Injustice: Gods Among Us late review

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BrendanCorris's avatar
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Although I'm a good year late with this one, I just got a copy of Injustice: Gods Among Us on Monday. The game is a DC comics fighter made by the team responsible for Mortal Kombat. It features a great cast including almost every character that should be there - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Shazam, Green Arrow, Aquaman, and many more. The casting job seemed to be done much better than that of Marvel vs. Capcom, which always seems to miss too many key characters, and adds too many unpopular or obscure ones. I mean, in MVC3 they got a lot right for Marvel - Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Ironman, Ghost Rider, and Thor, to name a few, but missed too many iconic Marvel characters such as Silver Surfer, Daredevil, any of the Fantastic Four heroes, Punisher, and tossed away Venom. Add to that the Capcom side is missing Mega Man, THE icon character for the company, and you're just left with an unsatisfying and empty cast. Injustice, however, succeeds in including all the most icon/popular characters in the DC vault. One can argue that the amount of Batman characters and references greatly out way the others, but I'll counter that with a fact - Batman is, by far, the most popular franchise DC owns, especially in this day and age. The game has pretty much all the most notorious and popular heroes from the Justice League, Teen Titans, and other super hero divisions, as well as some of the most popular villains, as well as some who's legacy is too great to ignore, like Doomsday. Now I see they are making an "ultimate" version of the game, including more characters such as Zatanna, the Martian Manhunter "J'onn"), Zod, and a few others. I'm not crazy about update releases. The update games always have seemed like lazy excuses for new games to me, like the company knows it will be a while before their next new game, so they will just make as much extra cash off of minor tweaks to current games as they can, and sell it as a whole new title. Capcom is notorious for this lazy and cheap act of gamer thievery. The characters added are mostly good additions, but not enough to make me want to buy it (also, Nintendo didn't bother getting the update this time around, and I rarely feel like firing up my 360, so I'd rather not bother). As I've already said, the characters in the game are already good enough, not even counting the references made to other DC characters such as Penguin, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Blue Canary, Lois Lane, and more. I also think adding Scorpion from MK is a pretty cheap gimmick, so I'm good with the original one. So, as far as the roster goes, good job!

Now, as for the gameplay, it's pretty solid. I haven't been able to play too much with work and my TV breaking and all (mostly been playing on the Wii U game pad), but I played some multiplayer matches, single fights in 1p mode, Battle Mode several times, and I completed the story mode. The controls are good and comfortable. Special moves are all easily executed, and similarly done, making all characters relatively easy to learn for beginners. I currently play the most as Batman, Flash, and, most of all, Green Arrow. I know my top picks will probably change after more multiplayer matches, and after I experiment with the other characters more, but at the moment these three strike me as the most comfortable and fun guys to use. I like the unique ability button ("A" on the Wii U) which does something completely different for each character. For instance, Super Man gets a temporary power boost when he presses A, where Green Arrow fires an arrow with A. Your level bar builds up over a battle based on damage dealt or damage taken. When it's fully charged up, you can do a super move, much like the X-Ray attacks of MK9, but rather than just wait to do a big move like so many fighters force you to do, you can use your levels for other things as well. Depending on how many levels you have you can add to attacks, such as turning Batman sliding drop kick into a double kick, or powering Green Arrow's arsenal with fire and other elements, which add power. Your levels can also be saved to better your odds if you get caught in a wager, one of the only battle tactics I find lame. A wager is something a player can call to create a luck-based mini battle. This quick mini battle will harm one individual and heal the other, based on what button is pressed. There's always supposed to be a chance, but really, if your levels aren't at B or A, you're going to lose it, and the computer almost always wins these, making them seem like a cheap alternative for bad players to get ahead. So, yeah, I don't like the wager system, but everything else is pretty good. While the super moves deal a lot of damage, they don't deal as much as those in other games, which often rob the victory due to overly devastating results. These ones hit hard, but they take away a decently fair amount of health, leaving the victim still healthy enough to have a fighting chance afterwards. What is probably the most notable feature, and one of the coolest, is the interaction with the background. While agile characters can use poles to slide away on, objects in the background to leap off of and so forth to get them out of danger and put them behind or away/close to the enemy to strike, powerful characters can pick up objects and hurl them at opponents. The sly characters can also plant explosives on some objects, as well as toss lighter objects, like Kryptonite clusters. This can really help in situations where you're cornered or feel helpless, and adds a unique style to the game and more interesting strategies and mechanics to use at your disposal. It almost blends a Smash Bros. element with the traditional fighter style, and can create favorite stages. You can also smash a character through a wall, into another arena. This is less impressive to me, as many fighters in the late 90s and early 2000s did this, too. On this game, it also leads to a little cinematic, which is cool the first time you see it, but then gets rather redundant and just a flat out waste of time. They also deal so much damage it can be unfair. Luckily, though, you are able to turn off stage transitions and hazards, though, making the game completely fair and balanced in that regard. So, for the gameplay, this game gets a big thumbs up. It plays like a much smoother, more user friendly version of the MK9 engine, and introduces lots of unique and very suitable gameplay elements which help the game feel unique as well as a cataclysmic clash between super beings. It also is more user friendly for novice players, where MK9 revolved around mostly just knowing the full combos for each character. I know Injustice has lots of huge combos, but it has more to offer than simply that, and the moves are far less awkward to do than in MK.

