Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

I played Ultimate Alliance 3 last night, and I can say that it's definitely a 7.5 to an 8 kind of game, which is the score range it's falling into now. It looks and sounds great (really good character designs, animation and some fun Saturday-morning-cartoon voice acting), there's a great selection of characters (playable and non-playable) and the story and RPG stuff seem meaty enough. Pretty interesting bosses as well.

But it is a tad linear (not a whole lot of depth to the level design and there doesn't appear to be any kind of physical central hub), has a somewhat repetitive gameplay loop and the camera doesn't work super well in enclosed spaces, especially when you get knocked into a wall or corner.

If anything, when there's a bunch of enemies on screen it almost feels like a Dynasty Warriors game with more interesting combat mechanics (you can get some good combos rolling with mid-air and ground attacks as well as abilities). Just a bit of good semi-mindless fun with your favorite Marvel characters. Don't expect the moon and you'll be fine. It's a solid mid-tier release, which we could use a few more of.

One of the most common complaints I've been seeing is that it's a late 00's game made a decade late. It's still fun, but it hasn't evolved with the times.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jul 18th 2019 at 10:40:20 AM

so whats the word on the costume variety for the game?

Allegra Clark is Spider-Gwen's voice actress.

& Rocket is a raccoon with a gun, Elektra is a chick that dual wields sais, & Iron Fist can make his hand glow.

I'm about as done with MCU influencing everything with life as much the next guy but the Guardians can do more than just that.

@agent-trunks Hey, there's Moon Knight!

So I've notice. Kinda weird they're not call the "Midnight Son" guest starring Frank Castle.

What's that supposed to mean? I'm not going to get the game day 1 since the roster looks very basic (not a bad thing), but for the life of me I can't remember the last game that has offline co-op & it wasn't some indie game.

Well yeah the Guardians can do more........ they just have to use the ones with the more creative powers like Quasar or Adam Warlock.

Also Iron First is a master martial artist who can generate ki. The Guardians due to being group-based characters have less diverse powers because the greater focus is on character interactions with each other & team synergy.

Edited by slimcoder on Jul 19th 2019 at 2:47:12 AM

.....

You know the entire point why I downplay Iron Fist's ability, right?

Anyways, I'm also the guy who unironically wants Cosmos. Quasar (regardless of which one) would've been nice & Warlock was really never going to happen. Kinda a shame, I really his chemistry with Thanos. Something I fear that will be forgotten as times goes on.

Cosmo would be a trip lol.

"I is a good boi!"

I’d argue the game being a late 00’s game is similar to Dynasty Warriors, and that’s not a bad thing so long as it plays well.

Anyway, bonus costumes. Any ideal ones people want?

Played the game. Like the first one, it shines most in Coop. Though the coop has a glaring flaw. If playing less than 4 players, only the host can switch between characters. All other players are bound to whoever they selected.

The Dr. Strange boss fight can eat a giant bag of dicks. It's unfun.

On the bright side, I like the combo attacks. Deadpool is hilarious.

On the down side, I have complaints:

I'm not sure how I feel about the upgrades? Like, why do I need both money AND orbs to upgrade the alliance? Ditto upgrading your skills which require like 3 ressources for no reason.

Why do Iso-8 cost an arm and a leg to upgrade, to barely any benefit? 14,000 shards for a 0.3% regeneration increase? Eat a dick game. Disassembling an 1so8 gives you 60 shards, for reference as to how much 14k is.

There's an unmistakeable feeling that the game's designed for you to grind the ever loving shit out of it, through the infinity trials (Some of which are plain unfun, btw.)

Edited by Ghilz on Jul 20th 2019 at 4:31:31 AM

From the looks of it, not everyone gets alternate costumes. And seems like Deadpool might be the only character with 2 extra costume, on account of his pre-order one.

That's disappointing.

Fuck, that's disappointing to know.

I really wanted the symbiote outfit for Spidey & Ms. Marvel for Carol.

Then again, it's not like I can think of any good alternative outfits Kamala & Miles.

Well other than that cheap costume Miles had.

Miles could have both his standard Ultimate Universe costume and the Spider-verse costume with the hooded jacket and sneakers.

Having sunk about 20 hours into it now, I'd give the game a 7 out of 10.

Combat is okay and fun, though hampered by small technical glitches.

The Camera in particular is finicky. There's two modes, a top down "Classic" mode, and "heroic" mode which is more a third person, behind your character deal. Neither work really well. In both cases the camera does weird things and gets stuck - early in the game you have to jump laser wires, and there's side rooms. The camera will lock to top down for this, and it takes several entering/leaving the side room for the camera to move so you can SEE inside the rooms. I've had moments where the camera turns and my active character isn't on screen. Heroic mode allows the camera to lock onto an enemy, but it can be frustrating to lock on to the right person, and locking on only fixes the camera's center of rotation, not your character's facing or movement.

The other is that the game sometimes expects a finesse the controls can't deliver? Many characters have attacks that require you to aim at an enemy. Or bosses who want you to throw things at them. And getting your aim right is just finicky enough to make this not fun. Like, it's not impossible, but characters don't rotate smoothly, and there's no indicator of where your aiming, which can be annoying with some characters who have odd stances (Groot and Rocket), or who are wide (Venom, Hulk).

Theres other weird issues, many enemies have moves where they can easily stun lock you. Doctor Strange in particular has a move where he makes twin rotating pillars of fire when you fight him. He doesn't telegraph the move, and if you're meleeing him when he does it (something 75% of heroes will be doing), it's basically guaranteed you get caught in the pillar and his own sprite, and he keeps hitting you while he carries you as he turns, and takes 3/4 of your health out right there.

