The Omnivangelist

camisuke 9 June 2008 essays/articles, videogames 3 Comments

Yes seriously, I am not much for DLC yet, though I think the idea is great, but I tried out this Hero/Villian Pack for Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I have the game for both PS3 and X360 since I got the second copy with a 360 Xmas bundle by chance. So I was trying out the 360 version to see if it had similar performance to to PS3. I now admit that the downloadable content made the 360 version more fun for me. I didn’t check for this DLC on the PS3 yet.

First off, the characters are great. Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Magneto and Dr. Doom were the characters I was interested in playing, and they all rock. I started off with Nightcrawler and wow he kicks some serious tail, just like in Rise of Apocalypse. His Bamf! moves are sweet and his critical hit skills are fierce. If you were familiar with the overpowered Nightcrawler in Rise of Apocalypse, that game became so easy. So it was nice to play Nightcrawler again at the right power level.

Cyclops isn’t my cup of tea really, but I have to admit this Cyclops in this pack is the best I’ve ever played. Enough to convince me he’s actually cool. I always thought Cyclops was a bit of a pretty boy in the comics. The optic beam looks so damn cool that I would play him just for the sake of the art. His optic blast is a beautiful array of orange colours and the beam blurs nicey and the sound effects are sweet. And when you perform your Xtreme Combo Move, after Cyclops decimates everyone in a 360 sweeping pattern with his deadly laser, he has a moment of unrelenting rage screaming and firing his optic beam full blast into the sky (just like we remember in the comics). This was enough to convince me Activision seriously does their homework for these games. I’m thoroughly impressed.

Hulk was a wonderful surprise as well. His Boost Rage move where he grows large and fast is deadly. He can grab enemies and use them to pummel their evil comrades, then throw them 20 yards when done. It’s savage! Hulk is a monster in this game and this character delivers! His stomp is a great crowd control and his primary melee attack dizzies which is just ruthless. Say goodnight.

Dr. Doom is so powerful, it’s almost laughable. He can simply fly up in the air and shoot powerful laser attacks down on unsuspecting enemies. The special scene at the end of the game where Dr. Doom confronts himself at the final battle is truly classic. Activision pulled out all the stops here. I’m really surprised this game only got an 8.3 rating. I really believe it’s a 9.0. I’m not a big fan of much of the Marvel Universe outside of the X-men and Spiderman, but this game has got me to truly appreciate a wider base of Marvel characters, especially Thor, Captain America and Daredevil.

If you have this game, it’s really worth the 6$ or so to test out this hero/villian pack. It truly enhances the fun to be had in this game.