The game, naturally, features gore. It's a tasteful amount of blood and damage, so it doesn't kill the unique super-gore element that makes MK so special, but it does make the battles seem more intense, like massive damage is being done. Even the stages collapse around you and craters are left where attacks had landed, making it feel like a real super battle. As far as the visuals go, they're pretty damn good. The textures are incredible, the lighting is well done, and the movement is, mostly, great. I do find some of the redesigns to be a little overly ambitious with detail and textures and all, but the characters are all still instantly identifiable, and they look great. I mean, seriously, Wonder Woman... Raven... Killer Frost... they look freaking SEXY. But don't worry girls, this game isn't just eye candy for us dudes, because all the male characters are jacked, tight bastards with spandex and all that, so this game has got enough fan service for both sexes. I will admit that the color scheme is a bit dull for my personal tastes. I understand the game has a very dark tone, but the overuse of grey and earthy colors just makes it physically unappealing. Heck, Batman the Animated Series and the Justice League cartoon were super colorful, and they were dark and quite easy to be taken seriously, so, yeah, they didn't have to exaggerate the color scheme so much and make it look so plain. It's kind of hard to even notice the backgrounds of arenas due to the lack of color or emotion. The graphics, though, are still in great quality, and are nice enough to not ruin the game. So, though the color scheme doesn't please me and some of the outfits are a bit overdone, I'd still give this game good points for it's visuals. I will say, however, that, while the voice acting and sound effects are good, the music isn't very note worthy. It's quiet and seemingly nonexistent at times. I already have reached the point of turning the music off and playing my iTunes lists instead when I play.

The story was a culmination of game writers and actual comic book writers' ideas. It's, actually, pretty damn good. Usually, story modes in games suck. They're typically a half-ass "story" that barely fits together and serves more as cheap excuse to make you battle a lot, but this story is pretty badass. Sure, it's still just a platform for constant battles, but that is the point of the game. There are parts that seem silly and senseless, but this can be excused as it needs to be at times to make it go on long enough, and for it to house enough gameplay. The use of parallel dimensions is also pretty lame at first, as too many games seem to do this now, mostly collection games, but it works very well once you get over the initial cheesiness of it. The story revolves around an alternate reality where Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois Lane and their unborn child inside her, along with the entire city of Metropolis. When Superman realizes what he's done, he's driven mad, murders the Joker, and becomes a power hungry dictator, ruling the earth in an attempt to prevent all crime, leading to him becoming the savage killer he thinks he will prevent. In that world, almost all of the characters now work for Superman. Batman of that world, who opposes Superman's reign, summons the Justice League of the normal DC world to help overthrow Superman's army. The story has some really great moments and a powerful plot. The alternate forms of characters seems a lame excuse to make their deaths not seem as major, as we can just say "well, at least the other one's still alive", but it's understandable that the game can't kill off major DC characters, and I wouldn't want it to. The story mode is also not too long, just long enough to tell the story, let you play many battles, and keep you into it, and does not get as ruthlessly difficult as the MK9 story mode. All around, I was satisfied with this mode.

Other modes of play include "Battles", which lets you fight through a series of random fighters in a traditional fighter arcade style, and can be played in a plethora of different ways, including villains only, heroes only, poisoned mode, and tons of other unlockable modes. You can also complete missions in the STARS Labs mode, but I find that kind of thing to usually be irrelevant and a waste of time. About half of the missions will help you learn about a characters' abilities, and the other half is just nonsense. You'll learn more just by playing if you ask me. You can also enter single battle mode, where you play a match of your player and enemy of choice. I will now make mention of the long wait time in this game, though. It sucks. Victory screens, loading screens, and selecting characters (as well as the options to select while picking a character) all take up too much time, and there isn't much way to speed them up or skip them. The single battle mode just seems to take damn long if you're not replaying the same match up over and over. There's a training mode as well. Multiplayer has several two player modes, including casuals and online play. So, as far as playing modes go, this game has plenty to offer.

At the end of the day, this game seems pretty damn awesome. I don't know if other console versions are better, but I'm quite pleased with the Wii U version. Netherworld games seems to put out some pretty damn good stuff as of recent. Keep it up, guys.

© 2014 - 2024 BrendanCorris
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Retro-Death's avatar
I still wanted to pick this one up for the Wii U, I still needed a good fighting game and I'm actually looking forsward to the story mode of it as well.