Injustice
2
REVIEW:
Following the footsteps of many successful superhero-themed fighting games of the past,
Injustice 2 is a vehicle to re-establish the legitimacy of iconic DC
characters - who may or may not have seen their best days in
recent times (considering some low TomatoMeter scores). A video game like Injustice 2
serves
as the perfect platform to not only re-establish Batman and Superman as two of
your most popular superheroes, but introduce lesser-known DC characters who haven't appeared in a major production in
a very long time (if ever). Running on this formula alone, Injustice 2
already has undivided mainstream attention - whether or not they even care about fighting games.
However, as a reviewer of fighting games specifically... I'm here to write a review of Injustice 2 as a fighting
game.
Obviously, one of Injustice 2's main selling
points is that it is a fan service game. NetherRealm Studios took every
opportunity to cater to the DC fanbase. Injustice 2's nostalgic roster of
DC icons is wrapped up into a cinematic in-game storyline
where heroes and villains will inevitably cross paths, in some cases, for the first
time ever in video game history. In epic fashion, the engaging cinematics offer
something that most other fighting games don't even bother with. Along with the 5 or
6-hour story mode, there are 13,000+ lines of dialogue and 6,000+
intros / character interactions. Furthermore, Injustice 2's "Gear" customization system
pushes its own kind of fan-service, featuring countless nods to classic costumes and colors
that old
school DC fans can fully appreciate. There are even a few alternate
"Premier" DLC character skins that have their own unique voice actors.
DC fans and "ultra-casual" fighting game fans will likely be impressed just
watching the cinematic intros, super moves, and story mode. They may
even claim Injustice 2 is the "best fighting game
of 2017," just before they silently quit playing it 2 months from now. 
To the casual fighting
game audience, NetherRealm studios very successfully delivered a product that
anyone can pick up, enjoy, and happily put down in a few months (until the next $20 DLC
fighter pack arrives?). With
an advertising onslaught only the likes of Warner Bros could make
possible, Injustice 2's mainstream appeal and immediately recognizable
cast will no doubt sell copies. NetherRealm and WB definitely know how to market a
game, that's for damn sure. They're so good at marketing, in
fact, that it hardly matters to the mainstream gaming audience whether or not Injustice 2 is actually a
good "fighting game". On that note, let's get this fighting game review started... shall we?
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Injustice
2 character selection screen.
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The sequel
to Gods Among Us retains most of the features of the original: destructible
environments, stage transitions, cinematic super move sequences, and
meter management... lots of meter management. Returning fighters retain
many of their previous animations, special moves, and combos, most which have been retooled and
rebalanced. Injustice's Clash system also returns, with players
"wagering" super meter to restore health or inflict damage.
New mechanics such as
Evasive Rolls, Air Recoveries, faster walking speeds, and blockable
environmental attacks clean up the gameplay
system a tad. In
short, Injustice 2's gameplay
is a subtle improvement over the prequel's, but it still feels very similar to the
first game. Conveniently, the game starts you off with a Tutorial mode to get
new players acquainted with the mechanics. Individual character missions also provide a small
sample of what each character is capable of.
In Injustice 2's gameplay, many long-established fighting game fundamentals, both visually and
technically,
are put in a very different order of importance. These "differences
in fundamentals" will
either be immediately unappealing or be refreshing, depending on your taste and
experience with fighting games. Let's be real... Injustice 2 is heavy
on Mortal Kombat-style "Dial-A-Combos" and projectile
spamming.  Yes,
Injustice is still zoning hell... and players are heavily awarded for
partaking.
Literally, players are rewarded meter for throwing "as much shit as possible" at
the opponent (and gain zero meter for defending). 
And if you're not zoning
your opponent to a frustrating death, you're mashing out hard-to-read strings for easy
50/50 mix-ups.
