Marvel Alliance 2, dead!

[Rangergord]

This is a first time post for me, so excuse me if I'm running over old territory

I loved Marvel Alliance. A classic beat 'em style game crossed with a lite RPG, with superheros. For $40 (yes new, the sticker is still on the box, 39.99 in fact for the XBox360) at the time it was a good buy. I had hoped MA2 would fix some of the orginal's problems, spice it up and give us fanboys (yes me) a balanced game to play with a buddy.

But MA2 was $69.95 when it dropped here in canada...wait what??? For something that was just a mild upgrade for somethin about 2 years old...geez even gas prices didn't go up that fast, and console prices actually dropped during this time period, like WTF.

So I figured I'd wait to Boxing day sales to get it. And yes that was a few months after release, but with balancing the pocket book it is something I had done before. With work it took a while to get to play the game. I mean we all have a few games that sit for while before playing, right? And my own damn fault I got it the traditional way...without do deep indepth research and only watching a few trailers and reveiws before purchase. OMG NOOBY-ME!

Recently, and Officially, all DLC and support for the game has been dropped off of PSN and Live. Well just peachy. I spent money on a dead turkey (still $50 on sale).
Heres's just one news link on the issue: http://www.co-optimus.com/article/3...lled_from_Xbox_Live__PlayStation_Network.html OF course maybe I'm the really the only one who cares.

So the message is now, you must buy the game on day 1 for full price, download everything NOW, finish it, and get rid of it in a 3-4 month window. After that its worthless. Thanks Activision...so why is it still $65 without saleprices??? Wonder if this well be a growing trend.

And its not just the extra DLC characters I'd like to have, how about just a patch man!
I found at least 3 glitches, including a clipping issue in game (cable so easy to beat when you are walking on alternate plan of reality behind a wall), a menu issue (opps pressed wrong button...wait..game lockup..on a next gen system..really??), and many of the alt costumes not unlocking even though it clearly states I have unlocked them.

I'm sure this was fixed some 3 months ago in a update, maybe, but new customers are boned.

So if you don't have it, don't buy it even from the cheap bin. I pray I get more than $5 for trade in of this crap.

Store owner's it is time to take the hit and clear it out at $10 a pop or burn it for fuel, I'm sorry its not worth shelf space.

And wonderful Activision hold the rights for alot of Marvel stuff till 2017. Marvel/Disney, get your IP's back before it gets worse. Sadly I'd actually rather see Kingdom Hearts with Spidey in it than let Act take the reigns for the next MA after this stunt.

Thanks for allowing me my rant!

 

[Slash Dementia]

Well, my brothers and I though it was a bit better than the previous installment. I didn't know that about the DLC, I wouldn't have bought the characters if I knew that...

We didn't encounter any glitches, and I'm always looking for those, though we haven't unlocked all alt. costumes.

I do have to agree that it's not worth its price tag, but my brother bought it (I was going to wait until it was under $20 USD), so I'm not really one to complain, and he seems to enjoy it.

 

[dunnace]

Well that sucks, I planned on getting this when it hit bargain bin bottoms and downloading Carnage as he was my favourite character. Now I guess not... damn...

 

[TPiddy]

I was thoroughly satisfied with my purchase, got 45 out of the 50 achievements in just over two months, and traded it in... a win in my books

 

[Altorin]

I don't tend to get DLC, but just dropping it off a game that's only been out for several months is just stupid, why would they do that? People worked on that DLC, they deserve to get paid for it, and Activision won't be making any more non-DLC money from MUA2, as there are probably enough Used copies floating around to sink a ship.

 

[Hollock]

yeah, I almost got the game. Also yes, prices aren't dropping anymore unless a game sucks. Halo 3 and gears of war 2 is still like 50 bucks last time I checked.

 

[Therumancer]

I might have missed it, but I'm surprised The Escapist didn't cover the DLC thing, it's still a big issue on the Gamefaqs forums.

Allegedly the DLC characters (Psylocke, Cable, Magneto, Carnage, and Cyclops) and the extra simulator modes/missions were supposed to be for a special holiday deal and intended to be taken down on 12/31. Apparently this was not widely known or announced (but might have been in some obscure place on their site). Apparently the DLC was also taken down before that date and along with it also disappeared the "Juggernaut" DLC, and the "adaption" option to let people play together with those who DLed the content. This last bit being a paticular annoyance to some, and highly unusual.

When the DLC was availible however, a LOT of people were complaining about it for like a million differant reasons. "Boycott the content" was a massive outcry. Truthfully, I find it ironic that the content got pulled and now people are whining about it with equal vigor.

I got the DLC to support the game, since while I have a LOT of problems with MUA 2, I think the franchise has potential, and if it dies we'll never see an improvement.

Understand I'm one of those guys who feels that the series was better as X-Men legends, and did not like how they removed a lot of the options with each new installment after the first XML game. Less equipment, loss of the abillity to allocate stats, loss of choosing powers, and similar things. MUA 2 suffering from turning more or less into a brawler with little in the way of controllable RPG elements (I mean the computer can auto level up your guys as well as you can since there are few real options, and no real powers to choose between. Nor can you build a character to have a radically differant power set and play style from someone else).

My biggest complaint with MUA 2 was the lack of content. There just weren't that many maps/missions overall. What's more they managed to take the horrible writing of "Civil War" and turn it into an even bigger mess of bad characterization (especially Reed Richards and that whole "WTF" nanite idea that they used instead of the Skrulls). In the end though even with two campaigns it's very short especially seeing as you re-visit the same basic maps and even some of the bosses (Goliath, Yellowjacket) are simply the same fight with a differant skin on the enemy.

