Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel
Xbox360



Developed by the team that brought you 'X-Men Legends', comes a new hack-and-slash RPG set in the expansive Marvel Universe, featuring heroes from many recent popular movies and comic books. In 'Marvel Ultimate Alliance', you get to choose a team of four Marvel superheroes to battle with the evil forces of Dr Doom and his band of super villains, the Masters Of Doom. On your way to stop Doom and his dastardly plans, you'll meet many of Doom's allies, including Mystero, Loki and the most sinister monsters of the Marvel Universe.

Because everyone has their favourite hero, selecting a team of four from 20 can be quite a hard task! There are the well-known heroes like Spiderman, Captain America, Wolverine, Storm and the members of the Fantastic Four, but there are also some more obscure heroes like Deadpool, Ms Marvel, Luke Cage and Electra. Although selection's limited at first, as you progress through the game you unlock more to play. Whilst certain teams have certain bonuses - for example the X-Men team gives you a bonus on energy, whilst choosing a team of all-lady Super Heroes give you a damage boost, after the third mission you can make up your own team and earn experience for team upgrades.

Each hero in a team also earns individual experience points and levels, which gives access to better skills. Each hero has their own powers, and although they're essentially the same, they still all look coolly different.

Gameplay-wise, the game suffers from getting quite repetitive, as you mainly mash buttons to fight through each level. There is some depth with the combos you can pull off, but really, it becomes a matter of slogging through enemy after enemy, level after level. Boss battles are a little more involved, often needing timed button presses, and there are a few puzzles to solve which break up the action here and there. The game truly shines with multiplayer though, either alongside a friend or via the Xbox Live service and you can change heroes and players relatively painlessly.

Continuing in the tradition of 'Baldur's Gate' and the 'X-Men Legends' type of isometric, hack-and-slash action role-playing games, 'Marvel Ultimate Alliance' is an incredibly fun, addictive game, particularly if you're a fan of the Marvel Universe. It doesn't stray too far from the given formula, though, and those looking for something a bit deeper will be disappointed, but those looking for a fun, multi-player button-masher will feel right at home.

Julian Cram