Speaking of which, memorizing attack chains (especially when learning multiple characters at
once) is more laborious than in other fighting games - due to the fact that most
of these chains have no rhyme or rhythm. They
don't correlate to a fighter's limbs, and they almost seem completely random. I
do remember in the 1990's when Mortal Kombat button
layouts actually did correlate to a fighter's limbs. (Street Fighter and TEKKEN
still do it. Why the change, NetherRealm?) Instead, Injustice 2 simply has
Light, Medium and Heavy Attacks, along with a Special Power button (basically a
"do-something-cool" button). There's also specific buttons for Throw,
Meter Burn, Interact (for environmental moves), and Flip Stance - because every
character in the game miraculously happens to be perfectly ambidextrous (another
quirk I'm not a fan of).
When super meters first arrived in fighting games in the early 90's, they were
an "accessory"... an extra element which can be used to turn the tide
in a match (and in most fighting games today, this is still the case). However,
meter
management plays a much more crucial role in Injustice 2, almost taking
priority over fighting fundamentals. Of course, meter can be used for EX specials will extend combos (and
are usually the best option strategically). Lazier players can save meter for
one big super move. And on that note, Injustice 2 super moves are
almost as lengthy as a Final Fantasy summon from the PS1 era (I'm looking for the "skip" button and can't find it).
The cinematic super moves are impressive the first few times, but get old and
repetitive - especially since many supers take characters completely out
of the stage they're fighting on. Lastly, meter is used to "wager"
during clashes which can result in a health boost for the player who wagers
more.
Back to the subject of
"zoning"... many of the best 2D fighting games
of all time were very successful in implementing zoning. The Marvel VS Capcom
series took the idea of zoning to the extreme. The reason why MVC games
are known for fun zoning mechanics are partly due to the vast amount of "space"
your character is able to move around in. MVC characters also have super jumps, flight, and air dashes, providing tons of
movement options for dealing
with projectile spam. Injustice 2 characters rely on using background
elements to move around, and some characters have limited flight options.
However, the action still
feels very condensed - as most action takes place on the ground. Considering the insane
zoning options many characters have, things
can get claustrophobic and frustrating... fast. I think Injustice 2 would
benefit from more movement options (such as super jumps) and larger stage
environments (vertically). It would also make more sense for a superhero game...
since most superheroes I know usually take to the air at some point during their
epic battles.
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All
these silly numbers and stats in a fighting game? Ridiculous.
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Injustice 2 does
some things right in terms of gameplay. Like in MK9 and MKX, there
are some pretty fun combo possibilities. The core combo system isn't half bad. There are even some Street
Fighter-esk
cross-up combos from the air. Due to the jumping speed,
performing cross-ups in Injustice 2 definitely feels weird and requires unnatural timing
(another reminder of how very different Street
Fighter and Mortal Kombat are). I've always been a "Street Fighter
guy" before being a "Mortal Kombat guy," so you might say this is a matter
of taste.
NetherRealm's "reboot" back into 2D fighting games started back in
2011 with MK9. They have stuck with the same formula over the past 6
years, offering slight variations for each new game.
One of the main draws of
Injustice 2's gameplay is still the background interaction and how
much it effects gameplay. While background interaction in gameplay is still
pretty innovative (relative to the time span of fighting game history),
Injustice 2's core fighting
mechanics are streamlined to reward the cheapest of tactics. Injustice 2
seems to cater to a certain
"old" way of thinking for designing fighting game gameplay engines. The gist I get from
the way Injustice 2 character movesets are designed is that the
designers "want me to find" the cheapest moves and spam the hell out of them.
And judging from tournament-level gameplay, relying heavily on zoning and spamming
clearly does work... very
well in fact.
In Injustice 2, projectiles don't "nullify" one
another. Perhaps it doesn't make sense "in the lore" for bullets to have any
effect on magical eye lasers, but this creates an ultra-spammy atmosphere for
a fighting game characters stuck on the ground. Dashing and back-dashing also feels
awkwardly sluggish. Injustice 2 literally
punishes you for back-dashing by making it so slow. On the other hand, certain characters have
stupidly fast forward dashing.
(It doesn't even make sense for a character, like Joker, to
basically have a teleport as a forward dash.) Animation-wise, it also looks
weird and unnatural.
I
also dislike the idea of
having to "wager" super meter to "prevent my opponent from gaining a
health boost". Wagering isn't fighting... and I don't even "wager" this much
when I spend a week in Vegas. Players can also "spend"
2 bars of meter to get out of an air combo.
