Review: Injustice Gods Among Us (XBox 360)

Over time the fighting game genre has grown from an arcade clique to a world wide tournament. Many have tried to carve their niche in the fighting game world, but one company has outlasted and out gunned many upstarts. NeatherRealm, the creators of the legendary Mortal Kombat series, have their roots planted deep in the fighting game community being the first to introduce blood and gore into their games. Now with a combined effort from DC Comics, the most iconic heroes and villains will go head to head in an arena built for epic Kombat.

Overall: 8.6 Gotta get it!”

Injustice: Gods Among Us takes 24 of the greatest characters from the DC Universe into a cleverly written story with fighting game mechanics that don’t disappoint. By bringing in comic book writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti to consult, Injustice keeps true to their characters’ roots while pitting hero against hero in the unlikeliest of battles. The game has everything that made the Mortal Kombat franchise famous, and Batman.

Mechanics: 8.5 “Super-Solid”

NeatherRealm has done their best to assure fans that this game will not be Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe sans MK. The company wanted to take this opportunity to test their Unreal Engine 3 and push it into different directions. Although this has been a bigger feat than NeatherRealm could handle, the game feels unique with only some after taste of MK.

The controller is broken down to simple Strong, Medium, and Weak attacks with the addition of a Trait button that activates a character specific ability that varies from stances to buffs. The left and right shoulder buttons also serve an important purpose as the grab and interact buttons, respectively. Through dishing out painful combos and being on the receiving end of them, characters build up power meters allowing them to unleash hell with super attacks that switch to amazing looking cinematics of carnage and destruction. This is about as close as the game gets to fatalities, but instead they’re more like the hyper combos seen in the Marvel vs. Capcom games, but on steroids. The meter can also activate a “Clash System” that lets players wager amounts of their meter energy in a single blow contest ala Rocky and Apollo.

Taking a page from Mk vs. DCU, the arenas have become even more real with interactable areas that let characters throw exploding tanks of gas or smash through thick glass releasing the ocean’s wrath upon their enemies. Each arena has its own special elements that appropriately fit onstage, other stages have secret doors that characters can be knocked through, putting them in more cinematic scenes of pain or thrown into entirely new arenas. This usually results in a race between players to knock one another through the walls first. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable aspect of the stages that if used well can get players out of any jam.

The controls respond quickly, and all special attacks are easy to execute. The mechanics are made up of the usual quarter circles and back-foward moves that we’ve seen since the beginning. With the exclusion of MK’s block button, the old standard of holding back to block has replaced the command to many franchise fan’s dismay. This makes Injustice a bit of a button masher, but the availability of combos, set ups for interactive damage dealers, and character specific traits make the game well worth it for any skilled fighter.

Story: 9.5 “Holy Amaze-Balls, Batman!”

A story in a fighting game is commonly laughable. We always expect the usual ladder with short introductions explaining a veiled attempt of continuity. Injustice has again taken from its semi-predecessor MK vs. DCU and improved its set up making a genuinely compelling story that honestly ends too quickly at about 3-4 hours of game play. The story, written by NeatherRealm with Gray and Palmiotti as consultants, is worthy of any DC Comics’ monthly book, making the game that much more enjoyable for DC fans who’ve come to expect compelling story lines.

Without revealing too much, the game takes place in a world where Superman has gone mad with power after the death of Lois Lane and their unborn child by his own hands, under an illusion by The Joker. This proves too much for the Man of Steel as he murders Joker with a swift punch through his stomach. Superman, now filled with unstoppable rage, does what no other villain could do and takes over the world creating the One Earth Goverment, ruled only by him. Heroes are told to fall in line or be considered villains themselves resulting in numerous deaths. In this grim world Batman leads an insurgency, devising a plan to stop Superman once and for all.

The story mode is a rail that locks players to particular characters that are important to that aspect of the story. Starting with Batman, the story is told through the eyes of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and even The Joker himself. Being forced to play characters that players have no interest in may be considered a downside, but the story told is well worth the minor annoyance.

