2 weeks ago marked the release of a game that I have been praying for about 10 years or so. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order released as a platform exclusive on the Nintendo Switch, and as a veteran MUA fan, I eagerly awaited my copy. Sadly what I am a bit torn over what I received. Don't get me wrong, I have genuinely enjoyed the game and the innovative mechanics that MUA 3 has brought to the table have made the experience very enjoyable, some major issues are present that spoil the game to the point where I can't help but feel a bit cheated. Anyways, let's dive in on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order!
The Good
The gameplay of MUA 3 is easily its greatest feature. Adding the heroic camera angle creates a more dynamic and personal experience, giving the player a pseudo over the shoulder 3rd person experience, and I would not play this game in any other way! Despite being ridiculously button mashy, the game makes up for that by allowing even base specials to be combined with other characters in synergy combos to amplify attacks and it makes the game that much more enjoyable. The light attacks and heavy attacks are fun to use and because of how well everything works in tandem, it's super easy to lose track of time in the game which is absolutely what you want. Which is only amplified by the roster.
If there was one thing that MUA 3 learned from MUA 2 it was to have a bigger damn roster. The full roster in the base game (there are several expansions coming out over the next few months) spans 36 characters! Each character has fairly unique styles of play and that makes for a genuinely new experience for playing with different characters. In addition to that, the teams you form get bonuses that work in conjunction with the teams they are on in the books, which also adds incentives to keep in mind who your characters frequently interact with in the comics. However, what is the real icing on the cake for this game is the ensemble that was assembled to voice these characters.
 |
| Other characters include Loki and Thanos |
Playing off the hit PS4 exclusive Spider-Man, Yuri Lowenthal returns to voice Peter Parker/ Spider-Man. While this is certainly a huge plus, the best news is that the voice cast from the beloved Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes show return to reprise all of their roles! Also Nolan North returns to voice Deadpool in the way only he can! So the game sounds incredible!
The Meh
The only thing I am going to talk about here is the story. The story is pretty generic, protect the Infinity Stones from Thanos and his Black Order. Which isn't necessarily bad, but when compared to how this story was handled between Infinity War and Endgame, the story for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 falls dramatically short. While I do realize that they certainly tried to play up the cartoon aspect of things, I feel like this is not in line with the spirit of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The first game, which is without a doubt still the best one, had a brilliant story of Dr. Doom having all the Marvel villains keep the heroes at bay while he schemed to steal the power of the Odinforce for himself. It was intricate, well written, and still allowed for characters like Deadpool and Spider-man to quip and be fun, bring a sense of levity to things. So while the story of MUA 3 isn't bad per se, it's not the standard it should or could be as an entry in the MUA franchise.
I love this game MUA1 Forever!!
The Ugly
Despite all the fun I have had with this game, there have been some issues that have completely left a bad taste in my mouth. In fact, there are exactly two of them. The first is actively the worst of these issues in that the characters that you are not using do not scale their experience. This concept is actively stupid and hurts the chances of replayability. No one wants to start over again from the ground up with each character. It's tedious and awful. None of the previous installments in MUA have done this, so I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to implement it here. The way you are supposed to play these games is that you go through the game as your favorite characters (maybe occasionally switch up a squad member) and then when you beat the game, you go back and replay old missions with different people but without the disadvantage of starting over from the beginning. All this mechanic does is punish you for playing with your favorites and force you to dredge through the leveling up process for each character in the game. Which leads me to my next problem, the infinity trials.
The Infinity trials are probably the most annoying part of the game. The reason they are annoying is that they are tedious tasks that are usually the same missions over and over again with different specifications on completing them. However, to force you to play them they have this be the way you unlock character costumes and be the way to unlock the three most desired characters to have on your roster: Magneto, Loki, and Thanos. This is especially annoying because Magneto's boss fight was more than enough of a pain in the ass to deal with, and you had to beat the entire game once to even get to Thanos. Having me go through an additional infinity trial in order to be rewarded these characters doesn't seem fair, it seems like a slap to the face. However, I'll be damned if I don't have the Master of Magnetism unlocked for my roster, so play I must. It turns the experience into one of spite rather than enjoyment.
All in all Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a fun game. However, the issues with the game stack up and hurt it just enough to prevent from being the amazing one it could have been. I would rate Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 with a 7.9 out of 10. It's definitely above the curb of being average, but just a hair away from being great.
This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and we'll see you again soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment