MUA 2

[TheMarvell]

are you serious? Why the hell would they take it down after a month?

Are they going to have any more DLC or was that it?

[Glitch Girl]

Giving this a bump since I just recently got a used copy and noticed the whole DLC absence...

So what exactly IS the whole story on this, anyone know?  All I found is that Activision suddenly said "Hey guess what, it's a limited time offer" and pulled it from all the online stores without another word. I also heard that it dorks up your game if you have it and the person you're doing online play with doesn't or vice versa. Any further revelations?

Not far in (only just picked a side), but my initial impression is a step down from MUA in quite a few areas.  And good grief, some of those costumes look like they were sewn together by an inept tailor. 

[Previsionary]

Glitch, what you've described is more or less the whole story as the public knows it. They just decided to work on extras for months, then only had it available for 1-2 months before yanking it down. It's a great business decision, right? Activision sure knows how to make and run a game. . Since they also removed the compatibility DLC pack, then yeah, you probably shouldn't play with anyone that has Juggernaut. I've heard a few mixed things about MUA2's online play in general, but I obviously can't confirm anything beyond Juggernaut.

[Podmark]

Giving this a bump since I just recently got a used copy and noticed the whole DLC absence...

So what exactly IS the whole story on this, anyone know? 

What I heard was that Activision wasn't happy with MUA2's sales and/or the DLC sales and decided not to support the title anymore. Not sure if that's true or not, but it makes more sense to me than limited time offer.

I got the game a month or two ago and have enjoyed it.

[TheMarvell]

I've heard a little more about this. Basically at the end of 2009, the character rights reverted back to Disney/Marvel. Since the game or DLC didn't sell well by Activision's standards, they decided not to renew the licensing rights. So, both the dlc packs for MUA 2 and MUA 1 were pulled. I've heard that there was a mistake when it came to telling Microsoft though, and instead of pulling JUST the character pack, they pulled everything relating to the game. This explains why there is no media whatsoever on Xbox Live for MUA 2.

it's amazing how crappy Activision has become, really. I didn't buy into the whole online gamer community EA hate, but Activision's hate seems pretty genuine to me. They supported MUA 2 for a whopping 3 months and gave up. What kind of crappy business does that?

[Ares_God_of_War]

The same one that makes

Spoiler

Borg Nick Fury

Also I hate both EA and Activision. EA customer service for The Sims and Spore is nightmarish and this is from personal experience.

[Glitch Girl]

Thanks for the info guys. Wow, boneheaded moves abound on this one.

Progress has been made: I'm in chapter 3 and have all the characters in the selector unlocked except for three (Green Goblin, Venom, and spiky guy who's identity was long ago spoiled for me ) Some thoughts...

Since I never got to put my $.02 in, here's some impressions after gameplay...

1) Thor is a frickin' BEAST in this game.  Seriously worth the collectable hunting.  Cap was a bit of a letdown after the last game (he was in my core team last time, not this time), but Iceman and Storm are still fun to play.

2) Is it just me, or do most of the main characters in this game act like complete jerks?  Especially Reed.  I'm playing as Anti-reg so I don't know if it makes more sense when you play Pro-Reg (I can't see how it can) but his whole nanite plan just screams "bad idea" from the get go. Then again, Nick, Iron Man, and Cap all pretty much behave like like jerks throughout.  Was it like this in the comic?

3) Whoever created Penance a) must have really REALLY hated Speedball, and B) was never hugged by his mom.  I played him long enough to get his alternate costume (anything is better than that masochistic-bondange thing), but his combat commentary completely annoyed the hell out of me moreso than any character in all the XML and MUA games combined.  The only good thing is that to get his last boost, I have to walk him around and let enemies beat up on him.  The bad news is, that I have to do this A LOT, and I have to listen to him the whole time.   Mental note: check settings to see if there's a "Mute Dialogue" button ASAP.

4) I don't know why, but I've kinda enjoyed the audio-log collectables.

5) The Yellowjacket fight: I hated how if you tried to use the wrong kind of fusion attack, it negated it and made you burn a fusion star to tell you so.  I just wanted to clean out some of the soldiers that were getting in the way, I KNOW it's not going to do squat to the big guy.  At least HUMOR me.  Geez!  Also, I never thought I'd say this, but this is a battle that could have benefited from a quick time event.

6) I miss the minimap.

7) Gameplay overall has pretty smooth and solid.  I played a few maps with my best friend who lives in NYC and it went very well.  Powers and passives could use some more variety overall I think.  While fusions are a nice idea, there could be more variety there too  (example: Thing + Gambit/Iceman/Deadpool/etc look all too similar).  I still prefer the way they did super attacks in XL2, but this isn't too bad.  Regular hand-to-hand is good, but somehow less dynamic, and I can't put my finger on why (maybe I miss the customized throws)

8) The overall look of the game though... So much ugly.  Faces are creepy, costumes look poorly tailored, many areas are too dark or very brown or yellow... I miss the colorfulness of MUA and XL2, but I guess "more realistic" = "more grungy, washed out, and drab".  Pbbbth. 

9) Speaking of which... only ONE alternate costume?  Again, pbbbbth.

10) And speaking of variety.. why did it take getting over halfway through the game to fight something other than soldiers and robots?

11) Only one major game glitch so far - the door to Bishop's area didn't open, and I had to restart the level, which was annoying, but not hideous.  So far, far fewer glitches than in some of the past games.

Overall, it was worth the used price I paid (I am having fun, despite all the gripes), but I can see why it didn't sell well the first time out.  I can see effort made in some areas, but others just never feel fully realized.  There's a little too much "leading you around by the nose" in some areas too and so much of the character design is gawd-awful ugly.   

'tis a shame though.  It's a good franchise, if only done right.

[Previsionary]

2) Is it just me, or do most of the main characters in this game act like complete jerks?  Especially Reed.  I'm playing as Anti-reg so I don't know if it makes more sense when you play Pro-Reg (I can't see how it can) but his whole nanite plan just screams "bad idea" from the get go. Then again, Nick, Iron Man, and Cap all pretty much behave like like jerks throughout.  Was it like this in the comic?

Hrm... Civil War wasn't a good time for the majority of the characters involved. This is the exact period Iron Man became a major jerk and his fan base fell tremendously (as did Reed's). Suffice it to say, the event was criticized as having way too many out of character moments, and while it may have been a good idea, the execution wasn't the best. It took years for some of the characters to shake off the negativity they gained through that storyline. With Ironman, it took a movie and a new comic book that took elements from said movie.

[electro]

The No, No is Superheroes acting with the Goverment - They fill in the spaces between goverment & individual - Cap was right not to join & marvel was stupid to think this was a good idea in the long run - I don't like Goverment & I don't like anarchy - Hail the Individual (with a dash of Goverment) - That's why the comics sucked & eventually the game failed - Not even Deadpool could save it

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, the storyline in the comics (read for free in TPB from the library) were pretty darn terrible.  While it's a great idea for a story, it was executed quite badly.  I haven't played this game, but all the stuff I heard up to the release made me not terribly interested.

[JeyNyce]

Here's a Nyce update:

http://oneofswords.com/2010/06/marvel-ultimate-alliance-2-dlc-returns/

Updated: http://oneofswords.com/2010/07/marvel-ultimate-alliance-2-dlc-returns/comment-page-1/#comment-1788

[TheMarvell]

^that link doesn't work, but basically Activision is re-releasing the MUA2 DLC for a limited time (until 12/31/10). Not sure about the MUA1 DLC, but it doesn't look like it. Probably best to buy the gold edition of that game if you don't already have it.

It's a shame this game isn't getting recognized. It started out as a game that really didn't look good to me, but then I got it and it's honestly a lot of fun. It had some great potential for future DLC character packs, but alas, I doubt we'll see a MUA 3 now, since this one sold so poorly.

[NeoDarke]

I blame the Civil War.

And lets be honest, the first one was just Epic in scale. This one? No, not really. Not even close.

[lugaru]

MUA 3? Sheesh, I'm still waiting for 2 on pc.

It is a shame, the x-men legends and mua1 are some of the best superhero games, especially with a big cast. You know, Arkham Asylum or X-men Origins Wolverine do the one character real well but the legends and alliance games nail a whole lot of characters.

[TheMarvell]

civil war's fault? Highly doubt it. Poor sales are most likely due to a poor marketing campaign, the release date, and the mere fact that the game just simply didn't look good graphically.

Had this game been released in the spring instead of the fall, I'm sure it would have sold better. Publishers tend to not understand that just because you release a title in the fall doesn't mean it'll make better sales from the holidays. Especially with something as big as Modern Warfare 2 that released like a month later.

