I have to ease the minds of those who didn’t play either of the X-Men Legends games: “You’ll be OK. Just don’t miss Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.” The main reason you shouldn’t feel guilty lies in the fact that the third installment is much more fulfilling in regard to characters, which ultimately fleshes out an even broader storyline, and some significant gameplay enhancements. Ultimate Alliance also assists folks not familiar with the Marvel universe by providing background on some of the best superheroes and villains to ever be created.
The game spits you right out into a mission on the Omega Base, a space craft operated by the “good guys” at S.H.E.I.L.D. (It’s a huge acronym that’s not even necessary to spell out.) Colonel Nick Fury had transmitted a distress call, putting you in control of Wolverine, Captain America, Thor, and Spiderman, the responding superhero team. Colonel Fury relays your first objectives: recover the craft and find out why Dr. Doom and his posse of super villains known as the 'Masters of Evil' have boarded the craft. As you make your way through the craft with its overhead, isometric view, you get some instructions on how to control the characters, get a little story background, and get to do some head-bashing with legendary heroes.
As I was getting familiar with the character controls, I also couldn’t help but feel truly inspired by their effectiveness and ease-of-use. Though superheroes have tons of abilities and moves, this game didn’t overwhelm you with them, and that’s just the default moves; you get to unlock more and upgrade the power of each move as you travel through the game. I also couldn’t help but notice how fluidly the characters moved, though they feel a little cramped in the environments of the confined space of a helicarrier. When things move outdoors, the game doesn’t promote claustrophobia, so look forward to that, though a lot of the game is indoors, unfortunately.
After I completed the first mission, I was transported to Stark Tower, owned and operated by Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. This is your initial base of operations, the hub of the game – unfortunately, there’s no overworld map for true open-ended gameplay. Inside Stark Tower and throughout the locales I visited, I found other characters of the Marvel universe have significant roles in the story, but are largely unplayable. There are 120 of them, to be exact, each within their realm of the universe. But save points, which are large S.H.E.I.L.D. insignias, allow you to choose from your list of playable characters, which is surprisingly large to start off. There are a total of 23 playable superheroes which get unlocked as you progress. But for those with the 360 version, you’ll get Colossus and Moon Knight. The playable character list is pretty gratifying, but some of the characters are much less useful than others. You will want to find a team that suits you and stick with it, though, and I'll tell you why in a later section. I'm particular to Wolverine, Spiderman, Iron Man, and Colossus. Colossus, besides being a big, steel-covered badass, has a sweet move where he picks up an enemy in one hand and uses him as a club repeatedly.
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