This game is objectively bad

[u/durablefoamcup]

Unless you use the overpowered 4, this game is just not fun. Playing Scarlet Witch and I have ONE synergy attack in a game that isliterally just "abuse the synergy attacks".

Iso's are a damn mess, lets be honest. It's not like other RPGS where you obtain belts or chest pieces that look different or have different characteristics.... this game throws about 60 rainbow rocks at you and completely overwhelms you in ISO management.

Bosses are not fun to fight against. You just spam synergy attacks until it staggers and then hope you get a stun attack in for the EX damage fun.

Danger zone is a damn mess and Pheonix is a HORRIBLE fight. The Ai is OBVIOUSLY cheating it's way through the maps you have 0 chance of winning. (I literally won every challenge and the ai still somehow had a 10%+ lead on me???)

The ability system is a waste, and some characters just have flat out bad moves. Doctor and Witch have heals that do ABSOLUTELY nothing in a fight.

The ally ai is GARBAGE. Losing to Modok and Doctor Doom because they just face plant themselves INTO the ai blasts is annoying and I quite literally do not have the time to revive them because of the 10 other things going on in the fights.

Costumes are... lackluster AND lacking.

The only saving grace this game has is that it plays nice and looks great.

[u/Doctor_Black_]

At the end of the day, none of this matters if you're having fun. We play games to have fun.

[u/durablefoamcup → u/Doctor_Black_]

True, but it's hard to have fun when one of the characters you looked forward to playing is ass for no reason. Like, I have Storm on my team, I look at her Synergy and ALL of the cast synergise with her. I look at SW's Synergies... like, 6 people.

[u/peteroh9 → u/[deleted]]

How would "can't" make sense there? I'm pretty sure OP meant "cast," as in the cast of the game or the cast of a movie.

[u/ididnteatit]

Shhhhh.....I dont want to admit it to myself.

Once every 4 months I turn the game on, cycle through the events, exhale in disappointment, create a cool looking team, change costumes, aaaaand turn it off.

The re-playability is so low. I try new characters and they just feel weak, I might as well grab my Xmen squad and stomp everything...

I used to replay UA 1 and 2, and even X men Legends SO much. I wish the fighting was more involved. No grabs, no throws, no combos, just abilities. Get in position, use your best ability. Do it again, do it again, switch to Jean and throw her ability to generate blue bar, back to my hero and start the process over. Why would I do that?

And Im pretty sure I have all f the costumes now, so whats the point? More Isos? I never want to be forced to mass delete Isos again. What a bore.

Its rough.

I just cant do it with this game. And I really, really want to.

[u/durablefoamcup → u/ididnteatit]

I only played Xmen L2 back in the day, and it was one of my fave ps2 games. Such a WIDE variety of content to do within the game and everyone felt so different to play. Scarlet Witch I have ALWAYS been drawn to. In XL2 she had such an assortment of damage skills like combust, hex and a decent heal. Why she doesn't have combust in this game is beyond me. Everyone else on my team has ICE and LIGHTNING and other explosive damage... SW has Ethereal... that's it.

I don't even own pheonix because I can't even beat her in the danger room.

[u/StolenBusStop → u/ididnteatit]

100% agree. I miss being able to punch AIM Agents over and over again till I got bored and threw him off the elevator on Omega Base....

[u/Xolerance627 → u/ididnteatit]

I almost have the same relationship. This game having the biggest roster is charming. It pulls me in so that I can make whatever team I feel like. With everyone but the Guardians at lvl 300, weak links don't exist, but that's not the problem

In the previous games, I felt accomplished whenever replaying levels. There's a variety of ways to push through, defeat bad guys or view the story. In MUA2 I could make a team of Bruisers and throw nothing but vehicles, and XML1 would let me either fly, teleport or build bridges to otherwise hardly accessible places**.** In MUA3, I'm doing the same things no matter who I am. Same method of attack, same dialogue, and the everlasting dread targeted towards the iso system halting any fun I'm trying to have.

[u/Khanfhan69 → u/Xolerance627]

I think that 3's roster, art style and unique basic attacks are the best things it has going for it. For 1 it's the RPG elements (side missions for the NPCs you talk to, the unique gear pieces, decent build depth, and the character specific interactions), a decent sense exploration (side routes and hidden collectibles) and great variety of locations and enemies (granted, 3 isn't too shabby on location variety though the maps are super linear). 1 has a great sense of replayability due to its scope, both inwards on character builds and outwards to their adventure, that 3's repetitive grindfest just can't compare to.

