Checking Out Marvel Ultimate Alliance II

If you'd told us we'd be freezing cold in San Diego in July, we'd call you a liar and promptly demand our money back, you worst weatherman ever. But that was precisely the case last night when Activision put on a press event on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. It may have been unseasonably brisk for San Diego, but the selection of games (not to mention the presence of comic legend Stan Lee) more than made up for it. One of the games shown (or teased, we should really say) was Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion.

The title derives its name from the main enhancement to the gameplay, which is ability to fuse special attacks between characters. One example we caught during the trailer was the Invisible Woman creating a shield, which the Iron Man powered up with his own special attack to create a super-charged monstrosity. Another new enhancement includes environments that are more destructible. Over the course of the trailer, we saw the Thing smash more than his fair share of obstacles and pavement. But that's just the Thing. He's very smashy.

In terms of visuals, the game is taking on a slightly more realistic look, which Vicarious Visions says is influenced by the work of Steve McNiven. The graphics in this trailer (which is all footage captured from the game) looked awfully nice. Whether it's the detailed character models, flashy visual effects, or post-Thing destruction in the enironments, the game is looking quite good.

We're looking forward to seeing more of MUA2 in the near future. We do know that the storyline takes place during the Secret Wars timeline, but we couldn't get much more detail than that. The trailer they showed wasn't much more of a snippet of what the full game should offer, so hopefully we can relay more information on the front shortly.