I almost bought MUA2 this weekend, but hadn’t played MUA1 so picked up for cheap.
I like it and I’ll probably get the sequel, but man, is the story and repetitive level design weak (so far, I’m at the trying to save Odin part).
It does a great job of stoking the comic book geek fires in me, and wanting to unlock all the characters and costumes, but I wish what I consider the good costumes had the good buffs on them.
However, I was hoping for more Baldur’s Gate style talk amongst the party members. This is why Deadpool and Spidey are in my team. Does MUA2 have this?
Yes, they chatter more in MUA2. There is also a ton of character specific dialog (when talking to characters they respond differently depending on which character you are playing, and your dialog options are different based on who you are playing).
The big difference is that costumes dont matter in MUA2, dress however you prefer your character to look. Points also arent built as much in single characters, so you are free to switch characters in and out without fear that it will weaken you down the line.
I went into the same level of detail as “From their powers to their individual goals to the fusion combos to the costumes and animation to the hidden group bonuses, each character feels unique.” provides, which is next to none - pardon me for not writing an essay in response to your sentence. and yeah, the fusions are unique, especially with Storm. Same tornado with a different colour, wooooooo! Oh and daredevil and spiderman, ULTRA different. DD twirls a cane, spider-man twirls his webbing. I just think that they could have tried harder to make each character play differently from each other, and I’m not really sure they tried at all.
Ah, so you haven’t even played the game, have you? Because that’s not even remotely true. That also explains your general cluelessness about how the characters aren’t just “different skins”.
Let me guess, you’re one of the guys who worked on the DC game, so you’re just making up stuff to slag your Marvel competitor?
I played it all the way through, right up to the power-recycling bad guy. Is this a spoiler free thread? I would hate to cause Fury if I revealed who the last bad guy was to someone who hasn’t played through yet.
It was a good-enough rent, but I’d feel ripped off if I paid full price for it.
I haven’t played MUA 2 yet. I want to, but I want to play it on 360 and mine won’t get back from repair until tomorrow. But if there was one thing I remarked on going from X-Men Legends (either or) to MUA 1, it was how the characters now actually felt like individuals with their own powers and play styles rather than being reskins with a tiny set of powers doled out in slightly different, renamed configurations like in X-Men Legends. I enjoyed those games to a point, but that sameness between characters was tough to get past. I have a really hard time envisioning them having gone that far backwards after the first one, and I’m particularly mystified by someone who asserts the X-Men games were the high point of the series when that’s one of their complaints about MUA.
I never said X-men Legend games were perfect, great or even good. I think they were the high point, but that point wasn’t exceptionally high… sides, MUA should learn from the flaws of the past games. In MUA2’s defense, it did get rid of a lot of the bad things from MUA 1. I was particularly glad to see that the boss fights weren’t just Quick Timed Events anymore, and that there was no loot system where I have to equip wolverine with vests and belts. I just think the game could have been much, much better.
There is lots of chatter in MUA2, and they did a great job correlating each response to the personality of each hero. I especially get a kick out of the Hulk’s single syllable pro-magnon selections in comparison to the witty deadpan Spidey and Deadpool throw out. It’s extremely noticeable how much care went into each conversation 24 times over(!), but bewarned that this isn’t a Bioware game.
Though your responses ultimately feed into bonus unlockable loot, it won’t change or alter the narrative a tick. Hulk and Spidey may chit-chat wildly different, but the NPC’s don’t respect that difference. There are a nice handful of unique dialogue that certain character affinities will have if you choose to experiment(and the game makes it clear when they will happen; like Spidey talking up Venom for a wholly different conversation tangent) but it isn’t game altering affairs.
Also, one of the strengths I still find of MUA2 is that it is just far more focused and less slapdash than MUA1. From level layouts to customization, to the narrative. MUA1 is truly a content-rich game though.
It doesn’t surprise me to hear you say this. From your critique I suspect that many of your complaints may just be with this type of a game, not with any specific version of it. Which confused me when you said that legends was the highpoint (until you clairified in the above).
This is an action romp with a team of superheros where you walk through locations battling almost endless hordes of bad guys. It is chaotic and fast paced and values frantic action over strategy or tactics. The Marvel setting is a thick candy coating which allows us to play with our favorite heroes in the above model.
It is not deep. It is not tactical (though I think they are finding ways to become more tactical while remaining the frantic button mashing chaos that this sort of game is built to create). And the locations are just variations of big scrolling rooms you fight through.
In my opinion if you have a problem with the above, then you have a problem with this type of game. Thats not a problem at all, I can understand why you don’t like aspects of that formula, its not for everyone and I think your critiques against these types of games is fair.
But if after accepting all that you have issues with the way it is implemented in MUA2, then that is a critique of the game itself. For example your comment that some of the characters are essentially the same as others from a gameplay perspective is a fair critique of MUA2 itself. Maybe it has to many characters that they weren’t able to make each as unique as they should be.
Personally I found quite a bit of difference between the Hulk and the Thing (though I didnt play Daredevil so I dont know how he compares to Spiderman). Even if one power is the same between two characters I think its worth evaluating all the powers to see how they stacked up. I switched the Hulk and the Thing in and out and I got a very different gameplay vibe from each.
None of this is an attempt to tell you that you are wrong, or that you aren’t allowed to have all your opinions on MUA2. Im just sharing my take on your comments. Hopefully it makes some sense.
But one of your biggest (or at least most often repeated) complaints is that the characters lack, well…character. Something which is -far- more true in the X-Men games.
Well, I WAS having fun playing this game until I hit a bugged boss battle near the end of the game. One of two things happens: 1) Either the boss becomes invincible and impossible to beat, or 2) the game crashes as soon as I defeat him. I’ve experienced the first scenario twice and the second scenario three times. From browsing various forums, people have been complaining about this issue since launch and it’s obviously not fixed yet. So my alternative is to load a save from 6 maps ago or quit playing and eBay the game. Guess which option I’m choosing.
It’s ironic, really. Just the other day I was telling a buddy lamenting about the issues he’s been having playing Dragon’s Age on PC how happy I was to not have to deal with that anymore since I only played games on console. HA!
Not sure? One thread I read was on the official Xbox Live site, the other one in Gamestop’s forums.
At any rate, I’m a big 'ol hypocritical liar. I did in fact reload a previous save and slogged my way through all the maps with an entirely different team. This time, the bosses all behaved normally. I wonder if there’s a specific combination of heroes and fusions that break the fight.
Heck, I’m even replaying prior missions in the simulator to find all the collectibles I missed the first time through because I’m such a geek. MUA2 is definitely light on content compared to the first game, but I’m still enjoying it.
