Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is the latest game in the MUA franchise and so far it’s been met with excitement and positive reviews. As usual with these sorts of things, one can’t help but compare this one with its predecessors. After all, it has been ten years since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. It’s fully expected for this game to be better than the last and many hoped it would be, given how long they had to wait! Of course, nothing is perfect, but there are a few things that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3 got right and here are ten of them.
10 More Characters Than MUA 2
The roster of these series of games is one of the key aspects of the gameplay. It’s all about crafting a team of your favorite heroes from the movies and comic books and having them fight together against a common threat. The very first Marvel Ultimate Alliance had a staggering 140 characters, which is far more than this current game. However, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 does have more characters than MUA 2 with a roster of 36 characters and three DLC packs coming within the next year or so. The incoming packs will include some of the more obscure comic book characters and more of the beloved X-Men.
9 Character Adjustment
The character adjustment system in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 has gotten a slight tweak. In past games you had gear; essentially armor and weapon equip to adjust the powers and abilities of your characters. These were found scattered about the game and given out as level rewards.
The new system gives you items called ISO-8 crystals. Equipping your heroes with these crystals gives them boosts to different stats, making them stronger and allowing you carefully and strategically boost your heroes so they either work better together or deal more damage. They can be upgraded as well so their effects are more profound.
8 Simplified Upgrades
Sometimes in games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the upgrading systems for your characters can be a little cumbersome. There are tons of stats to tweak and keep in mind and things have to be balanced. In addition, there are often points to be managed and distributed properly amongst characters and abilities.
The new, simplified way of doing this sort of takes the decision making out of your hands. Your powers automatically level up as you do and then you can spend extra currency to improve specific ones. While this might not seem like an improvement, tons of menus and options can bog down gameplay. This allows you to quickly look over your new stats and continue beating up bad guys.
7 Powers Pack More Punch
Sometimes, combat doesn’t feel rewarding in games. You keep leveling up over and over again, but it seems your attacks still are not making a dent in your foes. You just don’t get the satisfaction of trouncing a once-powerful enemy. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 makes sure that you feel the differences as you level up your heroes and their powers.
You can see your attacks doing more damage, the numbers keep going up, and your enemies fall faster. All of this adds to the satisfaction of clearing out large hordes of enemies and taking on tough bosses, particularly when you go through the infinity trials.
6 Bosses Require More Thought
Bosses in video games are one of the climaxes of playing. All of the effort and progress you’ve been working towards comes to a head as you take on a landmark battle against this great foe. However, different games handle boss battles in different ways. Sometimes the game holds your hand, lighting up weak points for you to focus your attacks while other leaves you to fend for yourself.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance takes the middle ground in this effort. The bosses aren’t ridiculously easy but you have to watch their movement and experiment with different heroes and abilities in order to do the most damage.
5 Post-Game Activities
Sometimes when you beat a game, that’s its; the game is over and there’s nothing more to it. However, while some games excel with having an open and shut experience, others look to have you coming back and playing again and again. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 wants you to play it multiple times and there is plenty to do.
There’s infinity trials to complete, characters to unlock, and costumes to find. Not to mention, you can continue to enjoy the satisfying leveling system as mentioned earlier, as you can keep playing on higher difficulties and getting stronger. While you might eventually reach the absolute peak, it’ll take you quite a while.
4 An Exciting Way to Gain Levels
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is one of those games where missions and infinity rifts are labeled by levels to let you know how difficult the mission will be. In addition, you could find yourself stuck on a mission or infinity rift challenge because your team is not at the level they need to be.
A lot of games of this nature would require you to go back and replay the same story missions over and over (A.K.A. grinding) in order to boost their level high enough to move on. However, the infinity rifts are full of challenges with special rules for the battles and great rewards, so playing them is far from being a grind and keeps the fun going until you can get back to the story.
3 Team Enhancements
The biggest downside to any game that allows you to make your own teams is that most of the time, the characters you aren’t using don’t gain levels as your team does. If you have a go-to team that has all of your favorites, this might not seem like a big deal. However, in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, it would benefit you to make different teams and switch out characters often to help you make it through the next tough battle.
Leveling up all 36 heroes separately would be a huge chore though so there are a few items for you to earn called Team Enhancements. These items level up all your heroes to some extent so whenever you need to switch, you don’t have to waste time training up that hero to fit with the rest of your team.
2 Think Carefully About Your Team
As said in the previous section, you have to be aware of who is on your team and more likely than not, you’ll have to switch out heroes at some point. Certain heroes have certain powers and abilities and these match up to different situations. Some bosses might only be affected by certain heroes as well.
With this in mind, it’ll be tempting to fill all four slots with your favorites but it’ll take a good deal of thought to create a strong team that confronts any challenge. Heroes are divided into categories based on where they originated or what sort of abilities they have and when you group like heroes together, you get bonuses to your stats.
1 A Detailed Damage System
Many sections in this article talk about the importance of having a versatile team and being flexible with who you’re willing to put in your team. It can’t be stressed enough that if you want to progress, you’ll have to conform to this at least a little. Different combinations of characters provide varying synergy with each other which creates different team attacks. All of these different attacks, in turn, affect the bosses differently. In addition, there are different ways to build up energy for your special attacks. There are many other details into how it works but the best way to learn is by doing and experiencing it.
NEXT: Final Fantasy XIV: 10 Reasons Shadowbringers Is The Best Expansion So Far
