evolve Ultimate Alliance into a great game.

The leveling system in Ultimate Alliance is a lot simpler, yet in most ways is a better fit. The game allows you, like in the first two, to add points to different powers that each character has to choose from. However when you place points in U. A. they arenot permanently placed in that location, allowing you to switch your powers more effectively as you grow stronger.

One new feature to leveling is that throughout the game you are able to unlock costumes. Each new costume has different bonuses that you can spend money on to increase that bonus. They’ve also eliminated a lot of the gear throughout the game, making it a lot easier to decide which character should wear which instead of shuffling through over fifty different gears in your inventory.

Besides leveling they changed the health packs and energy packs. Instead of collecting them throughout the game enemies drop orbs when you defeat them which automatically fill your health or energy. At first I was a little disappointed by this, but as I played through the game though I wasn't low on health and energy as often as I was in the two X-Men Legends games.

The replay capacity of U. A. is surprisingly strong. Having the vast playable characters, you have the urge to go through the game multiple times. Plus an unexpected ending has you wanting to go back and play the game over making choices that you didn’t the first
time.

The new feature allowing you to create your own team and level it giving you new bonuses is also a great reason to replay the game. Ultimate Alliance is one of those games you can play through a multitude of times and have a different result at the end of each game.
Amidst the great updates to the game there were a few small negatives that Activision could still work on. The graphics from X-Men Legends one through Ultimate Alliance has always been questionable. I can understand how it could be complicated to improve on what they have now. It just doesn’t seem as if they have done anything to improve those graphics. I do have to say that the in-game movies are visually impressive.

On a smaller note, it seems to me that a lot of the characters share the same abilities. Activision changed the visual look of each ability to make them unique. This isn’t that big of a problem, though looking at the past from the X-men Legends games Activision has been able to give each character unique individual powers. Overall Ultimate Alliance is an extremely fun and replayable game. I tend to ignore the visuals, having more fun playing the game with a pretty much fully
customizable team, whether it is with characters, powers are costumes. I have enjoyed Ultimate Alliance and look forward to a sequel or a third installment to X-men Legends. I give Ultimate Alliance an 8.5 out of 10.

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