Fighting

The Marvel Civil War is perhaps one the most memorable stories in recent memory and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 loosely follows the events of that epic struggle. You'll hack, slash and web sling your way through various areas like Latveria, New York City and the African nation of Wakanda as either the Pro-Registration or Anti-Registration side. But not all is well with this tale as the game does suffer some frequent frame rate issues, the occasional glitch, and an oversimplification that hinders what could have been the best Marvel action RPG to date.

The story in MUA2 is an amalgam of two separate plot lines in the Marvel Universe, The Civil War mini-series and The Secret War mini-series. Vicarious Visions has done a wonderful job at combining both mini-series into one cohesive story, but comic book fans may not be appreciative of the liberties that were taken in order to get that story to fit within the confines of the game. The story is played out in three acts: Act I begins with the Secret War and events leading to the Civil War, Act II is focused solely on the Civil War, and finally Act III is supposedly dealing with the aftermath of the Civil War.

We core gamers are at a crossroads. The Wii and the rise of casual gaming will influence game development for the foreseeable future. With increased frequency, games once meant for us will be reshaped into something palatable for others. Prince of Persia, whether intentional or not, feels like one of those games. The value of this philosophical shift will surely split the opinion of the Prince’s audience.

Narratively, this new Prince of Persia has nothing to do with last generation’s Sands of Time trilogy. The Prince is in search of Farah, but the object of his desire is his gold laden donkey, not Sands of Time’s damsel in distress. See what they did there? The damsel not quite in distress this time is Elika, a princess of a people bound to protect a great evil’s prison.

Not surprisingly, this cosmic evil gets out. Corruption, a life-like, tarry black substance, coats the land and threatens to suck the life out of everything - including you. Elika becomes your AI partner as you cooperatively go about restoring the Fertile Grounds in areas connected by a central hub, thus pushing the Corruption back and sealing the prison once again.