Battles are broken up with a few quick-time events that prelude more epic battles. Players will use Green Arrow’s bow and arrow with pin-point accuracy to keep back the behemoth Solomon Grundy before taking him head on. The aspect comes too few and far between as it’s a fun break from several cinematic scenes and oncoming fights. They come across as an opportunity to become the character instead of controlling him/her like so many puppets before.

Graphics: 8.5 “Wonderful!”

Here at the end of the XBox 360’s life cycle, anything less than awesome graphics is considered unacceptable. Injustice definitely does not disappoint in this category as every character is excellently rendered along with their multi-layered backgrounds. Characters and backgrounds blend seamlessly leaving many of the previously mentioned interactable objects a surprise to players who are new to the game. Players are encouraged to take a moment to see how much is happening behind their heroes to see other battles being waged in the distance. A shining example would be in the Hall of Justice arena where opponents can be thrown into a fight between Giganta and The Atom as they tower among the city’s crumbling structures.

Every character has their own cinematic and voice acted entrance that rivals any entrance that Batman’s ever made in any movie. These are all skippable for those eager to fight, but unfortunately the character’s victory cinematic is not. This becomes especially annoying in one of the game’s other Battle modes where experience is tallied and given after every fight. The scenes are still a lot of fun and well executed, but they get tiresome after repetition and the inability to skip them.

The only downsides to the graphics of Injustice are a few consistent graphical errors. Capes are a little too stiff in their movement and will sometimes protrude physical objects. A larger and more reoccurring issue that upsets the graphics score is that at the moment of defeat, every character will want to stand again, but instead will jarringly move into a defeated pose. It’s an annoying glitch that shows itself in every battle. When opponents are beaten they’re expected to stay down, not change their minds and give up.

Some of the faces are also notably stiff while in action during the Story Mode. This may be because of the high standard that Batman: Arkham City set for DC’s video games, but as previously mentioned we’re at the end of this console generation’s life cycle and the only thing left to criticize are the small things.

Additional Features: 8.0 “4 Star-fish!”

The only people who buy fighting games are the fans of fighting games. Largely due to the repetitive nature of the genre, they’re not as easily picked up like the more adventure focused games. As such, replay value for these games are usually in playing the same fights with friends over and over. Injustice definitely has that but also comes with online versus matches and a slew of different types of ladder matches and character specific challenges.

There’s also plenty to unlock by playing the game and accomplishing challenges, like gamer tags for Injustice‘s online community, as well as plenty of character specific cinematics, design concepts, and skins to unlock. Injustice will also have players locked in with their “Season Pass” that offers 4 more downloadable characters to be released this year for the price of three. The first downloadable character has already been announced as Lobo, a long time pain in the ass for Superman. Season Pass holders will also receive free Flashpoint skins for Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Deathstroke. Fans of the DCU will be looking for a way to get all of the available skins that were offered as reservation bonuses at launch, but so far none have been made available for purchase.

The game currently supports two ways to play online: a King of the Hill styled gauntlet of matches with other players, and a two player practice mode. King of the Hill will bring together 8 players to take turns playing one-on-one against each other while the other 6 watch and wait for their turn to take on the winner. The two player practice mode is exactly what it sounds like. An unranked arena where to players can take each other on for personal bragging rights.

Overall: 8.6 “Gotta get it!”

Injustice is everything you want out of a fighting game featuring some of the greatest heroes and villains to ever live. The mechanics are clean and the visuals are captivating. What may be the surprising gem of the game will be the Story Mode that is compelling for both its actual story and a voice cast that brings back the legendary voices of Kevin Conroy (Batman), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), Phil Lamar (Aquaman), Stephen Amell (Green Arrow), Adam Baldwin (Green Lantern), Troy Baker (Sinestro/Nightwing I), and of course the awesome talent of George Newbern (Superman). This game has enough to tickle even the hardest comic book fans while still accessible to MK fans who’ve never picked up a comic book. It’s a must get for all fight fans.