Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order – Everything You Need To Know About The Game

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is an action role playing hack and slash title developed by Team Ninja and published by Nintendo.

Development

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order serves as a sequel to previous Ultimate Alliance titles, and sees the return of the series after a long hiatus, with Ultimate Alliance 2 having launched in 2009, a decade before the release of its sequel. It is being developed by Koei-Tecmo’s Team Ninja (Raven Software and Vicarious Visions developed the first two games respectively) and is the first Ultimate Alliance game to be published by Nintendo and be exclusive to one platform (that being the Switch). The game entered development after Nintendo and Marvel entered talks and agreed on wanting to see the Ultimate Alliance series return.

The game was announced at The Game Awards in December of 2018 as a 2019 Nintendo Switch release, and confirmed to be releasing on July 19 the following April, while plans for a DLC season pass were announced by Nintendo a month prior to launch, at E3 2019 in June.

Ultimate Alliance 3’s story is written freelance comic book writer Marc Sumerak, who has previously worked on quite a few Marvel properties, including the likes or Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Hulk, and more (Sumerak was an editor at Marvel Comics before he became a freelance writer).

Story

Ultimate Alliance 3 features a cast of characters from across numerous Marvel properties. Thanos and his band of followers, known as the Black Order, serve as the main antagonists of the game (with several other antagonists also being featured). The heroes of the Marvel universe from across various teams, including the likes of the Avengers, the Defenders, the X-Men, the Inhumans, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and more band together to fight against the threat of Thanos and his plans to gather the six Infinity Stones in his attempts to take over the universe.

The story told in Ultimate Alliance 3 is an original one that doesn’t adapt any previous bodies of Marvel’s work. The game stands as a standalone entry in the Ultimate Alliance series and doesn’t have any narrative ties to its predecessor, taking place in a completely different universe.

Gameplay

Like its predecessors, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a hack and slash action role playing game. It can be played solo, or co-operatively with a team of total four players, with co-op gameplay also supporting the Switch’s Joy-Cons. Drop-in / drop-out co-op play is supported, as well as both local and online co-op. Players can play with one of two different camera settings- Classic camera presents the game from a zoomed out isometric perspective and is best suited to co-op play, while the new Heroic camera presents a more zoomed in, up-close view of the character being controlled by the player, and is better for single player playthroughs.

Combat is based around light and heavy attacks, and heavily features combos as well. Each hero in the game’s roster has their own unique attacks, special abilities, and the like. Elemental combos and special attacks known as Alliance Extreme attacks are also part of the combat mechanics, with each character having their own unique Alliance Extreme attacks. While in combat, two or more heroes can reach higher synergy with each other, which can allow players to unleash their Alliance Extreme attacks together for a combo. When all four characters have reached synergy, the entire team can unleash something known as an Ultimate Alliance Extreme Attack.

Character progression in Ultimate Alliance 3 happens across two fronts. Each character levels up and can be upgraded individually, while the Alliance Enhancement System applies to the entire team of characters as a whole. The Alliance Enhancement System offers grid-based system of upgrades, where unlocking nodes and abilities leads to more branching unlock options. These unlocks can be made by spending credits and enhancement points, which are earned in-game.

The game’s campaign will take players to several different locations seen commonly across Marvel stories, including the X-Mansion, Asgard, the Raft, and more. The roster of characters also features similar variety. The following characters have been confirmed as being playable so far: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Man (both, Peter Parker and Miles Morales), Spider-Gwen, Venom, Wasp, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and Groot, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Crystal, Daredevil, Deadpool, Elektra, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Elsa Bloodstone, Falcon, Magneto, Ghost Rider, and Storm.

Venom and Magneto will also be appearing as bosses in the game. Beyond these two, the bosses that have been confirmed so far are: Thanos, Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw, Klaw, Nebula, Supergiant, Dormammu, Kingpin, Mystique, the Sentinels, Ultron, Corvus Glaive, Green Goblin, Maximus, Ronan the Accuser, Bullseye, Electro, Loki, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant, Red Skull, Surtur, Ultimo, Sandman, MODOK, Hela, Mysterio, Juggernaut, Destroyer, and Doctor Octopus.

Several established Marvel characters will also be appearing as NPCs, including the likes of Jessica Jones, Ant-Man, Beast, Colossus, Lockjaw, Vision, the Winter Soldier, the Nova Corps, Nick Fury, Medusa, Black Bolt, Cyclops, Valkyrie, and Professor X.

Ultimate Alliance 3 will also be adding new characters starting in Fall 2019, including characters from the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Marvel Knights.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 also includes optional content known as Infinity Trials. These are optional combat activities that can range across a variety of different forms, such as time attack or wave-based fights against enemies. During the campaign, these appear as rifts that players can enter to tackle Infinity Trials. Infinity Trials are also accessible through the game’s main menu.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 gives players the option to select between one of two difficulty settings at the beginning of the game, these being the normal difficulty option called Friendly, and the harder option called Mighty. Upon completion of the campaign, a new difficulty option is unlocked. Similar to a New Game Plus option, this allows players to carry over all their progression with upgrades and alliance enhancements in a new save file.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.