Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - The Rebuild

I apparently had to rebuild the database for my PS3. This is not a bad thing. Apparently your system's hard drive has become fragmented and this is just the defrag process. It's really the same thing that you need to do to your computer on a fairly regular basis. The PS3 doesn't require it as often. Don't worry about any of your save data, it should all be there once the process finishes.

When I started the rebuild my wife turns to me and goes "So how does Final Fantasy XIII end?" I didn't tell her, she still needs to finish that game. I should do another playthrough and then talk about it. That game is fantastic for falling short on everything it does.

But I'm not currently playing Final Fantasy XIII, instead I'm playing different RPG, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Alliance 2 is just as lame of a game, but I find myself oddly enjoying it. It's like enjoying a B-movie. You go in knowing it's going to be bad and when you come out you got exactly what you wanted.

I'm trying to figure out if this game has a morality system in it. Whenever I have a conversation that are three answer types. Offensive, Defensive and Diplomatic. Apparently if I select enough Offensive or Defensive options I get bonuses. But there's no balancing for it. If I choose Offensive my Defensive bonus doesn't get smaller. It stays the same so there's really no downfall to what you choose. You can't piss people off with you answers so they'll leave your party, this definitely isn't a Bioware title (which also means you can't sleep with your party members). So it's just another silly system that feels randomly thrown into the game.

When I last stopped playing I had reached the crossroads point. I had to choose pro-registration or anti-registration. Since this is my second playthrough I went Pro. Pro feels very unnatural to me. Iron Man and company seem to happily hunt down anyone on the Anti side of things. Sure they comment about how they feel badly about it, but it sure doesn't feel that way during gameplay. The Pro team will stop at nothing to defeat the rebel force.

With that the Pro team invades an Anti team hideout. BOOOOO! This is the same location as the last playthrough. It's practically the same mission, I'm just fighting for the other side this time. All assets are reused and recycled. Bishop accompanies my team as an NPC. He seems to have a full moveset, so why isn't he a playable character? He was probably slated to be DLC, but the Disney buyout of Marvel probably squashed that.

The hideout level is as static as the rest of them. There's not much to talk about. There's a boring fight against Spider-Woman. A boring fight against Hercules. Wait....Hercules? There's a character called Hercules in Marvel comics? Well, he's been arrested anyways, I guess he doesn't matter, but still. There's a slightly more interesting fight against Cable. Nothing else to worry about in the level.

This whole Civil War thing comes off as a giant cock-fight. It's fairly unbelievable. I just don't see Iron Man mindlessly hunting down Captain America just because he didn't register. This makes more sense in the comics because the whole event is actually orchestrated by the Skrull empire. I will say this, Skrulls have nothing to do with this game. I don't even think they are mentioned.

I also find it funny that all the heroes are busy chasing down other heroes. It's established that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents will take care of any super villains. Yeah, right. Because S.H.E.I.L.D. has been so effective at that over the years.

After the hideout level it's revealed that the Thunderbolt team has apparently been helping round up super villains. Well, there ya go.

There seems to be something more looming in the air though when it comes to dealing with the villains. I know how things play out, but I won't ruin it quite yet. Area 42 has been revealed as a big prison for people. It's hidden in the negative zone. Supposedly this will prevent prisoners from escaping. All I see is badly setup foreshadowing. Somebody get me my towel so I can clean up this mess.