21 New Details on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

New information about Marvel ultimate alliance 3: The Black Order has been revealed, including a portion of the game's roster, how character and team upgrades work, new locations and more.

Revealed via the cover story of Game Informer's latest issue, these new details give us a clear picture of how Marvel Ultimate Alliance will stay true to previous entries, and develop upon the established formula in new ways. 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

– Deadpool

– Doctor Strange

– Drax

– Falcon

– Gamora

– Hawkeye

– Hulk

– Iron Man

– Miles Morales (Spider-Man)

– Ms. Marvel

– Nightcrawler

– Peter Parker (Spider-Man)

– Rocket & Groot [single playable character]

– Scarlet Witch

– Spider-Gwen

– Star-Lord

– Storm

– Thor

– Venom

– Wasp

– Wolverine

2) When characters are introduced, a pop-up word graphic of the character's name and a description of the character appears. Subsequent tutorial sections are brief and integrated into fights.

3) Teams gain attributes for certain compositions, like 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,” “Femmes Fatales,” “Defenders,” and “Midnight Sons.” Multiple team bonuses can run at once.

4) Each character brings their own general style of attack and specialties, and with leveling each has four distinct abilities to utilize.

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

6) The Alliance Enhancement System is a web of upgrades that applies to the whole team, described as similar to the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X, with nodes unlocked through credits and enhancement points.

7) Characters can level up individually as well, and Ability Points can improve primary abilities for any given character.

8) ISO-8 lets players tweak a character's fighting capabilities with equipable isotypes that are dropped during challenging encounters. These can decrease damage when health is low, increase chances of health orbs dropping, increase stun chances and more. Individual ISO-8 pieces can be broken down into fragments and used to upgrade other pieces.

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

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

11) Synergy Attacks are unique ability combos between two heroes – Iron Man shoots a unibeam at Captain America's shield splitting the laser to hit multiple targets, Storm and Thor create a cyclone with electricity, etc.

12) Extreme Attacks are triggered with L+R when the EX gauge is powered up. The character's portrait flashes and offers a brief window for other characters to join in – when played solo, other characters join in with additional L+R taps. Screen clearing blasts then hit the enemies, and if all four characters join in, it's an Ultimate Extreme that generates major damage.

13) Heavies, mini-bosses and boss characters typically demonstrate an additional trait via a purple stagger gauge – sustained attacks temporarily deplete this gauge and stun the enemy.

14) Infinity Trials appear as rifts during the first story playthrough and transport players to new locations for tough challenges that give twists and variations on battles, and offer rewards for completion and accomplishing particular objectives. They may include wave battles, countdown trails, ability trails and more, and can later be accessed from the main menu.

15) “Friendly” and “Mighty” difficulty levels are available early on and after beating the game once, a new difficulty level is made available where players can carry over alliance enhancements and character levels from their previous play through.

16) Marc Sumerak, recognized for writing all-ages Marvel titles, wrote the game's story that attempts to balance a narrative encompassing aspects from Marvel comics and movies.

17) The story opens on the Milano and the Guardians of the Galaxy. The team enters an apparently derelict Kree warship, encountering Nebula, Ronan the Accuser, and the Black Order's Proxima Midnight.

18) Infinity Stones are gathered aboard the ship, and ensuing battles scatter them across the universe.

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

20) Nintendo brought a Switch prototype to Marvel Games prior to the system's release, 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 writing talent and character selections. Both Marvel and Nintendo wanted to see the series return, with Nintendo ultimately jumping on as publisher.

For more on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, check out confirmed characters for the game, including heroes and villains. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch on July 19, 2019.