As the giant Injustice 2 billboard read at GameStop,
"Your battles, your way". Who needs to
learn how to cook (or play fighting games)? Just order fast food... "Your burger, your way".
You almost gotta hand it to Warner Bros with that brilliant subliminal advertising
to lazy gamers.
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More
Batman versus Superman... because nobody ever really wins.
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Did we just segue into the animation paragraph? Yes we did. I'll start with the
positives. Most special move "effects" in Injustice 2 are done
very well.
For example, Braniac's tentacle arms are expertly animated
and definitely look "next-gen" for a fighting game (too bad Braniac
himself moves like a old man mixed with an orangutan, but we'll get to that later). Other projectiles
have impressive lighting effects, even though many appear very small onscreen and
are hard-to-see. While most throw-attacks have decent animations and ouch
factor, in typical Mortal Kombat-style fashion, many
punches and kicks are nothing more than characters "flailing their arms
about". If it's really up to the DC heroes to
"save the world," we're
screwed, because most of them have no clue how to throw a proper punch or kick
(see featured video above). Nearly all
characters appear off-balanced as they "reach
past their center of gravity" while punching. Furthermore, characters still
awkwardly "face their opponent
horizontally" like they're stuck in a 1990's Mortal Kombat game.
They also don't bend their knees when they jump, and cape physics are as stiff
as in the first game.
NetherRealm also struggles with (or pays no mind to) getting
their characters to hit "cool poses" during special moves. You know,
memorable poses... like Ryu's Hadoken, Terry Bogard's Buster Wolf, or Scorpion's Spear
Throw. When I
think cool poses, I think Capcom and SNK sprite artwork from the mid 90's (or
for an example of even more extravagant/exaggerated poses, Guilty Gear or
JoJo's
Bizarre Adventure). One of the main visual flaws of Injustice 2 as a
fighting game is that characters end up repeating stupid-looking and
laughable
motions when spamming their special moves. For one example, Superman looks
"happy to be constipated" every time he shoots his eye laser. Captain
Cold can't even shoot a gun right. It looks terrible, and you better get
used to seeing these animations since most projectiles are spammed around 35 times
in an average match.
Injustice 2 does
some things right with the animation, but ironically, the best animations in the
game have nothing to do
with actual fighting. If you've seen the trailers and the story cinematics, Injustice
2 cleearly raises the bar for character facial animations in fighting
games. Indeed, Injustice 2 characters are really
really good at talking. Injustice 2 takes every opportunity to get characters yapping
in front of the camera. Destructible background environments and interactions (such as objects on the floor and
walls) also have impressive animation. All those amazing talking & background animations, but they couldn't get
"basic walking
animations" to look right. Examples: Robin's laughable "waddling" forward, Catwoman's
"constipated" walking forward, and Darkseid's especially cheery "jumping
with his hands behind his
back". 
Who thought that was a good idea? Some of the support characters like Poison Ivy's plant-monsters and
Enchantress's zombies also animate like bad animatronics from 2001. 
Even in the way most characters jump, it appears they have a "stick up
their ass" controlling them.
Another major visual flaw of Injustice 2 (returning from the first
game) is that characters appear tiny on screen. Most Injustice 2 characters
don't take up much space on screen, causing them to almost resemble stick figures. Even Injustice
2's "biggest, beefiest" characters hardly fill even half of the
screen vertically. They're stature isn't visually appealing, making them not
have much "screen presence" by default (when
the screen isn't zoomed in during cinematics). Not only is this a
visual flaw for a fighting game, this also effects gameplay negatively - as it's
challenging to see characters' tiny limbs (as they throw their yellow-belt-level
punches & kicks). To
compare, the size of SFV's and GGXrd's
characters dwarf Injustice 2's characters. Furthermore, a typical Injustice 2
character is
about the size of one TEKKEN 7 character's leg. The camera motion
during gameplay is also jarring at
times. Another eyesore... super moves and stage interactions run at 30fps, which is just
gross for a fighting game. While Injustice 2's graphics take
their moments to shine (usually close-ups on faces), the core graphics engine and the way certain
animations and scenes are handled is not appealing. In closing, the type of visual
effects that I love most in fighting games are either non-existent or done
poorly in Injustice 2.