[Podmark]

Civil War could be a factor, it could turn away readers who didn't like the comic, but that's just a fraction of the audience that's familiar with current comic books. However the other way that Civil War might have affected sales is just the general premise of hero vs hero. Perhaps gamers just would have preferred to fight super villains - but it could just as well be the opposite. It also affected part of the plot.

Probably a bigger factor was that the game didn't review as well. MUA1 scored a 8.3 at Gamespot compared to MUA2's 7.5 and I believe most other reviewers ranked the game similarly. That's a big difference and probably cost them a fair bit of sales. Bugs were a major complaint with the second game, and add to that the RPG elements were stripped down. Add the marketing, release time and graphics issues TheMarvell mentions and it all contributed to poorer sales.

Having played the game there's another thing that I think contributed to lesser sales: the fact that they didn't follow Civil War as closely. I know some people didn't like the comic, and I'm not saying they're wrong, but the game only half follows it and then creates a very lame nanite villain plot.

Anyway the game isn't terrible, I had a lot of fun playing through it. Worth picking up if you can find it cheap, which shouldn't be too hard now.

[crimsonquill]

civil war's fault? Highly doubt it. Poor sales are most likely due to a poor marketing campaign, the release date, and the mere fact that the game just simply didn't look good graphically.

Not to mension that subtracting the PC sales from MUA2 which I'm sure was a huge chunk of the sales pie of MUA1s sales. I know they switched their development to another company which didn't favor PCs as a viable game system and rather push their console versions of the game and their DLCs which is far more profitable.

If there was any chance of a MUA3 for PC it was killed the moment sales dropped and they kept making mistakes on keeping the fans of the game happy or within the loop.

- CQ

[lugaru]

I agree that Civil War was not too much of a detraction, personally I was thrilled to jump into that storyline but I enjoyed Civil War.

As said, the game was reported to be buggy and honestly I have still not played it since I'm not a console person. If it came out on PC I would have pre ordered.

[Courtnall6]

2 reasons why I never picked it up...

-Not crazy about the Civil War storyline.
-Some of the absolute worst character designs for a superhero game I've seen to date.

MUA 1 was far superior. If a 3rd one is made...hopefully they'll head back in that direction.

[Previsionary]

If I remember correctly, the people involved with Activision were heading towards another XML game. I'm pretty sure that was posted on MUA2's blog at some point.

[Courtnall6]

That would be cool with me. I miss Cyclops

[daerdevil]

Graphics alone blew this one for me.  I never understand when you have source material with pre-existing, iconic costumes, why anyone would redesign the costumes.  Maybe I'm shallow, but I want to play a Marvel game with characters that look like Marvel characters...not some screwball new take on them.  I personally felt that MUA1 had most things right (multiple costumes, classic looks, RPG elements) and I was hoping MUA2 would add to the formula.  Instead, they watered down most of the character tweaking and gave us a choice of two lack luster interpretations of what the characters look like.  I might get this from the bargain bin, but of course, the death blow via poor sales has probably killed off MUA3.

[Tomato]

Personally, I felt like they over-designed everything with 2. Like... I can understand putting in seams and details that we might not nescessarily see in the comics, but mua2 had additions that actually made less sense in a "realistic" setting. Wolverine, for instance, had gloves with so much padding they would impede his range of moverment, which is inexcusable for a character that relies on the speed of his attacks. Juggernaut's helmet was also just silly... they made a big deal about head movement, but how would that craziness help in any way?

BTW, I also missCyclops.

[AfghanAnt]

Wasn't Cyke available for the Wii version? Also I really disliked the NDS very.

[captmorgan72]

Personally, I felt like they over-designed everything with 2. Like... I can understand putting in seams and details that we might not nescessarily see in the comics, but mua2 had additions that actually made less sense in a "realistic" setting. Wolverine, for instance, had gloves with so much padding they would impede his range of moverment, which is inexcusable for a character that relies on the speed of his attacks. Juggernaut's helmet was also just silly... they made a big deal about head movement, but how would that craziness help in any way?

BTW, I also missCyclops.

I think that they just had to much fun designing the costumes and got carried away. One idea fed another and then you had this design that looked cool (to them) and because of deadlines, it was to late to change them.

[captmorgan72]

Has the success of the Avengers caused this game to raise up to full price again? I see that Amazon is charging $60 for this and on ebay it's about the same.

[JeyNyce]

pre-owned it's $29.99 I don't think you can find it new

[laughing paradox]

This thread makes me want to play that game again. Good thing I downloaded the DLC when it was available!