Some new games were added to Game Pass this month, and I have the opportunity to check one of those games out today. BACKGROUND:
Being both a DC fan and a Mortal Kombat fan, I have always kept tabs on the Injustice series. I was able to play the first game briefly, and watched a lot of competitive Injustice 2 matches. In addition, I have read a fair bit of the Injustice comics. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have a chance to play this one for myself. PLOT: In case you're not familiar with the plot of the first Injustice game, here's an oversimplified summary: Joker breaks Superman mentally, Superman fucking snaps, Superman establishes a dictatorship called the Regime, Batman sets up the Insurgency to fight back, heroes and villains take sides, everyone fights. It's a pretty interesting alternate universe story and one should check it out. This game is set after the events of the first game, with most of the Regime either exiled, imprisoned, or in hiding. The Insurgency is working their way towards rebuilding all the damage that was caused by Superman, but the public is understandably wary of anything superhero. Everything kicks off when Batman investigates a brand new supervillain team called The Society (great name); their plans are unclear at first, but it turns out they're in cahoots with the one and only Brainiac, who intends to destroy Earth and add it to his collection of knowledge. Shit hits the fan when Brainiac initiates the assault on the planet, and the remaining Regime members capitalize on the chaos to break Superman out of prison. After lots of punching, the two warring factions call a truce in order to deal with the much larger threat, making things feel like the ol' Justice League days for a brief period. Unfortunately, like most truces, the alliance is temporary, and everyone goes back to hating each other. I thought the story was fine overall. It's a little simpler than the plot of the first game (which threw in multiverse shit), and while it's not at all new (Brainiac's invasion of Earth is a story I've seen in multiple forms), the added wrinkle of the heroes being divided made the dynamic interesting. I also liked some of the spins they did on certain elements from the comics, like the change in the handling of Supergirl's origin story in this universe. Of course, the plot has its fair share of contrivances, like characters just randomly showing up in various places (Doctor Fate and Atrocitus are the biggest offenders here), seemingly important details left unaddressed (like how The Society came about, and why the fuck they would even collude with Brainiac), and a few weird character interactions. Though the most you need out of the first game is to know who was on which side, some of the characters featured in this game will require a bit of reading if you want to know what they're about. Characters like Firestorm or Swamp Thing aren't as well known compared to Batman and Superman, and one may find their presence baffling. Other than that, I don't think there's much of a need for prerequisite knowledge to enjoy the story. The game has two endings decided by one pivotal choice in the final stretch of the game. The difference is pretty straightforward, but I won't give it away. PRESENTATION: Injustice 2 goes all out when it comes to presentation. The visuals have an impressive amount of polish, with plenty of standout elements like facial animations and realistic textures. To put it another way, this game has graphics that gave my PC trouble running it. It's in the game's story mode where Injustice 2 goes above and beyond. The cutscenes are incredibly well-made, with movie-level cinematography, seamless transitions into gameplay, high-caliber voice acting, and an epic soundtrack that feels like a score for an action movie. It was a delight to watch the cutscenes play out. When it comes to character design, Injustice 2 is unique, as this game introduces customizable gear for everybody. There are a good amount of options to choose from, and while I haven't seen everything, the stuff I've encountered all look great. I'll elaborate on the gear system later on. Other aspects like character dialogue during fights, intros, and victory screens are equally fantastic. The latter two are well done and perfectly convey what each character is about (while making them look awesome in the process), while the banter between opponents is absolutely fantastic. There are plenty of hilarious and clever interactions to the point that I'd run out of room talking about them all. There are only a handful of stages, but they all look great, and the choices they went with in terms of what DC locations to represent were decent. ROSTER: I thought the roster this time around was great. You had your obvious picks (the big Justice League members), a bunch of popular villains (though some heroes are left without their respective archnemesis), and some really cool obscure picks. The personal highlights for me are Doctor Fate (probably my all-time favorite DC sorcerer next to Zatanna), Black Canary (I love the Birds of Prey), and Atrocitus (I love the Red Lantern Corps). I also enjoyed the game's take on Scarecrow, and liked the inclusion of other less prominent characters like Swamp Thing and Gorilla Grodd. Some of the characters have alternate skins that represent completely different characters. For example, Flash has an alt that lets you play as Reverse Flash, and that comes with unique dialogue against opponents. I thought this was a cool way to get more characters into the fray without actually making a brand new character. Though the version of the game I played doesn't have the DLC, I think they're still worth mentioning. There were some really cool picks, like Black Manta, Darkseid, and the Atom, a double dose of Mortal Kombat guest characters (Raiden, plus the most badass-looking Sub-Zero design ever), and a pair of absolutely mind-blowing crossover characters (Hellboy and the goddamn Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). GAMEPLAY: Injustice 2 is a 2D fighting game where you beat the shit out of your favorite DC characters. It's fundamentally similar to most other fighting games; hit opponent a lot, don't get hit as much. Mechanically, Injustice 2 is like Mortal Kombat, which makes sense given it's the same developers who made this game. The combo strings are dial-in, command inputs are as simple as they are in MK, but there are slight difference with regards to blocking (here, you hold back like in most other fighting games, whereas MK has a dedicated block button) and the button layout (MK has light/heavy punch and kick, while Injustice has light/medium/heavy attack and special). The game is also unique in that every character has a built-in launcher move and a "wall bounce" move, both of which you can combo out of. Along with that, you have your usual special cancels, so there's some room to chain together a neat combo (though certainly not to the extent of a game like Marvel vs. Capcom). I mentioned a special button when talking about the available inputs in the game. Every character has a special Character Power connected to this button, and it is activated by pressing special. This ability has its own dedicated meter on the screen, which indicates when it's available for use and displays its cooldown. Each character's power is different; they range from a stance change (Blue Beetle), passive buffs (Wonder Woman), special moves whose properties can be altered (Green Arrow), or just straightforward special moves (Supergirl). In addition, the game also has a meter, which is split into four bars. You can meter burn certain moves to add additional effects to them, like extra hits, re-stands, and launchers. You also spend meter for defensive options, like getup rolls or air escapes. If all four bars are full, you can unleash a devastating super move, but in my experience, it's generally more valuable to spend meter on things that aren't the super move. The game also has something called Clash, where both fighters play a bit of rock-paper-scissors and spend x amount of meter to turn the tide of battle in their favor. When a Clash occurs, both fighters input the amount of meter they want to spend, and whoever spends more wins the Clash. If the defender (i.e. the one who initiates the Clash) wins, they get some health back, whereas the attacker tacks on more damage if they succeed. It's a pretty neat mechanic that adds an interesting wrinkle meter management; do you blow all your meter in the Clash to get the immediate benefit, or do you take the loss and save that meter for your combos? Each stage contains interactable elements that you can use to your advantage, like shit you can throw at your opponent, walls you can jump against, and even stage elements where you slam the opponent in and combo them out of. There are also stage transitions where hitting strong moves against a cornered opponent triggers a flashy cutscene where they get blasted into a different part of the stage. It's rather situational and can be a waste of time for some, but damn does it look cool. You have your standard fighting game modes, like the Story Mode, Arcade Mode, a decent tutorial, Practice, various online modes, and local Versus. The most unique mode is Multiverse Mode, which is a rotation of AI matches with special conditions that changes daily and gives out unique rewards. My only experience with a similar mode is MK11's Towers of Time, and from what I can tell, it's serviceable single player content that looks like it'll get tedious or grindy over time. GEAR: This gets its own section because it's the biggest addition to this game. Like I said, every character has customizable gear you can swap out at your leisure. Everyone has five specific gear pieces you can swap out, as well as options to change the color palette of all the items, and even alternate skins. Gear isn't just for show, as many items provide stat boosts and passive buffs when equipped. How much benefit they give is dependent on the gear's rarity. This stuff is great in single player, but apparently there's an option to enable this in online matches, which doesn't seem like the best idea outside of casual matches. There's thankfully a competitive toggle so you don't have to deal with cheese builds. This all sounds neat, but how do you get gear? Well, you're not gonna like the answer: loot boxes. Yes, this game has them. Goddamn it. You want to get that sweet-looking gear you saw online? Spend the in-game currency and roll the dice. Not fun. What really ticks me off about the loot boxes is the fact that alternate character abilities can only be acquired there. These abilities change up the gameplay of many characters, yet you have to pray to the RNG gods to unlock them. I'm not OK with that. Thank goodness MK11 doesn't have that shit and just gives you full access to all the custom abilities at the start. There are also a handful other currencies to keep track of outside of the normal coins, and they're mostly used for modifying gear. And since this game isn't annoying enough, there's also a premium currency you can buy, which you can then use to straight up purchase certain items with real money. It doesn't seem like anything is particularly pay-to-win, but it's microtransactions, and those don't sit well with me in general. VERDICT: Injustice 2 is an enjoyable fighting game in my view. The gameplay was easy for me to grasp and felt decent, the story, while not perfect, was entertaining, the presentation was topnotch (as expected from NRS), and the gear options opened the floodgates for a customized experience. However, the loot box/microtransaction shit made everything about the gear less fun. Other than that, I had a fun time playing as some of my favorite DC characters. Definitely recommended for fellow DC fans who also like fighting games, but buyer beware of the loot box shit. Play Injustice 2 on Steam: Injustice™ 2 on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
Derryck
|