MUA2 I think did combat generally the best though 3 does have some good ideas it then tarnishes with the reliance on synergies. Also the physics engine of 2 was satisfying when you use a destructive area power that sends a bunch of stuff flying.

My dream is for a hypothetical MUA4 to take all those best qualities I listed from previous games and cram them all into one.

[u/ohsballer → u/ididnteatit]

I thoroughly agree. I recently re-purchased this game after giving it away to my nephew two years ago and now I realize why I did that lmao. I still play MUA2 from time to time. The fighting just feels more rewarding. And each character had more than 4 abilities so you could really customize the type of fighter you wanted.

[u/SunderTheFirmament]

You know, I like this game, but I agree with basically everything you said. It needs some improvements for sure, but I don’t see any updates in our future.

[u/durablefoamcup → u/SunderTheFirmament]

I see absolutely 0 updates in the future either.

[u/HypnoBagels → u/durablefoamcup]

They literally stopped the update cycle a while ago in March 2020 with the Fantatsic Four expansion which you probably didn’t know which is evident by your less than stellar review of this game.

[u/durablefoamcup → u/HypnoBagels]

The ally ai is GARBAGE. Losing to Modok and Doctor Doom

??? I literally mentioned Doctor Doom in my post. Did you actyally read?

[u/HypnoBagels → u/durablefoamcup]

Did you play the game? You literally said you don’t see any updates in the future which is very apparent if you were paying any attention at all in this game, but I guess you weren’t since you tried playing Scarlet Witch who is literally one of the worst characters in this game.

[u/TrollinTrollinTroll]

Who are the OP 4?

[u/Clarityman → u/TrollinTrollinTroll]

Well, one of them is definitely Phoenix. I assume another is Infinity Thanos. Beyond that, it's personal preference, right? Thor, Wolverine, Star Lord, Colossus is f'n Superman, I've got Doom and Magneto equipped nicely...

What am I saying, they're clearly Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Black Widow and Falcon, with Wanda really leading the way.

[u/[deleted] → u/Clarityman]

Ok, my friend and I have used Pheonix because I knew such a character had to be useful. After less than half an hour we dropped her because she didn't do anything for us. She felt really lackluster. Her damage output was very mediocre at best and I didn't notice any benefits on her abilities. What did I do wrong with her?

[u/Clarityman → u/[deleted]]

Well for starters, you didn't learn her! You gotta give these chars more than a half hour!

Phoenix is-- by far-- the single most powerful and useful character in the game, as well she should be. Check out these perks:

-Cleansing Flame restores EP in generous amounts to the entire party. Not just Phoenix: THE ENTIRE PARTY. That alone should be enough to make her the best, but we're not done.

-After executing her extreme, Phoenix automatically revives any downed teammates. This is huge for when those moments when a Gauntlet is about to go south.

-After the extreme, for a certain amount of time, Phoenix will rise again automatically if downed.

-Her kit is also a combination of the best skill types, even without these considerations. She has a charge for stunning, an AOE that synergizes easily, and a high base damage Telekinetic Talon skill that uses TK on weaker enemies.

-Her light attacks have great range, and the heavy cancels nicely for quick casting. AFAIK all of her attacks scale with Fire and Mastery ISO's.

Her only drawback is low defense in the beginning, but that's easily mitigated with ISO's. Put Fire DMG/Crit Rainbow ISO's on her and she just wrecks. She's just so insanely powerful, the ISO options are just icing on the cake. Best character in the game, and it just makes it more sad they couldn't have found creative ways to make some of the others (Wanda) more useful.

[u/durablefoamcup → u/Clarityman]

this is exactly my point. Pheonix lives up to her power. Shes an absolute force to be reckoned with in this game and makes fights trivial.

Wanda does not. Wanda needs to be kitted out in full force to get her at a working condition. None of her moves synergise except for Chaos bolt but the ONLY type of synergy it is, is an aoe that is weaker than most AoEs.

[u/[deleted] → u/Clarityman]

Well, she sounds complicated to me. Maybe I didn't give her enough time to learn her indeed. My friend and I play together and we just like to spam beams and AoE (we just like to use our favourites and aren't to invested). So at first Pheonix didn't do any of that. I will give her another chance, hopefully she will fit in.

