Welcome to our full review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, the Nintendo Switch exclusive is out now and it rocks!
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a fun fighting game that comes close to the musou genre at times but still sets itself apart by the harder battles and even in friendly mode, it provides a gently presented challenge. Boss battles are very present in the game and you will be facing off with a variety of the most famous Marvel villains, in the first few hours of the game, Green Goblin, Wilson Fisk, Venom and many more pass the revue.
The game starts off with the famous infinity stones, it is your job to keep Thanos from getting his hands on them. We dive into the game with the Guardians of the Galaxy as your fighting champions and shortly after, you are joined by your friendly neighborhood Spide-Man. As we are being joined by Spider-Man, his biggest enemy is your next opponent, Enter Venom and his typical attack patterns. Once you figure them out, defeating him will be a breeze. He is forgiven by Spider-Man and Venom joins your team.
Next up are battles with the “Hand” and Wilson Fisk and Green Goblin and so many others, you end up defending the Avengers main base, you do so many things. My favorites are the boss battles that start off with a silly pun when the boss is presented in a funny cut scene and the puzzles. No need to go into detail on what boss battles are, but the puzzles, I would like to say a little more about them though.
The puzzles involve pressing buttons to open up gates that close others along the way. Figuring out the way through is easy at first but every next puzzle, the difficulty goes up by a little, not that much, but just ever so slightly and before you know it, you are stuck in the right part and you see the exit on your left. Do you retrace your steps or do you keep trying? It was a nice pace breaker in the middle of fighting sessions. I appreciated them a lot.
At the same as I enjoy the puzzles, I dislike the camera usage in them a lot. The camera becomes fixed and this is where things go wrong, go too much to the left or right and you have certain points where you basically vanish from the field. Sure, your allies will be fighting at their own locations, but you just vanish. I just tend to switch characters and wait for the missing superhero to show their face again.
The allied heroes are actually well-balanced, I must say. They tend to really fight along and this is done rather intelligently. Not just mindlessly attack any random enemy but they seem very organized. When you or one of them fall in battle, you can revive them easily by standing in their proximity and pressing the right button. I love how even the allies can perform this action and that it is not just your duty alone. Mind you that you should not ignore your basic duties as you will get punished down the line if you do not take proper care of your crew!
That is not the only thing your team can do, as you progress, your team will be tougher and more badass than before as more and more superheroes join the cause. When you select your team, make sure to keep your eye out on their origins, mix and match them right and additional bonuses are given like additional attack percentages. Add in the creativity of using your found credit to make your team even more powerful on the team grid and you got quite a bit of RPG elements at your disposal. Also make sure to hit all those walls and furniture in case special items or power-ups pop up!
The amount of available heroes is actually quite impressive and you are adding them to the roster very often! Ranging from the Spide-Man universe to the X-men and so many more. I love my all-female team to engage in battle as Captain Marvel specifically kicks more than just but!
I was lucky enough to let a female gamer friend try out the game and she pretty much shares my impressions of the game. We played some co-op and while she was not as weathered as Lander (who joined me on the post E3 event in the Netherlands) it was still tons of fun. She was mostly surprised by the ease of playing and the impressive cut scenes. For the record, we played in tabletop mode.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order really tries very hard to be the ultimate fighting game and aside from the camera issues, it actually succeeds. The battles are fun yet challenging. There is clearly a more easy way to every battle and if you pay close attention, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order will be anything but a button masher. I compared it to a musou game due to the amount of attacking that needs to be done, but in itself, the game does not shower you with enemies. It gives you just the right amount of challenge. Once again, that thin line between challenging and over the top, it is perfectly balanced in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order.
At first, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order might turn you off a little due to the lack of special attacks and it just takes a few minutes to really get a grasp of things to come. The infinity stones are to be rescued and do you have what it takes to become a superhero and join the cause? Do you have the guts to shine!
Prior to writing my conclusion, I do want to iterate what I love the most. Not the cut scenes, not the amazing puns, but actually the way the difficulty spikes are introduced. Slowly but surely, you get more powerful enemies and the matching attacks to boot, though, despite all that, the battles really seem harder. You never get the impression down the line that you are fighting off fodder, even the “goons” are above their usual level and in the latter stages of the game, they really challenge you to be on point and not just button bash.
In conclusion, storywise, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is awesome. It keeps you busy and entertained and the horrible puns just make you smile because really, the perfect comical interludes are right there. The game might suffer from bad camera movements, but that did not live up to the die-hard entertainment that this game brings to the table. I feel this game is rather unique. I am very happy to be playing this Switch exclusive and hope you will join my excitement for this game! Avengers Assemble!
