So I finished my second run-through on Marvel Ultimate Alliance last night. I really only had one reason for doing it - to see if the game really was saying Jean Grey was more important than Nightcrawler. I better explain. Spoilers if you haven't gotten to Mephisto's Realm yet.
Within Mephisto's realm, you face his "son", Blackheart. He's keeping Jean and Kurt prisoner, Kurt having been abandoned there by Doom after he used Kurt to get to Mephisto's Realm (I'm guessing Mephisto gave Doom an exit), Jean having been captured in the realm while trying to help Xavier protect Kurt from Blackheart. Blackheart tells you that only one can be saved, and naturally, each one tells you to save the other.
Faced with that, it was left in my hands, where there is one immutable truth: Nightcrawler is one of my favorite X-Men, while Jean (or the maybe the way X-writers use her) annoys/bores the hell out of me. Bye Jean!
After you beat the game, Uatu tells you what will happen as a result of your choices. For not saving Jean, I ensured that the Dark Phoenix would rise again and wreak terrible havoc. To which I say, what the hell? Letting Nightcrawler die was the right choice? Why? Because he's not as strong or psychotic as Jean?! That's bullcrap!
Thus I set out to beat the game, saving Jean this time, certain Uatu would tell me that was the proper choice and I could get my anger on. Except...
Kurt's death spurs Mystique to infiltrate the X-Mansion, and beat Xavier into a coma, which he eventually dies in, leading to the X-Men's disbanding. Huh. Well, that's pretty significant, I guess. OK, never mind the anger then.
For the record, the voice acting outtakes that run during the credits were outstanding. Reed and Sue arguing over the pronunciation of "nuclear", the fact even Jean knows she dies too damn much, Loki gluing Thor's hammer to the floor, Nick Fury fighting ninjas in the soundbooth, Bob telling Xavier that he needs "to get more in character". Good times.
Plus, Deadpool's line to Black Widow: 'I gotta know - are those real? What? Your teeth, are they real? They're just so straight and white.'
For that line, Deadpool got to fire the shot that finished Dr. Doom. He deserved it.
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8 comments:
Cripes, you should know the Watcher is always going to have an unhappy ending lined up for any choice you can make. He spent decades doing that schtick in What If, why expect him to change?
"What do you think I should have for dinner, Uatu, pizza or chinese?"
"I am forbidden to intervene in mortal affairs. You must make the choice yourself!"
"Ummm...okay, I guess I'll go with pizza."
"Your decision to enjoy a simple pizza will lead to the death of all mankind when your delivery man suffers a tire blowout and crashes into a delivery truck transporting top secret zombie plague toxins. Within weeks, humanity will be devoured by an unstoppable tide of the ravenous dead."
"Really? Well, chinese it is, then."
"Once again your dietary choice will lead to ruin, but this time of a more personal nature. Unknown to you, the Happy Dragon is actually a front for a sinister society of immortal mystics who drain the life force of their customers by cryptic sigils included in their fortune cookies. Your withered corpse will be found with a half-eaten egg roll in its hand."
"You know, maybe I'll just make a sandwich or something. Do you know what's left in the fridge?"
"My cosmic knowledge is of a higher order than the status of your larder. However, should you discover any pastrami, I would like mine on rye with mustard, please."
The Watcher would have been a lot more interesting if Phil LaMarr had used his Ollie the Weatherman voice.
And I gave Deadpool the shot that got Doom too. I look forward to playing it again on Normal with DP all the time.
rich: Well, not everything seemed to be all bad. Saving the computer at Omega Base lead to a vaccine for the Legacy Virus, so that was a choice with a positive outcome.
But your point is well taken. Uatu is the poster boy for "damned if you do, damned if you don't".
dan: My style is to give everybody equal time, swapping out characters at each save point. But if I was to play favorites, Deadpool would be one of them.
Wait, so you lose either way? That's pretty dumb.
Once I get my Wii in six months, I definitely intend to check the game out. I hear good things.
fitz: Well, eventually, years after the events of the game conclude, you lose.
But yeah, pretty much. Fortunately, not every situation is like that.
Actually, in my "sacrifice Nightcrawler" outcome, it seemed like a pretty good "big picture" outcome, though one that kinda sucks if you're Charles Xavier. No more X-Men, but with a new alliance with the Shi'ar, cure for the Legacy Virus, and all that, it didn't seem like the X-Men per se were all that necessary anymore.
I'm playing my first game on Hard now, and it *is* pretty hard. Combat's a lot less forgiving, and makes you notice more how sucky the AI is for computer-controlled heroes. They use their powers way too little, and their "buff/debuff" type powers almost never.
Unfortunately, this also kinda encourages focusing improvements on a "set lineup" more than swapping a bunch of guys in and out.
I consider Jean going on another murderous Dark Phoenix rampage pretty much par for the course.
What can I say? I like Chuck.
Though I do like how they really lay on the guilt for awhile about *INSERT CHARACTER NAME*'s death.
david c: Yeah, I finally actually saved Liliandra yesterday (beating Normal for the 3rd time), and you got a point about the X-Men not being all that critical, especially with Senator Kelly pushing for funding of more schools like Xavier's.
carla:True, Jean is prone to bouts of insane destructiveness.
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