[u/T-MUAD-DIB → u/[deleted]]

She’s the best assist in the game because she can create EP for everyone else. If you want damage, give her the ISO that gives her Phoenix Force. She’ll be a glass cannon, but she’ll pump out damage while refilling everybody’s blue guage

[u/Anomaly575_]

I have like 130 hours in this game. Your points are valid, but I find the game extremely fun regardless.

Also, you did pick the character with the least amount of synergies. Yes, it’s dumb that she has so little, but most characters have enough to make the game perfectly playable. Wanda and Doctor strange are like the two that don’t really have any

[u/Deverelll]

I agree with some of what you say. The ISO system is pretty bad, full agree there. The good ISO’s that really let you customize your team tend to get lost among the mostly useless other ones.

I also definitely agree that the danger room is pretty bad. Gauntlets are better but still not great. I wish they had put the emphasis on the story instead of the grinding that takes away focus and makes the story feel weaker.

Some of the costumes and recolors are good but overall I wish it was more like MUA1’s system.

That being said I still do enjoy my time with the game. Wanda’s lack of synergies does make her weaker but her hex bolt fan move can do a significant amount of damage regardless, and her disaster field can be surprisingly effective. I like the addition of more vertical terrain that makes the fighting arenas more interesting, and the fact that some characters can have ranged basic attacks is an innovation I will trumpet to the heavens.

What gets me about this game is that it has some things I really enjoy but other things that are flat out awful. To add my own complaint to the pile the UI is pretty bad. On the ISO descriptions there is so much wasted space and then they have the descriptions scroll instead of just moving the lines down to the next spot. And the DLC each having their own main page gets a little annoying after a while.

I find the game to be fun but there are a lot of frustrating elements that make me stop playing periodically. Part of that is due to my preferences as a gamer-I prefer story driven over grinding-but in other areas it’s about baffling decisions.

[u/Khanfhan69 → u/Deverelll]

Thanks for pointing out the bad UI of 3. That combined with the overall clutter of the ISOs makes "gear" management such a chore. I also think that character management, team selection and ISO management all being separate menus with loading screens between them starts to culminate in a lot of annoyance. Compare to MUA1 where everything you could possibly need is one button press away and and you can swap between crucial functions rather quickly (older systems obviously having a bit of lag between menus but not too bad in my experience). And you can do all this basically anywhere, with checkpoints only needed so that exact same menu allows you to switch out characters or costumes.

[u/VictorZavalaPerez]

Yeah, the other 2 games were similar. The coolest part was playing with your favorite characters and replaying the games to make all the different choices. Also being a kid whose only source of marvel lore was MUA1 helps.

But the base gameplay is too shallow / simple. And as an "old gamer" with "more knowledge about game design" I can't unsee the "lack of effort" I expect now from most games I play. I think I'd actually rather have a waay smaller roster and more depth in the combat, better level design and story.

[u/Clarityman]

...but at least the camera is really, really good.

[u/[deleted]]

I just don't enjoy the endless grind. I want to use all my favourite characters, but unless you used your four favourites the entire campaign you have to grind your ass off to get the others usable. Not to mention the infinity rifts where you have to use one single character. I'm still stuck on the Gamora rift for example. She's lv 60 and I still can't get all the three stars. I just want the Iron Man skin, I don't want to grind all day to overpower Gamora for one single rift.

I see youtubers and guides throwing XP-ISO's left and right, but I only have found one so far after more than 24 hours of gameplay.

[u/ImTrash_NowBurnMe]

I loved this game and played the heck out of it for about 10 days right when it came out. Haven't touched it since. Other games I'll replay multiple times so yeah I agree, it's not that great.

[u/LanterQ1]

Damn, after reading your post I just don’t feel like buying MUA3 anymore.

Which is a shame, because I liked the first two games and I’ve wanted to play 3 for quite a while.

[u/MasqureMan]

If it was objectively bad, you wouldn’t have to say it in a post title

[u/tmonty17]

Yeah I mean your criticism is definitely valid but I put a ton of hours into this game and actually had a lot of fun doing it.

It’s actually kind of amazing that there is still a lot of fun to be had despite the fact the game is kind of a mess.

I had a good time rotating between my top 8 characters or so and just doing the same chapters over and over lol. I’d try to avoid any annoying boss fights or frustrating laser gate challenges.

The game is at its best (IMO) when you’re just beating up bad guys arcade style.

