21 new details on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

By Colin Stevens

New information about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order has been revealed, including some of the game's alignment, character and team upgrades, new locations, and more.

Revealed by the cover of the latest issue of Game Informer, these new details give us a clear idea of ​​how Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 will remain faithful to the previous entries and develop the formula established in a new way. Below are 21 new details revealed about the game.

1) 27 playable characters have been revealed, including:

• Black Panther
• Black Widow
• Captain America
• Captain Marvel
• Crystal
• Daredevil
• dead Pool
• Strange doctor
• Drax
• Falcon
• Gamora
• Hawk Eye
• Pontoon
• Iron Man
• Miles Morales (Spider-Man)
• Mrs. Marvel
• Somnambulist
• Peter Parker (Spider-Man)
• Rocket & Groot [single playable character]
• Scarlet witch
• Spider-Gwen
• Star-Lord
• Thunderstorm
• Thor
• Venom
• Wasp
• Wolverine

2) When the characters are introduced, a wordmark graphic of the character's name and a description of the character appear. The following sections of the tutorial are brief and integrated into the fights.

3) Teams gain attributes for certain compositions, such as a "Women of Marvel" team including Black Widow, Spider-Gwen and Scarlet Witch or "Web Warriors" with Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen. Others include "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", "Wisecracking Warriors", "Fatale Women", "Defenders" and "Midnight Sons". Bonuses for multiple teams can be cumulated simultaneously.

4) Each character brings his own general style of attack and specialties and, with the upgrade, he has four different abilities to use.

5) Individual characters have statistics menus displaying available attacks, hero traits and more.

6) The alliance enhancement system is a network of upgrades that applies to the entire team. It is described as similar to the Sphere grid of Final Fantasy X, the nodes being unlocked with credits and improvement points.

7) Characters can also evolve individually and the skill points can enhance the main abilities of a given character.

8) ISO-8 allows players to adjust a character's combat abilities with isotypes that can be removed during difficult encounters. These can reduce the damage when health is bad, increase the chances of loss of health organs, increase the chances of stun and more. Individual ISO-8 chunks can be broken down into fragments and used to enhance other chunks.

9) Four characters are always on the screen at once – even solo or duet players can upgrade four characters at a time.

10) There are two camera options: Classic (similar to the wide-angle isometric view of previous games) and Heroic (a single-player camera for close-up views).

11) Synergistic attacks are unique combinations of abilities between two heroes – Iron Man shoots a single beam on Captain America's shield, splitting the laser to hit multiple targets, Storm and Thor create a cyclone with electricity, and so on.

12) Extreme attacks are triggered with L + R when the EX gauge is energized. The portrait of the character flashes and gives a brief window to the other characters. When played solo, other characters join additional L + R taps. The screen explosions then hit the enemies and, if the four characters join, it's an Ultimate Extreme that generates significant damage.

13) Heavyweights, mini-bosses and boss characters usually demonstrate an extra feature via a staggered purple gauge – sustained attacks temporarily deplete this gauge and stun the enemy.

14) Infinity's trials appear as divisions at first reading and transport players to new locations for challenging challenges that provide twists and turns on battles, and offer rewards for completion and completion. achievement of specific objectives. They can include wave battles, countdown tracks, ability tracks, etc., and can be accessed later from the main menu.

15) "Friendly" and "Powerful" difficulty levels are available early. After having beaten the game once, a new level of difficulty is available, allowing players to postpone the alliance improvements and character levels from their previous game.

16) Marc Sumerak, known for writing Marvel titles for all ages, wrote the story of the game that tries to balance a story encompassing aspects of comics and Marvel films.

17) The story opens on Milan and the guardians of the galaxy. The team enters an apparently abandoned Kree warship, meeting Nebula, Ronan the accuser and Proxima Midnight of the Dark Order.

18) The Infinity stones are gathered aboard the ship and the battles that ensue scatter them throughout the universe.

19) The next chapter takes place on Earth during a break in a raft prison. The following locations include Shadowland, New York, Avengers Tower, X-Mansion and more.

20) Nintendo brought a Switch prototype to Marvel Games before the release of the system, and that's when Marvel decided where to go with the Ultimate Alliance franchise.

21) Team Ninja is in charge of development while Marvel Games provided the writing talent and character selection. Marvel and Nintendo both wanted to see the show come back, Nintendo ultimately jumping as a publisher.

To learn more about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, check out the game's proven characters, including heroes and villains. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order comes exclusively to Nintendo Switch on July 19, 2019.

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Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow on Twitter.