Iron needs to be hot and Disney knows it. With the never-ending crowds of fans waiting in front of the cinema box office to get into every new MCU movie, there are opportunities for well-known comic book brands on other fronts, the next strongest being the gaming one. Here, however, they can not blame themselves under the wings of Marvel, but cooperate with familiar names to bring disasters to the market, such as the film Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Thor games. They've been in touch with Telltale, Capcom, and even Sony, and their latest partner is Nintendo, with whom they have revived one almost forgotten series.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is coming out 10 years after the second part, so many players will have first contact with the series now. This is one of the reasons why the game is not linked to its predecessors, but is completely independent. At the same time, it does not refer to films and its roots must be sought in comics, although it offers a completely original story (written by Marc Sumerak, who had previously been behind Marvel comics). Still, Marvel clearly follows the lines, characters and stories that attract movie fans to the game. So, even though Thanos is already on the movie screen, here the most famous characters from Marvel still have to deal with him.
The beginning of the story takes you to a distant part of the universe, where the Guardians of the Galaxy are returning from another not so successful event. The prospect of another catch leads them to a seemingly abandoned ship, where, after the first few empty rooms, a fist confrontation comes in and slowly begins to show that there is a greater threat in the background than it might seem. With them, you will be in a situation where there are not many possibilities of escape. But you choose one that takes you to Earth and connects with other well-known heroes.
The Stones of Infinity are on the scene again, and that means only one thing for the universe - its existence is in danger, and all life in it is in danger. You control a huge crowd of heroes, but Thanos is not alone and summoned his Black Order to fight. And to make matters worse, the Infinite Stones are attracted to other characters with evil intentions, whether it's Loki, Red Skull, or many others. Team Ninja authors bring a tremendous variety of familiar faces to the scene, balancing on the edge between something classic (comic or even familiar from the 1990s) and film.
I have already written that the game has nothing to do with the movies, but somehow you only come across characters and places that are currently known just from the brands under the Disney wings. There are Avenger, Guardian, Defender, SHIELD, Inhumani, Spider characters from different universes, Venom in his Lethal protector form (which also inspired the movie) and after a long time in some Marvel games are also X-Men when Disney has already taken over Fox. The only exception is perhaps Elsa Bloodstone, who is a relatively new character and still has no film or serial processing. But if you're not a comic book fan, but you're watching MCU movies and series, you'll know both the heroes and the bad guys, and where the game takes place. And that it is blessed.
The game takes place across ten chapters that will guide you through different corners of the comic Marvel universe. You will wander the universe, the different nooks of our blue planet, but also other dimensions. In addition, each chapter consists of several levels that you will gradually go through. However, the best part is that the storyline campaign keeps a very good pace all the time and is almost constantly delivering new content. There is still a new boss in front of you that presents another challenge. There's always a new character in front of you that you can get to your team, or it's the NPC and at least moves you further in the story.
Given that Marvel Ultimate Alliance is primarily a dynamic action game, this is a very pleasing message because you simply don't have time to get bored. Suddenly you are in a new place, or you have a new addition to your team and immediately try it. You play through four-member teams, and it's up to you. However, you always play for only one of the four elected characters. Others are controlled by other players, or artificial intelligence, if cooperatively in full. In this case, you can switch between AI characters at any time by pressing the button. Again, it's all tailored to keep the game fast and you don't have to interrupt it unnecessarily;
The same applies to cooperation. You can play online, locally via the wirelessly connected Switch Consoles, but also on one console, where you simply give away controllers (just one Joy-Con) and that's it. moreover, cooperation works on a drop-in / drop-out principle, so anyone can join at any time, even if you already have a mission in progress. He simply takes control of one of the characters. And it works the other way around. If suddenly your teammate has to leave, they simply disconnect and you play without any problems. However, the most important factor in the whole cooperation is that it is fun. You simply have fun together with powerful characters from the comic book pages on the screen to unleash chaos.
But chaos is probably the best word to describe the action in the game. In the good and sometimes the bad. If you take that many characters and their abilities, you can imagine that everyone fights differently. Somewhere with smaller differences, somewhere larger. While someone is giving his wounds with his fists, the other one shines with all possible effects. There's a huge pile of enemies, where every known boss always has a huge pile of hops to kick. So you can guess what awaits you. It looks good, but at times, especially when all characters on the screen start unleashing their abilities, you will temporarily lose track of it.