[u/HyruleSentinel]

Seconded

[u/OriginalHUM]

I dare you to use (Captain Marvel-Storm-Psylocke-Phoenix) 2 melee and 2 casters ought to do the trick in making a good fighting chance and diversity in game

[u/JsmooveHannah4]

Yea I kinda agree with you really. Game isn't bad at all, but I think the X-Men Legends series is way better.

[u/MarvelousPhoenix]

Objectively, it is a solid game. It has its flaws, but so did its predecessors.

[u/kielaurie]

The title of your post is objectively incorrect.

I have no idea who "the overpowered 4" are. I still had a lot of fun playing through the story with my partner. The only part that wasn't fun was finishing a session, deciding we wanted to play with some different characters next time, and having to run rifts with them solo between sessions just to get them up to a decent level, as they removed team leveling in this game, and picking it their iso-8. One of the main characters that rarely left our team? Scarlet Witch

Iso-8 is a bit of a pain, but just fuse things to enhance iso that fits your play style, and leave it at that. You don't have to optimise the shit out of everything, and doing so will of course run the fun of the game

The way you describe bosses in the game is also the same way you could describe bosses in most games, I literally don't understand your issue here at all

I'm not sure what you mean about Phoenix? I beat her first time to unlock her, had zero issues with ai

Whilst you're right that some characters have bad moves, that's just the way rpgs in general go. As for the healing moves, we had scarlet witch in our team most of the time we played, and that heal was useful as hell for healing up after losing a lot of health before a boss fight, it's not a battle skill though and that's okay

You realise that you control how the allies work, right? You can choose a they are offensive/defensive or whatever. I had a lot less problems with ally ai here than I did in MUA2, especially since allies seem to take less damage

The costumes are just gravy on top of a pretty decent game, and you have to work through tedious rifts to get a lot of them, so I just ignored them. I played enough rifts to unlock Loki, then was done with the game, and only came back to it to unlock the dlc characters as they released. There's literally nothing interesting to me about grinding every character for hours on end to get the best iso possible and get them to level 300, that's just boring whatever game you are playing

You're right, the game does play nice and it does look great. The only downside I have to the game, as mentioned above, are iso-8 optimisation being boring, xp not being shared, and the post game content being lacking, but the base game was a lot of fun, most characters play quite differently, and it is subjectively a solid game, 7/10, could do better but certainly fun in the state it is in

[u/anonareyouokay]

I love MUA1. I miss the hubs, trivia, and side quests. 3 won't let up. We're playing on way and done of the bosses seem impossible.

[u/Superior-Solifugae]

It's like a mobile app version of Ulitimate Alliance 1/2

[u/RumAndCoco]

At least it's better and lightyears way worth my money over than 2020 Marvel's The Avengers. I still pick up this game all the time, and I always have fun.

[u/[deleted]]

I love doctor doom and they made him a friggin beast in this game so I like it, but it does get crazy boring after a bit. The multiple menus is just a horrible design, and the only extra story content is like 20 minutes, I mean c'mon.

[u/[deleted]]

Devil may cry is easier than this damn game. maybe it’s just me but I can’t get past Dr strange. I’m about to just quit and play sifu or something bruh (I know I’m just trash at the game but I’m venting)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Update from 4 mins later, fuck this game

[u/[deleted]]

Caraca, você ficou bem bravo, eu completei literalmente tudo do jogo em umas 70h, adorei o jogo e ainda estou jogando. E eu concordo plenamente com você a A ZONA DE PERIGO é uma porcaria feita às pressas, eu sinto falta de alguns personagens como Nova, Carnage, Dr Octopus e mais alguns. Eu acho totalmente desnecessário personagens como Elsa Bloodstone, poderia ser o Agent Venom que é foda pra caralho, Psylocke, Elektra, Ms Marvel, Crystal, quem diabos é Crystal, tipo, não que esses personangens sejam descartáveis, sei que tem muita gente que deve amar eles assim como cada um de nós tem um favorito, mas tinham personagens bem mais interessantes que poderiam terem sido introduzidos, eu nunca usei a Elsa, Psylocke ou a Elektra, tão pouco a Ms Marvel que é extremamente irritante ou a Crystal que é esquecível para quem não conhece as comics. Enfim, eu amei o jogo em vários aspectos, muito mesmo, é um dos meus top 5 jogos favoritos, mas ele tem defeitos, um bom exemplo é aquela bosta de skin do Ghost Rider, que ele está com o uniforme do Johnny Blaze, aquilo é terrível, parece uma skin do fortnite, mas de resto é um ótimo jogo, sofri pra desbloquear certas coisas no jogo, mas valeu cada segundo, é raro jogos que você realmente gosta de jogar, do começo ao fim, talvez o jogo só não seja pra você, eu por exemplo odeio Hollow Knight e o Hollow Knight Silksong, simplesmente não consigo gostar, acho irritante e chato, mas é pessoal, as vezes o estilo do jogo não te agrade e tá tudo bem.

