Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order Review (Switch)

Special thanks to Nintendo for the review code

Growing up a 90’s kid, I always had an affinity for games with great couch co-op as well as licensed games that put a twist on familiar concepts and series. When I heard about X-Men Legends way back in 2004, then, I was intrigued. A Baldur’s Gate sort of isometric hack n’ slash RPG hybrid using all of my favorite X-Men (and also Magma)?!??!? Once I actually got my hands on it my prerelease hype turned into a genuine love for this game. My roommates and I spent dozens of hours on this title, and then did the same with its subsequent sequels. The Ultimate Alliance series was never the deepest or most narratively engaging games, but they were so much fun, and in a pre-MCU world, it was a great gateway into some of Marvel’s more obscure characters and story arcs. Ultimate Alliance 2 came out way back in 2009, and with Marvel as a franchise growing massively under Disney in intervening years, I had little hope that we would ever see a new entry in the series… but, well, here we are. Let’s see how this one stacks up to the classics, true believers.

Story
All caught up on the MCU? Have a crash course in the basics of it, at least? Well, you won’t really need it to appreciate the story of The Black Order, but the characters and overall plot definitely takes inspiration from the latest phase of Disney’s Marvel movies. Take, for instance, the game’s big bad: Thanos. Now, Thanos is in search of the Infinity Stones, which just so happen to be on a Kree ship that the Guardians of the Galaxy are investigating. The stones end up on Earth, many familiar Earth heroes get called into action, and a grand scavenger hunt across familiar vistas from the Marvel Universe commences. The story has a few twists and turns, but it’s mostly about fun cutscenes and fan service. The game will take you to Daredevil’s ninja-filled version of Hell’s Kitchen, to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and even the African Kingdom of Wakanda, and each local is filled with familiar enemies and allies. It’s up to you to mix and match heroes to create your own “ultimate alliance” and ensure Thanos and his Black Order’s plans are thwarted.

Gameplay
As mentioned previously, Ultimate Alliance 3 is an isometric hack n’ slash or beat ‘em up with various RPG elements thrown in for flavor and progression. You play with a squad of 4 heroes that can be mixed and matched from your ever expanding overall roster. A second, third, or fourth player can then join in and control one of the other heroes, or, if you are playing solo, you can switch between all of them on the fly. It’s genuinely fun to play around with different heroes to test out their strengths and weaknesses, but there are a few things that you should take into consideration when forming any team. One of these considerations are “team bonuses,” a system in which stat bonuses are added to your team if certain heroes are selected together. Spider-Man and Venom are both “Web Warriors,” for instance, while Daredevil and Ironfist are “Defenders.” These bonuses stack and characters can be part of multiple groups, so it really pays to pay attention to who exactly is in your team.

Every character more or less plays the same. You have light and heavy attacks, as well as jump, dodge, and block buttons. The heroes do feel pretty different, though, and they generally feel the way they should. Hulk is a lumbering force of nature, while Captain Marvel feels fast and powerful, for instance. The game even tweaks characters enough that Spider-Gwen, Miles, and Spider-Man feel fairly distinct, despite the fact that they are all spider themed heroes that web sling their way across the screen. What really separates the heroes, though, are the special moves, however. Each hero has a menu with four special attacks, and these can be thought of as a heroes signature moves. As heroes’ level up so do these moves, and additional moves can be unlocked and swapped out over time. Moves can also be combined with other heroes for synergy moves, this can be done using button presses in single player mode, but requires a bit more coordination when playing with friends. I found these attacks to be essential as your get further into the game… this game is, at heart, a button masher, but some of the fights get genuinely difficult as the story progresses.
The RPG elements in the game are a major factor, and if you switch out heroes often you might find yourself underleveled. Infinity Trials, unlocked challenge scenarios based off of previous story fights, can help out immensely in this regard, as it is an exceptional way to level up. You can also use experience cubes, found hidden throughout stages, for a quick boost, and you can customize your characters with ISO-8 crystals. These crystals act the same way standard equipment does in more traditional RPGs. Oh, and there are also talent trees. All in all, the game has a good variety of progression mechanics that make the game feel deep without feeling overwhelming.

The RPG elements in the game are a major factor, and if you switch out heroes often you might find yourself underleveled. Infinity Trials, unlocked challenge scenarios based off of previous story fights, can help out immensely in this regard, as it is an exceptional way to level up. You can also use experience cubes, found hidden throughout stages, for a quick boost, and you can customize your characters with ISO-8 crystals. These crystals act the same way standard equipment does in more traditional RPGs. Oh, and there are also talent trees. All in all, the game has a good variety of progression mechanics that make the game feel deep without feeling overwhelming.

Presentation
This game does a good job of mixing and matching various art styles from Marvel’s history. You can tell certain characters, like the Guardians, took inspiration from their film incarnations, but other characters, such as the X-Men, look like they have leaped straight from the comic page. The colorful and somewhat exaggerated character models feel decidedly comicbooky, and they also help in masking any graphical inabilities that the Switch might have. The voice acting is pretty good across the board, too. I especially like the fact that Yuri Lowenthal reprised his role as Spider-Man from the recent PS4 game. All in all, this game FEELS like a comic book game in all the right ways.

This game isn’t perfect, however. Far from it. I’m just going to come out and say it: the camera sucks. The camera comes in two flavors: classic and heroic. The problem is that neither it that great. Heroic is a bit more dynamic, close in, and allows for things like locking on. All in all, it’s not bad for single player play. Sure, I still found instances where I would be behind a wall or lost behind a pillar, but overall it was at least functional. Local multiplayer, however, is just brutal no matter what camera you use. I played through several chapters with two other players and it was very difficult to figure out just what was going on I would often lose track of my character in a fight. This is a real shame since the previous entries were just perfect for couch co-op.

Verdict
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is fun for fans of the Marvel universe. The roster is unbelievable, and beating up wave after wave of enemies in familiar locals is great, if mindless, fun. Still, the game has a few drawbacks that really keep me from loving it. The first is the sub par camera. The second is the fact that I felt punished for switching out character often and only playing story. The sheer amount of content and an immense fanservice go a long way towards making up for these shortcomings, though.