The Marvel gang returns to fight crime in this disappointing sequel.
Graphics
The first thing you'll notice about the game, is that its gorgeous, a clear cut above the first game. More detailed character models, better environments and the powers of the characters jump off the screen. For the first time in the series, you can actually see the characters' mouth move IN-GAME. However, seeing them make facial expressions is non-existent, they look like bored zombies just moving their mouths. The cinematics however, are hard to describe. The objects and characters are detailed, but the overall look and feel of them are a disappointment.
Sound
Explosions, the sound of Wolverine "popping" his claws and the like are used to good effect. The voice acting however is a hit and miss, it seems the developer of this game tried to hard to make the Latverians and Wakandans sound to foreign, and Shocker still hasn't found the right person to voice him. Steve Blum voices Wolverine to perfection and having Crispin Freeman voice Iron Man was a stroke of genius.
Gameplay
The gameplay remains largely unchanged, same button mashing formula from the first game, however, the powers have to reduced to four for each character which is unfortunate cause I liked having the ability to choose which powers I got to assign to my team. The custom team system from the first game, which let you select a team of four heroes, name them and choose your icon for them, have been removed along with the reputation system. In its place, or rather what they brought over from the first game is that if you select a certain four heroes, like an X-Men or Avenger team, you're given a stat bonus.
The enemies that required a special combo to defeat have thankfully been taken out, but the shielded enemies are still in the game. The new focus in MUA2 is the "fusion" system. By holding down a shoulder button and pressing the button a character is mapped to, you can combine two heroes' powers together for a devastating atack. Overwhelmed with enemies? Blow em away with a clearing fusion. Boss battle giving you a hard time? Use a targeted fusion to take away a big chunk of his health or finish the battle. Swarms of enemies up ahead? Use a guided fusion to brush them aside. However, the fusion moves are a bit to powerful and can more often than not swing a battle in your favor almost everytime, but they sure are nice to have. The biggest gameplay issue are the glitches. When playing the story, there's a chance the game can stop completely if you're talking with an enemy before fighting them, if you can't see the button icon to continue the conversation, you'll have to start all over again. The game also has a tendency to freeze in the character select screen which can lead one to cursing the game and television out.
Story
The games story is loosely based on the Secret War(Latveria invasion) series for the first mission then switches the Civil War(Heroes against heroes) series afterwards, and then branches off to a developer created story for the rest of the game. I like the game seemlessy transitioned from one comic series to the next. Having heroes fight against each other based on views of registering their secret identities makes for a dramatic fight. Sometime near the middle of the game, it branches off to one of two sides: The Pro-Registration side led by Iron Man, dedicated to registering heroes' identities with the government and the Anti-Registration side led by Captain America, who feels that the Superhuman Registration Act is an intrusion on Constitutional rights. Depending on which side you choose(Which is basically your opinion on the SRA), you get different missions, abilities and characters.
Through a certain course of events, the heroes are reunited against a global threat. The overall scope of the story pales in comparison with the first game, which had more of a universal threat than an Earthly one.
Setting
Most of the missions take place in the Northeaster part of the United States, mainly New York, the most otherwordly place you'll visit is the Negative Zone, which is to say, the locales aren't as exotic as the first game.
Overall, the game is more like a stripped down version of Ultimate Alliance 1 with better graphics. The base fun is still there, but there isn't as much content, nor incentive to play through it again, unless you wanna experience the Anti/Pro side depending on which side you first chose. Good for two playthroughs, three if you play the game on legendary.