Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Interview (cont'd)

FiringSquad: Will the game be more action-oriented than the previous X-Men Legends games?

Matthew Paul: Well, again, working off of what I mentioned previously, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance isn’t just the next X-Men Legends game. Obviously Marvel: Ultimate Alliance does borrow a lot of the gameplay mechanics from the previous games, but this time around we’ve got a completely new story, new characters, and we’ve focused a lot more on the combat and action. We’ve got this awesome new combat system with all sorts of new additions like grappling, blocking, dodging, fighting while airborne, using objects in the environment as weapons, stealing weapons from enemies…you name it.

Plus, the Super Heroes have a huge variety of ways to dispatch enemies with combos and crazy super powers. However, all the expected RPG elements are intact too, so if you’re more of an RPG gamer you won’t be disappointed, as there is a lot of depth to that system and the better you are at managing your team, the more powerful they will become.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the game's multiplayer features?

Matthew Paul: Multiplayer in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is very unique. You can play from beginning to end with four people through the entire story. You can save in the middle of the game and then pick it up again with your friends. In addition, we have a new arcade style competitive mode where you play with your friends through the story, but this way you are ranked against your friends while you play. So the player that does the most damage, beats the most enemies, and gets the most loot is the player that gets the bonuses in the game. It’s pretty fun because when we play that way here in the office we all get really competitive and there’s usually a point where somebody slaps the controller out of another’s hands to keep them from doing as well as the rest.

FiringSquad: What other gameplay elements in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance do you think are important?

Matthew Paul: Jeez, I don’t know where to start. I could start with creating your own team, where you pick the characters, name the team, and then play the game and build up a reputation for them and gain bonuses. But then again, all the Super Powers are so mind blowing that I’m not sure talking about them does them enough justice. You really have to see Ghost Rider’s chain moves to get it, or Spider-Man’s web-attacks, or…well, I could go on and on. We also have a ton of cool Marvel locales to experience like the Shield Helicarrier, the underwater city of Atlantis, the Skrull homeworld, great in-game music, unique features for some of the different platforms; it’s a really big game.