The main downside is how fucking grindy the game is. The game EXPECTS you to grind so much, I'm legit surprised there's no microtransactions. It really feels sometimes like there should be options to just buy orbs considering how badly the game starves you of them.

Everything you do requires its own sub currency, on top of the money you get by the card loard. Some of the orb types are kinda rare. The game loves to hand out minuscule stat buffs (like, 50 pts in a stat when your average level 20 character (which isn't the level cap) might have 4 to 9k on that stat anyway), so you have to grind a million of these improvement to have a marginal increase, and each of these improvements costs an arm an a leg.

Also the lack of costumes. That's pure BS.

On the bright side, I like how hero comp works. The synergy system, and the way team bonus work encourage you to experiment. Some fights can be made easy by choosing, for example,a flying hero who can't be hit by ground traps or certain bosses' moves.

The Co-op adds a lot to the game, and I am not gonna lie that it probably made the game more fun. A lot of the stuff, while perfectly doable solo, feels like it's intended to have more than 1 player. Though I need to complain about how only the host can switch between computer characters.

Edited by Ghilz on Jul 20th 2019 at 9:53:12 AM

Turning in my Spider-Man fan card, what's the difference between his current look & Ultimate. I don't recall there being a difference.

That sounds like a major deal breaker. My friends are probably going to be cool with it, but I can't imagine the average person wants to spend time grinding in a beat' em up game.

Everything you're saying sounds like the game is worse than Ultimate Alliance 1.

I probably do prefer ultimate alliance 1, though that might be nostalgia talking.

I'd say the story for mua3 is better - or at least, it's better delivered. Like the first it's a very basic, excuse plot, but some characters do get to do legit cool shit in the cutscenes. Magneto steals every scene he's in (even if he's voiced by generic admiral guy from the Clone Wars using the exact same voice so you expect him to give you a break down on how the clone war is going). Also the voice acting is top notch. The voice actors for Spidey, Miles and Doc Ock from the PS 4 game all reprise their roles.

There's still characters who are basically just there to pad out the roster. but I do think that's one aspect where mua3 has mua1 beat.

The worst part about the grinding is really how the game seemingly hates giving out big bonuses. I can't easily show how diseartening it is to pay an arm and a leg for a percent of a percentage point in bonus.

There's no way I'm bothering to complete all the hexagons for the alliance grid, and I doubt I'll do all the rifts even. Some of them are just dickish in their difficulty.

Edited by Ghilz on Jul 20th 2019 at 10:15:15 AM

Hold on a damn minute, Tom Kane does a legit job when it comes voice overs even if he can sometimes be a Pigeonholed Voice Actor. And even then I still like his take on Yoda, even though Yoda has shown to be an easy voice to imitate in the world of voice acting. Also Nadji seems to be the go to voice for Miles like Mathis III is for Black Panther.

So any other pros for the game?

Edited by agent-trunks on Jul 20th 2019 at 7:40:32 AM

@Agent Trunks: I think he's stuck close to his Ultimate look in the comics... I was just thinking his baseline costume could be this, as in the game, and then his alternate costume could be something like this.

Not much. Like I said, the core combat is good. There's a stagger mechanic some mooks and all bosses have where you deplete a bar and they stun for a bit, which you can use to do more damage to them. Synergy attacks are a fun thing.

Otherwise it's very similar to MUA 1. Down to have a kinda simplistic plot more based around taking you weird locations and jamming more and more heroes in the game. Like MUA the levels are linear, there's collectibles to find, but the levels themselves don't lend themselves to exploration. The game does try to mix it up by adding the occasional very basic puzzle (like "Move the statue to the socket of the same color as the statue" basic). Bosses have gimmicks to prevent them from getting a bit too samey. Rifts add some variety to your grind if you're planning to grind the shit out of the game.

Basically, if you like the combat, it's a fun time. If you don't, then there's not much else to it.

I'm still not seeing the difference between his Ultimate comic's design & in this game. Looking his hoodie outfit now that would be better than the cheap costume.

&

That almost sounds like you're either gonna like it or not, but never love it.

I mistyped my initial post. He's in his ultimate costume currently, as far as I can tell. The hoodie was what I was putting forward as a second costume.

Edited by Durazno on Jul 20th 2019 at 10:12:42 AM

Pretty much. It's a good game, but it's no Spiderman PS 4. Not that it needs to be.

I think that's an accurate assessment.

Like people have said earlier in this thread, in some aspects, this feels like a game from a different era. With the excuse plot, the bajillion heroes. It echoes the original game, as well as stuff like the Lego games to a degree. The combat is decent, but not particularly complex. The heroes do enough to feel distinct, but the combat never gets complex, or require much practice to master.

The new additions that don't tie directly into combat (the ISO-8 collectibles and the alliance grid) feel grindy and like I said, they feel like they come out of a Free to Play game. Yet there's no microtransactions to go with them. The Rifts add some challenge, but if you don't care for the core gameplay, the rifts are unlikely to make you want to play more.

And yeah, less costumes to collect, so your unlockable entirely is based on giving your heroes larger numbers, and unlocking the 4 secret heroes tied to rifts.

I don't think this game, or even the original MUA 1 are playing in the same league as Spider-man on PS 4, let alone trying to be as great.

Edited by Ghilz on Jul 20th 2019 at 11:20:13 AM

Thanks for the clarification.

Games don't need to be good, they need to be fun.

Although, I guess a good game will always justified the full game price.

Thanks for the hands on review.

Edited by agent-trunks on Jul 20th 2019 at 8:20:00 AM