The basis of the fights for each character lies in a light and strong attack. You can combine them, add jumps to it, and that's where it ends. However, the dueling system of the game just starts. The characters also have special attacks. Each of me has four and unlock them gradually by leveling the character. You spend energy on them, so you don't want to spam them. And yet there is the ultimate attack of every character that is powerful, full of different effects and often takes up a large part of the screen. For this you use another form of energy, which is gradually replenished.
The dueling system is still relatively simple and straightforward to get into your blood quickly. It is and is not about the constant repression of enemies. When using special attacks, you need to consider what you want to achieve and who you use it for. Some are directed, others flat, others rather defensive and the like. You have to control your character. And then there are synergies. Because in certain situations, characters can cooperate in attacks due to synergy, resulting in a combined attack. For example, Storm launches a tornado, while the Ghost Rider uses flames, resulting in a fiery tornado.
You can also use these synergies to get to places that are normally inaccessible or to open normally impregnable boxes. They always have the combination of skills you need to get there. Of course, you may not have the right character set to get everywhere, but it only happened to me a couple of times in the whole game. Except for these smaller turns and hidden rooms, the game is relatively linear. You have nowhere to wander and you always have a way forward in front of your nose. Should you ever get lost, the HUD contains a small map of the environment, with the aim of where to go. At the same time, it will indicate to you whether a secret room can be hidden somewhere.
You can fly through the game quite quickly. It always depends on the difficulty, but you should find such a 10 hour basis here. It's not a lot, it's not a little, but it's not all. Here and there you will find in the environment a crack in reality that presents you with Infinity challenges. They take place on maps known from the game and with the enemies you have already faced. This time, however, you may have other conditions to overcome them, such as the time or even the way you have to fight. Very soon these challenges will begin to exceed you, so it is advisable to come back later when you have better characters. Depending on your success, you will then receive rewards. You can tweak characters, unlock new costumes, or even get characters that can't be unlocked by normal gameplay.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is not an RPG game, but there are no RPG elements. It's not like Diablo, so you're not looking for your ideal build to get into endgame content. After passing, you can start playing with your characters again with the levels and abilities you have already gained, and this time you will be tested by Superior Difficulty, or you can complete the challenges that are so much that they can add a few extra hours.
By playing, you level characters and each level improves their basic attributes, but you don't affect it. But you can already influence the gradual improvement of special attacks, in which you will invest the accumulated points. You also invest points and money in the development of an experience tree, where you gradually improve strength, life, endurance and other attributes to all your characters. Finally, ISO-8 crystals come in to further enhance your skills based on the crystal you assign to each character. ISO-8 itself has several types and different strength, but most of them you can still level, or decompose into materials and use in leveling others. The whole thing is maybe a bit over-combined. It adds depth to the game, but maybe just leveling up the heroes, upgrading abilities and ISO-8.
In similar games, the experience can be bad enough for the camera, and fortunately it only gets angry occasionally in rare cases. There are two camera modes to choose from, one classic and maybe a little more in control and the other, 'heroic', more dynamic and the camera works better by itself, which works pretty well most of the time. In addition, the game often works with a change of perspective. Once it's top-down, sometimes you are behind the heroes' backs, then you look at the action from the side. It works well and adds to the dynamics already mentioned.
Graphically, the game is relatively simple, especially so Switch can handle it even in the most demanding situations and most of the time the console is doing well. While frame rates are, but are not frequent, you will encounter only certain specific situations. The authors, however, nicely captured the comic book look, which really sits down and nicely reflects comics that you may have read for a long time. The music is very good and the dubbing on which the actors did a piece of robots is excellent. So many actors are asking for many actors, and the great thing is that you know most of the voices from Marvel series and animated films, where they have lent voices for a long time. There are also well-known names such as Nolan North, Laura Bailey, Tara Strong and others.
Although Marvel subconsciously targets MCU movie fans, it is ultimately comic book fans who enjoy the game the most. Even more, if they have others at hand to sit down and enjoy cooperation. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is not without errors, but the pros are not enough. Angry camera, action is simple and bosses are based on being able to withstand an incredible amount, but still the action is fun, pleasing to the eye, and you love to spend not only one pass, but maybe you get back to it and get tested and its challenges.