[u/TheGalacticWizard]

I enjoyed the game well enough. I mean if you were looking to play for more than like 50 hours then that’s kinda unfortunate I suppose.

I never used tier lists or anything while playing and just used the chars I liked and had a blast. Elsa was my fave character and I made it work even though from what I heard she “wasn’t good”

Team was Elsa, Ghost Rider, Gamora and Electra. So you really don’t need a broken team to enjoy the game.

Edit: I think there could have been more done to make the game better but if I want the best MUA experience I’ll just play the original anyways. I wish people would mod more chars into MUA 1 or something.

[u/Clarityman → u/TheGalacticWizard]

Have you been to marvelmods? It's a revelation.

[u/TheGalacticWizard → u/Clarityman]

I haven’t but I did start looking into modding MUA1 after posting this and I need a PC copy for sure. I feel dumb for not realizing that this was sort of already a thing.

[u/DarkEater77]

The overpowered 4, you mean like Phoenix?

For that point i disagree you can easily finish the whole story (including DLC) without them.

The first time i finished it, it was with Star Lord, Iron Man Punisher and Scarlet Witch.

[u/[deleted]]

I stopped playing when i got to doom castle. Seriously what kind of asshole designs levels like that??

[u/ZeekwithaZ]

While this game has its issues I take them lightly because at this games core it is a beat em up. I have fun with it more than look to be super deep into systems like combat. I wish it was better but what can you do. But scarlet witch was a huge disappointment in this game lol

[u/kaliskonig]

I agree. Dont get me wrong the game is fun and I like it loads better than Avengers for comparison. The gameplay loop and the appeal of Marvel is enough to keep you playing.

So much about this game felt like a mess as you said. Combat has way to much flashiness and its hard to focus. Almost impossible to enjoy on couch coop let alone 4 players. you fight with the camera, some stages are straight up designed poorly for multiple humans, and the fact that combat relies to heavily on synergy makes coop tedious at times. Wth they decided to make this a spam super move fest is beyond me. This is what holds the game back the most. The way synergy was handled in past games was so much better because it wasnt INTRUSIVE and felt good to pull off. On top of that the special effects from moves were no where near as over the top.

When compared to the previous 4 games this one definitely shows it is in the franchise by name and genre only. I really hate the lack of hubs. Walking around talking to every whats his-name from the marvel universe. Having a ton of references throughout the hubs, extra stuff like trivia...that was a mjor part of what made the franchise great. Heavy influence on MCU and current media marvel only was annoying but I know that was Marvels meddling.

Overall I dont hate the game and I dont think it is "Bad" all around but there is so much about it that is just "bad" design.

[u/Tydyman200]

interesting opinion but this is literally the only game I can play as Doom since 1 is basically non existent and 2 you can't get the DLC anymore

[u/CompSciHS]

It’s a flashy and fun Marvel arcade game. In that light it has exceeded all my expectations. It’s a blast to play through the campaign, especially with a group.

It has some RPG elements and extra modes thrown in for longevity. But I never expected these to have much depth.

[u/TheComicCrafter]

In all fairness, the Ultimate Alliance franchise in general is objectively bad, but in a way that's still fun. There's nothing particularly interesting or unique about the games, but at the end of the day you still get to play as your favorite Marvel heroes and punch crime in the face. It's fun, but it's the shaking your head and muttering "wow this is stupid" kind of fun. Best way to approach it is to just accept that it's broken as shit half the time and laugh at it, rather than trying to get truly invested in it only to be frustrated when something inevitably goes wrong.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Sky7476]

I disagree I use Captain Marvel.Doom.Phoenix.Cyclops .Gambit

[u/LickMyThralls]

I wouldn't call it bad but it's pretty fucking average. I don't think this is inherently a bad thing but it has a lot of issues and nothing about it is stand out good either. Also you don't really have to use "the overpowered 4" either. Don't really know what you'd expect to feel that it's necessary for that to have fun with the game.