Ever had that discussion with one of your friends about who would win in a fight amongst your favorite superheroes… Well I have and I never could decide who would win because all of these superheroes have powerful abilities that look equally powerful. From this day forward, there will be no reason to doubt that question ever again because in Netherrealm’s new game “Injustice: gods among us”, we’ll have the chance to put all of our differences aside.
Injustice is a unique combat game that gives you control over one of the superheroes in the “DC comic”- franchise like Batman, Superman, The Flash, … but also over the most crazy villains of all time like the Joker, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro,… and so on. The story of Injustice is of course settled in the DC Universe but yet unique. It’s a difficult but well written story, so try to follow as I explain it. The story starts off in a parallel universe where the Joker has tricked Superman to kill Lois and his unborn son. As an act of revenge, Superman kills the Joker in front of Batman and starts a new world order. A battle has started off between Superman’s regime and Batman’s Insurgency. Alongside this universe, there’s a parallel world where the Joker’s plan did not succeed and transports our superheroes to their universe to help out with Superman’s Regime. Arrived at this world they try to figure out what happened and they slowly start to realize they’re not the only superheroes around. A lot of the counterparts of the superheroes are allied with the “evil” Superman and try to maintain this world order. Batman has a plan to stop Superman with a homemade weapon but he needs several superheroes to unlock this Kryptonian weapon. Some heroes see that Superman isn’t acting justified as he used to be so they leave Superman’s regime to join forces with Batman. Of course, this is not without consequences as they have to battle several hostile superheroes before they reach Superman.
A combat game is very simple as you choose your fighter and start button mashing but since the release of the mortal Kombat- franchise there’s just more to it. The goal is to defeat your opponent with style and without receiving a lot of damage. It’s always satisfying when you defeat your opponent with all of these different kind of combo’s but it’s also irritating when you just can’t get that certain combo to work, while in the meantime your opponent finishes you without even giving you a small breather. There were many times where I just wanted to throw my controller into the TV due to the level of frustration. Not because the game is bad ( it certainly isn’t) but because the game is just not rewarding for the common player. This game goes by the following principle: Practice makes perfect! If you play this game a lot, you’ll have a good chance you’ll own your friends in a custom game but an inexperienced player will always have a disadvantage.
What makes this game good is the fact that you have so many superheroes and villains to choose from and Netherrealm stayed true to the stories of these characters. Each character has its own play style thanks to their unique abilities or equipment. You have characters that fight perfectly in close combat while others use their gadget/ powers to strike at a distance, this doesn’t mean they can’t defend themselves otherwise but you notice what their focus is. Other characters are very fast and deal minimum damage while others are slow but strike hard. It’s good that Netherrealm didn’t just copy the gameplay mechanics from the MK franchise and instead put in some worthy additions to spice things up. Just like Mortal Kombat you have the same principle of “best out of 3”. You also have a “special bar” that fills up when you perform special attacks or when you get beaten up by your opponent. It’s divided in 4 parts. Each part can be used to counterattack or to enhance certain abilities. If your 4 parts are full, you can consume all of its energy to unleash a power attack. Each character has an extra toolbar that stands for a unique ability or item of that superhero or villain. The parts of your “special bar” can also be used to win a wager that you or your opponent can activate. If this sequence starts, you have a limited amount of time to choose “ how much you’ll consume” for this wager. If you win, you regenerate some of your health while the other loses some health. Another cool feature is the fact that you play in a interactive stage. You can use certain items on the battlefield to your advantage. For example: If there’s a car, a hero with super abilities can lift this car and smash it into his opponent, while a gadget type of hero can explode this car that will damage the other opponents. There’s also a change of scenery implemented. By using certain attacks you can fling an opponent over to another scenery while damaging him and a new scenery stands for new interactive objects that gives you or your opponent an advantage.
This game goes by the following principle: practice makes perfect!
Story mode lets you play with different characters through a campaign and I liked this initiative very much. This gives you a sense of feeling, how most characters play like. This campaign is more like an arcade classic mode with some mini- games en a story to follow. The story is told throughout certain cut scenes that transfer into the real game.
Aside the story mode, you have singleplayer, multiplayer and S.T.A.R labs. Singleplayer is the arcade experience with lots of different modes like the classic mode ( 10 battles in normal circumstances and a glimpse of the hero’s story), heroes or villains mode ( you battle only heroes of villains), poisonous battle ( your health gets slowly drained) ,… and lots of others. These modes surely test your fighting skills and takes every battle to a higher level. Multiplayer has 4 modes: ranked matches ( classic style but ranked), Single un-ranked ( classic but not ranked), King of the Hill ( classic battles with a group of online players and you earn points with every winning match in your rise to the top) and Survivor modes( are classic battles against a group of online players but the main player doesn’t reset his health bar after finishing a match). These modes test your endurance and skills in online game play.S.T.A.R labs is a offline mode that tests each hero’s ability with different challenges and different stories. You earn stars by performing excellent on different objectives .
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that you gain experience with every single battle you play. As you gain experience, you level up and unlock certain items like hero battle card, costumes, modes,… The hero battle cards are needed for playing the mobile game: Injustice. It’s a fighting style game with cards. These cards can be collected throughout the whole game.
The graphics are really good but you start noticing that the console is getting old. I’ve noticed minor bugs and some frame rates but in the end it didn’t bother me at all. The voice over of all characters is definitely a strong point. The voice actors are the same actors that breathe life into the characters of the DC related media. The voice of the Green Lantern ( Adam Baldwin) in injustice is the same voice as the Green Lantern in the Cartoon Series: The Green Lantern.
Pros:
– A good amount of characters to choose from with their own fighting style
– Lots of modes and unlockables
– The voice acting
– A strange but unique story in a familiar setting.
Cons:
– You must put a lot of time and effort to be good at this game. ( figuring out all the combo’s and try to juggle your opponent)
– Not every map has a changeable scenery
– Some unique abilities of certain heroes aren’t that good
Conclusion
Injustice: Gods among us isn’t just a spin- off of the whole Mortal Kombat franchise. It’s a good stand alone fighting game that involves heroes and villains. I really enjoyed playing it with each character, trying to figure out all of their combo’s that really fitted the hero/ villain. Netherrealm did their best to create this story within the DC Universe which isn’t very easy to do. The story may be a bit hard to follow, if you’re not familiar with the DC Universe but in the end you know what’s happening and needs to be done. If you’re looking for a game to settle any differences aside about “Which hero is the best?”. This is a good game to get you started!
