One of my favorite titles around the launch of the Xbox 360 and PS3 was Marvel Ultimate Alliance. As a big comic book fan and a fan of co-op, it was a good fit. The game was fun, but had its fair share of issues. Activision is stepping it up with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, slated for release this Fall.

In a demo shown at GDC, we got to see the Latveria level where Dr. Doom’s life force is still causing havoc. Lead by Nick Fury (unplayable in this level), your team must go through and fight off everything in sight.

The storyline is much more modern this time around, focusing squarely on the Marvel Civil War. Some additions and changes were made to work best for the game (such as including The Hulk, even though he wasn’t part of the Civil War story in the comics). There will be 24 playable characters to make up your squad, with the ability to switch them out at almost any point this time around. No more waiting to get to a location where you can make changes. This also allows for bringing your allies back to life at various points. This was done to make the game more accessible and to give it a nice pick-up-and-play feel.

The graphics looked phenomenal in what was shown, with a much closer camera angle employed in the sequel. Each character is presented in a much higher fidelity, so getting in close lets you see all the new polygons thrown into the mix. And with the incorporation of the Havok physics engine, movement and destruction looks great as well. Several enemies can be on screen at once in Ultimate Alliance 2 bringing in a sense you really being a superhero as you take down multiple foes.

The big change in this iteration are the Fusion powers. In the comics, when presented with insurmountable odds, superheros team up to use their powers together to fight off enemies. That’s exactly what you get here. Pressing the Left Trigger shows off what each character’s Fusion ability will be. Some we saw included Thor and Human Torch showing off their Electrical Fire Tornado, Captain America and Iron Fist mowing down enemies with their Human Freight Train, and Spider-Man throwing Wolverine in the Fastball Special. All the Fusion elements shown off were pretty cool, which quelled my fears of it being a tacked on cheesy gameplay element.

One of my biggest gripes with the first title was being able to get a 4 player co-op game going where people weren’t getting bored and frustrated with other gamers pausing, not playing the way you’re hoping, etc. With Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, the team at Vicarious Visions has streamlined the experience to appeal to casual and hardcore gamers alike. If you want to tweak your character, hitting the back button will allow you to do so while the AI takes over for you to keep the play going for everyone else. Not a bad idea.

To be honest, my expectations were low going in to see Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. When the Fusion elements were first introduced, I thought the game would not live up to the experience of the first title. Given the demo I saw at GDC, I’d say my hopes are now very high for Ultimate Alliance 2. Can’t wait to get some hands on time at E3.