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NRS's
effort in their 5-hour cinematic story mode doesn't go unnoticed.
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Injustice 2 comes at a time where superhero movies oversaturate the box
office to the point where I don't pay to see them
in theaters regularly anymore (which saves me almost hundreds of dollars a
year to spend on better things, like food). Anyway, let's talk about
Injustice 2's ultra hyped-up story mode, which carries itself like a
stand-alone movie. Before we get started... Spoiler Alert: The good guys win.
This is partly the reason my interest in superhero
movies has diminished over the years. What's the point? There's never any surprise, and the good
guys have to win in under 3 hours, making the iconic villains
seem pathetic and not much of a threat. Sorry, but I enjoy a production with
good writing, where villains get their fair shot. (Examples: Game of
Thrones, Breaking Bad.)
I guess it's easy to say Injustice 2's story mode is
"good" by video game standards. Obviously, the bulk of Injustice 2's production value was
put into the story cinematics. Judging
how the story was written and paced, I would speculate Ed Boon and company watch a lot of
mainstream TV and bad Hollywood
movies, because they certainly captured that unmistakable "Hollywood vibe" in Injustice 2's story.
Maybe I'm the wrong person to review Injustice 2's story mode...
because I really can't stand clichés and redundant events that happen in
every typical superhero / action movie these days.
Parts of Injustice 2's story mode were enjoyable. Times where you get
to "make a decision" and choose between characters was cool. But
just like MKX's story mode, there was no shortage of tired clichés.
Let's see.... "Life saved in the nick of time" clichés, "okay now we're tip-toeing and sneaking around"
clichés, "villains revealing their master plans to everyone" clichés,
and so on. Seriously, Green Arrow and Black Canary encounter the main
villain, Braniac, early in the story. And
what does the main villain do? Well, Mr. Brain-fart decides to reveal his major
world-conquering plans to the good guys, in elaborate detail. 
That's the most generic
superhero cliché of all time... and they took themselves seriously.
If "Braniac" actually lived up to his name, he wouldn't have
done the the dumbest possible thing any main villain could ever do. So, like you
read in the mainstream reviews, Injustice 2 has a "good story
mode?"...
Perhaps, if you're easily entertained, or 5 years old. In fairness, if you can look past
these things or you're a major DC
fan, you'll definitely enjoy playing through story mode with all of DC's main heroes and heroines.
One thing they got right is the character variety... pretty much everyone
shows up in story mode.
Injustice 2's story mode is at least visually impressive. Costume and
skin textures look particularly great up close. Facial expressions and dialogue animations are the star
of the show. Ironically, some characters almost make too many facial expressions - almost to the point of being
unrealistic.
Because most normal humans don't actually move their face muscles that much when they talk.
Did Supergirl's parents not tell her her face will stay like that if she
doesn't stop making all those funny faces? She's gonna have bad wrinkles when
she gets older. 
Even with the high production value, Injustice 2's
story mode has some surprising visual flaws. There's some pretty bad aliasing seen in
the environments. Also,
the aspect ratio of story mode didn't fill my TV screen - with
cinema-style black bars at the top and bottom (note that the game was running on PS4 Pro with a 4K TV).
That's actually disappointing
the action had to be so shrunk down, and for the record, this isn't a problem I've
experienced with story modes in other games. 
Also, the crispness of the
character models and the animations create a very odd "jittery"
effect throughout the entirety of story mode (or as Ed Boon would say on Twitter... it's
"jittery AF"). Lastly, the frame rate
constantly drops throughout story mode (but some of the story pacing is as choppy as the
frame rate, so it kinda works. Jk).
The entire game also suffers from a painfully generic score and sound design.