Really DLC seemed like a mistake to me because having more characters to battle through that limited collection of levels seemed rather pointless. What they needed was actual content expansion.

MUA 2 struck me as a "dumb it down, and we can make it as short and simple as possible as long as we feed them DLC characters, the average rube will lap it up" gimmick.

Decent game, it was fun while it lasted I guess, but could have been so much more, and was ridiculously short.

 

[Jenkins]

My uncle who works for activision said that his studio got dumped on with that game because the original studio that was working on it took a massive dump and basically fucked all the coding and make the game impossible to play, thus why it lost alot of the sales possibilities, his studio got tasked to fix it then send it back so the other studio could get credit for the release >.>


if I remember correctly he said that half the coding was corrupt and all messed up when he got it haha.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

dont get the ma2 it sucks the missions are so samey and lame. and half the characters u want play as like Iron Man u cant be played as for half the missions

 

[Desolator996]

Activision obviously made a lot of enemies after this one. It makes you wonder how they'll look back a few years from now and hopefully find threads like this once their performance outlook starts circling the bowl.

I'm not going to trust them (or any other) production team as much as I used to, but I'll be doing my part to make the most of this mess.

Here's a currently active petition demanding the return of the dlc, right at the doorstep of the people responsible: http://www.herohq.com/forums/viewthread/18207

 

[Megazell]

The DLC work on the PC. Currently, trying to end the Blade Trilogy mod. Is this just on the CONSOLES?

 

[Sonicron]

Say what?! Great. I was still planning on getting Carnage. Thanks, Activision... you dicks.

 

[Antiparticle]

Wait, what? I just bought MUA2 a few days ago! They removed the DLC from the marketplace?? Why the Hell would they even do that?! That's really lame. It's a 2009 game for crying out loud!!!

 

[Fappy]

Unlocking all the costumes requires you join both Cap and Iron Man just fyi. For your first playthrough some characters can only have them unlocked depending on who you chose.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

dont get the ma2 it sucks the missions are so samey and lame. and half the characters u want play as like Iron Man u cant be played as for half the missions

For starters sort your grammar out. >.<

Second, if you actually read comics, you would understand why you can't play as Iron Man for half the missions, because Marvel had a superhero civil war event a few years back which pitted Captain America and a group of heroes against Iron Man and a group of other heroes. Maybe if you wanted to play as Iron Man you should have sided WITH him. Or play the campaign again and pick his side to see both sides of the arguement. The game was based off that event in the comics ya know; respecting the source material.

Personally I thought the game was quite fun and enjoyable. Especially considering they took the plot of Civil War and made it MUCH better. None of the character derailment or flanderization that happened in the event, plus an ending and 3rd Act which makes me wish the comic event had happened the same way. I was quite happy to see a plot that based itself off the comics and gave us characters we know and love and then taking it in a different direction which felt reasonable within the bounds of the Marvel Universe.

The missions being samey and lame? It's a freakin superhero game! You go around fighting other super powered mooks and thier henchmen! Thats the damm game machanic, thats what happens in superhero comics. The plot of the game itself helps you keep going on it, each level itself is different and very distinctive as well, I found the prospect to play as Deadpool, Thor, Iron Man or Gambit and kick tons of ass to be reason enough to get the game, and I kept playing to see what happens next. You could easily call Arkham Aslum samey because it's just Batman running around being a master detective, foiling The Joker and running from one area to the next beating up Gotham's crimianls, ya know; like in the comics...

As for the DLC veto, Since I never bought the DLC I am not going to piss and moan although it is a dick move for them to take it off without announcing it properly. Activision has definately gone down the same dark path EA did and won't be coming out anytime soon. The characters themselves did seem rather stiff and sluggish and it's only once the real main villian of the game shows up then things become interesting and pretty epic to boot, since untill then it felt like it was just going to repeat the event that a lot of people got fed up because of the mess it became. The games did feel much like MUA1 or X-Men Legends with the same mecahnics in store, nothing really was changed or improved, but a great plot and some epic settings and missions did mean I found the game to be fun, not perfect or great but good at what it does and I really got into it.

Apologies to all for the rant and wall o' text. I tried to balance my arguement so it was nto a complete fanboy rant. But as a fan/reader of Marvel and DC Comics I feel I can offer an opinion on this quite well.

yeah two things 1 im not going to buy a comic book. and 2 i did choose Iron Man's side

 

[WillSimplyBe]

And activision once again shows that it was spawned from the pits of hell. Crap, this was a game on my "To Play" list...my long... long.. list.

 

[Rangergord]

thanks for the info Fappy, and at least one bright light in game..wait replay value??? holy cow! now finally I might get wolvie and jonny storm unlocked (with a few others)

Sorry for grammer, I type with passion, does that cout??

 

[tiredinnuendo]

You play a Marvel game without reading the comics?
That's just an epic amount of fail.

I don't read comics either, but I played the game. I just like the RPG/brawler style and I really enjoyed playing co-op with buddies in the last one and teleporting all over the place with Nightcrawler. I have a basic knowledge of Marvel characters, but I have better things to do than read comic books. Fail? Not hardly. It's just not my thing.

To those above, on one hand, yeah, this is totally a dick move. I don't really mind them pulling the bonus characters, but they should've at least left the compatibility patch up. That said, MUA is a superior game on almost every level and is far, far cheaper, so it may be worth picking that up and playing around with that instead.

In fact I may go dust mine off... playing as Nightcrawler always was a blast.

- J