Storyline
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is the sequel to the original Ultimate Alliance which was released in 2006. The story is roughly based upon the Civil War and Secret War comic events. After a large explosion on national TV, the government created the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA) which requires all superheroes to reveal their identities and register with the government. A Civil War breaks out in the superhero community with Ironman leading the superheroes who side with the government (I like to call them confederates) and Captain America leading an underground resistance against the SRA (The Union if you will). After two or three missions you will be faced with the decision to side with the Registration or pull a Luke Skywalker and go with the rebels. After about three missions in, you will be faced with the decision to choose a side. While the objectives are different they general gameplay is the same. Exchange a boss here, change a cameo appearance here, it's essentially the same. One of the only differences is that there are three characters you will not be able to play depending on which side. Ironman, Songbird and Mr. Fantastic are limited to the pro-reg side and Captain America, Iron Fist and Luke Cage are restricted to the anti-reg side.
Gameplay
There are a total of 24 playable characters on the Xbox 360 including the 360 exclusive Iron Fist The gameplay is what you have come to expect from Ultimate Alliance. Hectic fights, button mashing, and mutant powers all combined in one furious package. There is also an extensive collectible system, with audio logs, team boosts, dossiers, concept art, unlockable characters, alternate costumes, and miscellaneous character power ups. spread throughout each level. There are no real consequences or advantages to having certain characters on your team, which is good and bad. On the plus side, no one wants to limit their selection of superheroes based on who they need instead of who they want to play as. But on the negative, I would have enjoyed more customization in terms of directing your teammates and what they focus on doing. For example, you could command the Thing to try and get the bosses attention while you tell Spiderman to eliminate the extra enemies in the room. While this could get a little convoluted they could have added a little more than just "pick your guys. OK now go fight!".
Positives
One of the most entertaining parts of MUA:2 is the multitude of powers among your host of superheroes. Anywhere from striking enemies down with a lightning bolt from Storm, firing energy blasts with Penance or barreling down foes with the Hulk. The possibilities are varied and extremely enjoyable. Granted, a few of the powers are copy and pasted with a different color, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment of shattering a group of enemies with kinetically charged cards from Gambit.A new feature in Ultimate Alliance 2 is the Fusion system. As you fight enemies you will fill up your fusion bar. As soon as you fill a full bar you will acquire a fusion star. Once you have a star, holding right trigger + either A, B, X, or Y will activate a signature Fusion attack with the corresponding teammate. The Fusion attacks are either massive damage AoE attacks, or a single target powerful attack. The Fusion moves definitely add another layer to the combat, and they are extremely entertaining. I would prefer more variety in the Fusions, but with a possible 250+ options I understand rehashing some animations.
The character selection is sufficient. While a few more obscure characters would be nice, they have a nice combination of well known, and not so well known super-humans. You've got the more mainstream superheroes like Ironman and Wolverine, and than you've got a few minor ones as well, like Penance and Songbird. There are also a ton of non-playable characters that make cameos throughout the game like War Machine, Multiple Man, and Stan Lee himself. Overall it is a decent mixture of known and somewhat unknown marvel heroes.
Negatives
I played through the pro-registration campaign on the same couch with my buddy, and my biggest gripe with this game arose. The local co-op is completely broken. It only registers the first player gamertag so it treats the second player as a random person dropping in and out. Granted, it is easy to get into the game, but there are so many flaws that that aspect is quickly forgotten. Want to unlock alternate costumes? Well you will have to have the first player unlock it for you. Want to get achievements? Have fun playing through the game in one go. If you turn off your console, all progress for achievements and unlockables is lost for the second player. This not only means it is really tough to unlock things, but it means every time you go back to the game, the sub-achievement and collectible updates pop up constantly. For instance the update for the "Destroy 250 crates" achievement popped up through our entire play through.
The only other real problem I had with the game is monotony. The brawler aspect of the game gets very repetitive. While there is some amount of strategy, it is, in essence, a button masher. You move your character, hit things, get collectibles. That is how the game works. That is not always a bad thing, but a game that clocks in at almost twenty hours, it gets old long before the game has come to an end.