Again, sounding like something from a "cut & paste"
annually-releasing Hollywood movie series that needs to stop milking itself. Like I
said earlier, they
captured the vibe perfectly. If you like that sort of thing, I guess you'll be
impressed. In all honesty, I was actually "more entertained" by other, more
unorthodox story
modes in recent fighting games (example: SFV's, GGXrd's and TEKKEN 7's) - even though their production value
wasn't nearly as high as Warner Bros with Injustice 2. In
fairness, Injustice 2's
story does seem pretty great movie when put up against blasphemies like Batman
V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Suicide Squad (2016). If you
think
I'm being hard on Injustice 2, you definitely wouldn't want to read my reviews of those
"JustAss" DC movies I just mentioned (or maybe you would). 
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Shaders.....
LVL... STR... DEF... ABL... HP....... is this... Destiny?
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Let's wrap up this review by
talking about Injustice
2's Loot / Gear system and the Multiverse mode. While playing through various modes,
players earn Loot Boxes containing random costume items and shaders for characters. The items are
then collected in a congested menu, with way too many numbers and stats, and there
are even costume "Loadouts" - a term more suited for an FPS or RTS. 
If you play for a few hours straight (such as playing through story), you'll end up
unlocking a lot. And when you return to the main menu... the game suddenly goes
into "full seizure" mode.
The Loot Box opening animation is an
eyesore, and you have to hold a button down for several seconds to unlock each
one. In short, I didn't find opening Loot Boxes fun or satisfying, and the
collection of junk you acquire just seems overly complicated and annoying.
Your character / experience also has to be a "certain
level" to equip certain gear, which can be frustrating if you're not planning
on spending 20+ hours with the game and just want to customize characters.
On the bright side, there are some cool throwback costumes possible (if you
put the time in to collect all the parts), and many of the gear designs themselves are
quite cool-looking. The customization can definitely add replayability; but it's a shame the
way its organized makes it a total clusterf*ck. In short... way too many menus, sub-menus, numbers, and random other useless crap. Also, since characters appear so "tiny"
onscreen most of the time, costume details and customizations are hardly noticeable
in actual gameplay. Customizations can only
be fully appreciated up close during clash scenes, win poses, and some supers (which
might be enough for some people). But if you ask
me, details during actual gameplay matter more. Some Gear also has an effect on gameplay, adding power-ups
or new techniques. Thankfully, these buffs can be enabled or disabled in
online matches.
Finally, Multiverse is similar to the Living Towers mode from MKX. In
Multiverse, players choose from different versions of Earth from alternate
dimensions and storylines. Each Earth has its own opponents, challenges,
difficulty, and rewards upon completion - and some of them are only present for a limited
time, which motivates players to participate while they last. There are also
some random "moddifiers" and gameplay gimmicks that happen randomly
on certain missions, adding some "just for fun" variety to the
1-player experience. Last but not least, there are
also Guilds, and
Guild-specific Multiverses - adding a social element to hunting down loot and
experience. For online, the basic features and NRS's staple modes like "King of the Hill"
lobbies return. The netcode is fairly decent as well.
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| Page Updated: |
August
7th, 2023 |
| Developer(s): |
NetherRealm
Studios |
| Publisher(s): |
Warner
Bros. Interactive |
| Developer(s): |
Ed
Boon
Director
Adam Urbano
Producer |
| Platform(s): |
PlayStation
4, Xbox One, PC
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| Release Date(s): |
May
16th, 2017  PS4 / XB1
May 17th, 2017
 PS4 / XB1
May 19th, 2017
 PS4 / XB1
Nov. 14th, 2017 PC |
| Characters: |
Batman,
Superman, Aquaman,
The
Flash, Wonder Woman, Harley
Quinn, Bane, Catwoman,
Cheetah, Supergirl,
Poison Ivy, Gorilla
Grodd, Atrocitus, Blue
Beetle, Deadshot, Robin,
Braniac, Black
Canary, Swamp
Thing, Cyborg, Darkseid,
Green Lantern, Green
Arrow, Black Adam, The
Joker, Doctor Fate, Firestorm,
Scarecrow, Captain
Cold, Red Hood, Starfire,
Sub-Zero, Raiden,
Black Manta, Hellboy, The
Atom, Enchantress, TMNT
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Featured Video:
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| Related Games: |
Injustice:
Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, Justice
League: Task Force,
Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat X, Mortal
Kombat 9, Ultimate
Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Killer
Instinct (2019), BlazBlue:
Central Fiction, Street Fighter V, KOF XIV, Guilty Gear Xrd REV2, Marvel
Vs. Capcom: Infinite, Fighting EX Layer, Dragon
Ball FighterZ, Tekken
