Civil War was a brilliant comic book event to adapt inMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2as the franchise is a representation of Marvel’s diverse breadth of characters and affiliations. Players choosing a side and being locked out of certain characters as a result makes for fantastic replayability with a branching narrative as well as an intriguing element regarding team compositions. Unfortunately, while Civil War condemns and condones with conviction and sees characters in Marvel’s pantheon pick sides for their own individual reasons,Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2compromises and is detrimentally lenient in order to not restrict players’ choices too heavily.
Marvel Ultimate Alliancehas lain dormant sinceMarvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Orderand its multiple DLC packs. Not enough time has passed to say with absolution whether it will be shelved again for nearly a decade or altogether this time around, but if a futureMarvel Ultimate Alliancegame was bold enough to revisit the Civil War premise it already has a layup lying in wait with Civil War 2, let alone an original take on the Superhuman Registration Act with distinct leaders and contentious choices, and it wouldn’t at all be a tall order to eclipseMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2in its underwhelming execution.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2’s Brief and Abrupt Civil War Adaptation Leaves a Lot to Be Desired
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2only prohibits four characters (including either Iron Man or Captain America, each side’s leader) depending on which stance players elect to take: if players side with Iron Man, then Captain America, Storm, Daredevil, and Luke Cage become unplayable; if players side with Captain America, then Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Mr. Fantastic, and Thor become unplayable. Sadly, though, even this choice is half-baked because the meat and potatoes ofMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2’s Civil War adaptationlasts for only a fraction of an already short game.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2maintains replayability as players can pick the side they didn’t choose in their first playthrough.
Civil War is largely interesting because readers get to see whichMarvel characters choose Pro-Registration or Anti-Registration in the Superhuman Registration Actand why, butMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2’s Tinkerer/nanite arc invades its personal space. Indeed, each act essentially plays out like a disjointed arc with its own influences and narrative direction, so anyone hoping that the Civil War chapter would be fleshed out across a game as long as the firstMarvel Ultimate Alliancemight be disappointed.
Civil War is the more engaging plot inMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2, but it isn’t the one that prevails. This is perhaps a way to make it so all heroes are fighting alongside one another instead of against each other by the end with players consequently having the full roster to choose from, and yet it lacks the weight that such a choice should have carried.
If Marvel Ultimate Alliance Still Lives, Civil War Shouldn’t Be Off the Table
A modernMarvel Ultimate Alliancemay be able to do the source material justice, and even then a loose adaptation or brand-new interpretation of the plot would be welcome since the original comic book event is fairly divisive and not received ubiquitously well, either. It’d be a shame ifMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2was the one and only opportunity for this storyline to be adapted and, having arguably failed in its attempt to do so, it’d be a low bar for any studio that could take a crack at it next.
AMarvel Ultimate Alliancegame adapting Civil War 2would be remiss not to shelve half of the game’s roster to truly sell the idea that characters have chosen their sides with players then forced to compose four-character teams out of the remaining roster available to them.
The secondMarvel Ultimate Alliancegames had a decently sized roster, but a roster more grandiose and all-encompassing like the thirdMarvel Ultimate Alliancewould bolster a Civil War narrative far more with a greater number of characters that players forfeit and doing so would make picking sides more meaningfully impactful beyond a series of missions that fly by. Either way, withno newMarvel Ultimate Alliancetitle on the horizon, it’ll be fascinating to see if the Civil War storyline or anything of its ilk may ever be adapted again into a future Marvel game.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
WHERE TO PLAY
The Marvel Universe is being torn apart. The Superhuman Registration Act becomes law and Super Heroes must register as weapons of mass destruction, becoming licensed government agents. As Civil War is stirred, Iron Man leads the Pro-Registration side while Captain America spearheads the stand on Anti-Registration. The enemies you battle and the missions you accomplish depend on which side you choose.Create and customize your ultimate team. Assemble your dream team from the Marvel Universe and select from over 24 playable characters, each with specialized powers.Cooperate with your ultimate alliance. Take full advantage of the Marvel Universe by playing Cooperative Mode with up to four friends, both online and offline.