7 |
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Gameplay
Engine
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6.0 / 10
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Story
/ Theme
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8.0 / 10
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Overall
Graphics
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8.0 / 10
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Animation
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6.0 / 10
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Music
/ Sound Effects
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5.0 / 10
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Innovation
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6.5 / 10
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Art Direction
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6.0 / 10
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Customization
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8.5 / 10
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Options / Extras
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7.5 / 10
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Intro / Presentation
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9.0 / 10
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Replayability / Fun
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5.0 / 10
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"Ouch" Factor
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6.0 / 10
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Characters
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8.0 / 10
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BOTTOM LINE
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7.5 /
10
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Review based on PS4 Pro version
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| Final
Words: |
Injustice 2 is more than a decent
superhero game... the character roster alone is a pure DC fan-service, and
obviously, any fan of DCU will thoroughly enjoy it. This fact, however,
does not automatically translate to Injustice 2 being a good fighting
game. In my opinion, Injustice 2 is fundamentally
a sloppy fighting game. There are some cool visuals to take in, but the best visuals
of the game have nothing to do with actual fighting. Visual elements and
gameplay nuances that I appreciate most in fighting games seem under-prioritized
or overlooked in Injustice 2, while things I could care less about are
over-blown and pushed in front of the camera.
You can tell when a game is designed by people who really really like to watch
movies. I'm convinced Injustice 2 was designed to be watched more-so than it was
designed to be played. It's a cookie-cutter fighting game by today's standards, utilizing
the now-typical "formula" set by Street Fighter IV in 2009...
where every character has
1 repetitive super move, 1 win pose, and a standard
variety of specials and EX moves. In fairness, NetherRealm did a decent job with
character movesets and playstyles - and characters are perhaps a bit
deeper than your typical SF4/SFV character. However (and a big
however)... So many characters are blatantly designed to just be
annoying. If you plan on playing Injustice 2 competitively,
you're going to have a stressful
ride dealing with spamming, zoning, and meter gimmicks. To me, learning how to
defend against zoning
and spamming in such condensed environments does not seem fun, and winning by such cheap
tactics would
never satisfy me either. Simply put, I prefer more honest fighting games.
For gamers who don't normally play
fighting games, Injustice 2 may seem like a huge achievement - at a glance.
For example: Casual folk at comic conventions (who are typically
"proud" of their ability to mash buttons
in fighting games, and want characters to do cool things without any skill
involved), will probably love Injustice
2. "Best Fighting Game of 2017"... they will say.
That's not to say Injustice 2 does not require any skill. It's just that the
"type of skills" one would build to become a
good Injustice 2 player will likely not translate to any other fighting
games. On the flipside, skills players build in other (more technically
sound) fighting games will translate nicely to Injustice 2... catch my
drift?
Injustice 2 strikes me as 2017's "Welcome to Fighting Games" starter pack for
lazy gamers. Some of the gameplay
systems seem shamelessly catered to the "complainer types" of video game
players:
*whines* I wanna break out of a combo in
the air... *whines* I want a health boost with my unused meter when I'm
losing... *whines* I just wanna spam projectiles and win sometimes. (I
can go on, but you get the gist.)
Curiously, Injustice 2 doesn't even seem "built" like a fighting game
at its core. The menus and general terminology are more fitted to an FPS or Dungeon Crawler. Actual common terms in Injustice 2: Strength.
Defense.
Health Points. Performance Points. AI Attributes. Profile XP. Match
Rewards. Credits. Loot Boxes. Mother Boxes. Gear. LOADOUTS... Are. You. Kidding?
Can you say clusterf*ck? This is
over-the-top, over-complicated fluff. Way too many stats & numbers for a fighting game, much less any
kind of video game. Couldn't NetherRealm
just do a decent customization mode without having spam Loot Boxes and
Stats Requirements? Were they playing too much Overwatch at
NetherRealm Studios (during the time they were supposedly designing Injustice
2's gameplay engine)? Also, how does Overwatch, a competitive FPS, have far less
BS/stats/numbers than Injustice 2?
I give credit to NRS and WB for knowing how to promote a game (they've done far
better at it than other fighting game developers in recent times), but a few things about Injustice 2's advertising
rubs me the wrong way. I miss the days when expertly-drawn character artwork was
used to advertised fighting games.
Instead of any trace of hand-drawn artwork to promote Injustice 2, a $99
Ultimate Edition (with 9 DLC
characters) was announced mere days after the
game's announcement.
Sadly, many gaming companies blatantly use DLC to "advertise" games
these days... and just like NRS took heavy cues from other mainstream games for
Injustice 2's menu design and in-game terminology, they've done the same
thing with advertising. The mass marketing is real. And I can't say I respect such a practice...
Also, thanks to the Warner Bros.' advertising machine,
and NRS/WB pushing $10,000+ into
tournaments in the first month of the game being out, players (seemingly) have every reason
to play Injustice 2 competitively. NetherRealm and WB have built a trusty
schedule/formula... and you almost have to respect them for it. But like other
NRS fighters, Injustice 2 doesn't seem built to last long-term. A popular pro player once said, the problem he sees with
NRS fighting games is that they "seem built on day 1 to be patched in the
future." He's right. NetherRealm will patch the hell out of Injustice
2, so why learn the game on day 1? It's yet
another reason why I never invested much time into playing NRS fighting games
seriously. (Fun Fact: Most of my
all time favorite fighting games had the exact same balance and gameplay on day 1 as they
did on day 3001, and they're still fun to this day.)
For me, one thing I've always loved about fighting games are the cool things
you can make happen as a player. Things that not everyone can do
with ease. Unintended combos, fancy stance transitions, hidden moves, etc. Some
fighting games these days tend to make cool things happen for you, for everyone.
Most of the
time, Injustice 2 makes things happen for the player, not the other way
around. Injustice 2 might be fun to play casually, I can admit that. However,
watching the game as a spectator... Injustice 2 just looks sloppy. It never fails to
resemble "little stick figures throwing random shit at each
other" most of the time.
Casually,
Injustice 2 isn't a terrible game. It's that game
you can show to your Great Uncle Lewis who hasn't played a video game since his Atari
days in college. He will be impressed by all the "next-gen" fluff;
he'll cackle at Superman punching people into the sky and Batman shooting down opponents with the
Bat-plane, but he'll probably forget it all when he
leaves for work in the morning because he has to load bodies onto a train
(there's still plenty of stuff you don't know about him). You might think I went off on a tangent there, but I'm
trying to entertain myself... because Injustice 2 seriously bores me as a fighting
game. [UPDATE: July 2018] Looks like I'm not the only one who found Injustice
2 boring, as the player-base dropped dramatically in
early-mid 2018, with the game "limping" into EVO '18 with the lowest
player numbers of all the main games. As cool kids in the FGC say: "Dead game". Looks like mass marketing, name brand superheroes, and mainstream Video Game
Awards show nominations don't actually make a good fighting game...
Gameplay Engines do.
It's no secret that I'm more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. However, if Injustice 2
actually featured Marvel characters
instead, I would
be making the same exact criticisms. If you still think I'm being biased
(because you obviously haven't read or absorbed any part of this review), you
should also skim through my review of MVC: Infinite. Maybe it's time for
the superheroes to take a break from over-saturating anything and everything
these days.
Even though I expect more gameplay depth out of a fighting game in this era, I've come to terms with the fact that some gamers these days actually
prefer things "simplified". Injustice 2 actually streamlines this idea fairly
well. No, really, they did a good job in that aspect. Following the tradition of the past few
NRS fighters, Injustice 2 does innovate in the way of
accessibility and presentation. But once newness of the cinematics wear off, and
you've watched the same repetitive super moves 200 times... what are you left with? I think you're left with a mediocre, over-hyped fighting game.
~TFG
Webmaster |
@Fighters_Gen
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