Summary [9.5 out of 10]

After a terrific Mortal Kombat revival, NetherRealm has turned its sights on the DC Universe with Injustice Gods Among Us and it is amazing. Featuring a robust and engaging story mode as well as a full suite of other modes and unlockables that will keep you coming back for more again and again, Injustice is a perfect use of the DC license and a ridiculous amount of care and detail has gone into making this the definitive super hero fighting game.

What It’s Like:

Mortal Kombat: It is pretty impossible to overlook the similarities between Mortal Kombat and Injustice. Obviously the same studio is responsible for it so it is not a surprise or accident but Injustice plays in a fairly similar way with similar aesthetics involved although Injustice lacks fatalities and has a much reduced level of gore. A few of the characters are analogs for Mortal Kombat characters as well like Batman is kind of an analog to Scorpion, Killer Frost stands in for Sub-Zero and Shazam shares a lot of his moves and play style with Raiden. The biggest and best similarity between the two, however, is the story mode which was great in Mortal Kombat and is fantastic here. I love this convention in fighting games and I really wish that Capcom would take the hint. After playing Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 right before Injustice I realize the stark difference in depth in terms of story, modes and gameplay and I would love to see Marvel given similarly deep treatment.

Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe: This is also a no-brainer given not just that it was also NetherRealms but that it actively featured DC heroes, many of which appear on the Injustice roster. The way those heroes fight in that game generally carries over here although you are working with a new fighting system so it isn’t a one to one transition. Speaking of transitions, the stage transitions of that game are not dissimilar to the ones found here. Basically if you like Mortal Kombat vs DCU then you are definitely part of the target audience here.

The Great

Depth: When you talk about depth in a fighting game usually you are talking exclusively about the fighting system and while that is plenty deep (it has its own bullet point) the depth here is referring more to the overall game itself. This is a general point that will be distilled down to its individual parts in a moment but it is amazing how much NetherRealm packed into this experience. The modes offered here, both online and off, are varied and hefty offering the player a lot of choice as to what sort of experience they would like to have at any given time. You have the great story mode, the standard tiered battle mode that is essentially the arcade mode and a variety of online vs modes but beyond those you also have a huge grip of unlockable Vs modes that set a variety of different conditions to the fighting to provide unique challenges in the 2D fighting space. In addition to all that you have the S.T.A.R. Labs mission modes in which each character has his or her own series of story based challenges that sometimes have to do with the main 2D fighting experience and sometimes have the player doing a unique mini-game style challenge that adds a bit more variety to the over all buffet already presented. Throw in the unlockables, the gamer card customization, practice modes, individual character endings in the battle mode and local multi-player and you have an incredibly deep and robust game that will keep you going for a long time.

Story Mode: This is hands down my favorite part of this game and offers up a long story that is engaging and satisfying from beginning to end. This runs about 8 hours long which I can say definitively as this is how long it took to play straight through if you allow variance for some fight replays, bathroom breaks and occasionally microwaving something. I don’t want to spoil the particulars of the story but this is an Elseworlds tale involving dimensional travel and multiple versions of characters. This provides ample justification for heroes to be fighting each other and for some villains to step up and do some good as well. The story, for me, was incredible and provided some jaw dropping moments as well as some genuinely emotional ones. I am not used to saying that about fighting game stories so it is kind of cool to say it here. It also serves as an effective primer for how to play the game and gets you to try out a lot of characters as you switch between characters in the different story chapters so you play for about four fights before you switch. You play Batman more than anyone else with about 8 fights. The story mode also features some unique mini-games prior to ‘boss’ fights where damage sustained either way is counted against you in the actual fight. I had a great time with this mode.

Voice Acting: With the exception of REALLY missing Mark Hamill as the Joker, Injustice has a spectacular voice cast featuring Kevin Conroy as Batman, Adam Baldwin as Green Lantern, Alan Tudyk as Green Arrow (or Stephen Amell if you are lucky enough to get a hold of the Arrow DLC), Jennifer Hale as Hawkgirl/Killer Frost, J.G. Hertzler as Deathstroke, Neil McDonough as Flash, Phil LaMarr as Aquaman, Mark Rolston as Lex Luthor, Fred Tatasciore as Solomon Grundy and Bane, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn and Raven, and George Newbern as Superman. That is just scratching the surface of the voices and I think the list speaks for itself. Also Nolan North does ‘additional voices’ so there is that as well. Holy crap.

Fighting System: While it takes a minute to get used to, the fighting system in Injustice is fairly intuitive. Removing the classic block button from the Mortal Kombat fighting system, the fourth attack button is also removed in favor of a ‘special’ button that engages a character’s special mode be it a gadget or power that temporarily increases their resistance and damage if they have the meter filled for it. This leaves three attack buttons that control the height and power of attacks. In addition to this, the left bumper is used for throws, the right bumper is used for environmental attacks and interactions and the shoulder buttons, when pressed together, trigger the characters’ super moves. This sounds like a lot to remember and  it kind of is when you first start playing (the practice mode puts you through the paces pretty well though so that is highly recommended even if you are a fighting game veteran) but in fairly short order you will get the hang of  it and once you do the system is elegant and offers up a lot of options for how to fight. As a side note, the fights are not separated by individual rounds and each character has two layers of a health bar. When one character runs out of the first layer, he or she falls and his opponent says some catch phrase and the fight begins again but the winning character still has the original amount of heath. So if you perfect a character right away then you still have both full health bars for their second one. This makes for an interesting dynamic that has to be taken into account strategically as you can find yourself REALLY behind if someone rocks you hard right away.

Variety: A lot of the gameplay variety was covered in the Depth section so this really goes hand in hand with the Fighting System point.  There is a ton of variety in the fights such that you can play the same character over and over and still have new and interesting things to do depending on the arena you are in and how you choose to play your character. You can play exclusively with standard moves or special moves or you can focus on environmental hazards and scene transitions. The best, of course, is when you can get all of this going at once but you are never locked into one particular sort of play. The variety between characters is also nice and each provide their own unique play styles outside of just having different move sets.

Use of Characters: This speaks to how the property is handled primarily in the Story mode but NetherRealm really got who and what each character is and they were implemented incredibly well. NetherRealm wrote the story internally, although Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti served as story consultants, and it is pretty amazing how authentic it feels to the comics and how the characters behave. There are some truly great character moments in the story and I really dug what this game brings to the table in that area. I am much more of a Marvel fan than DC but this game buried anything Marvel has tried to do with games in a long time. When you are playing each of the characters, story mode or not, you get a real sense of who that character is and what it is like to fight with them. This sense of authenticity goes a long way toward keeping players engaged and bringing them back for more.

Super Moves: Absent fatalities, the super moves in this game are a real highlight. As over the top as Mortal Kombat’s fatalities are, the super moves here are ridiculously crazy as befitting the insane amount of power some of these characters have. Superman takes you into orbit, Flash runs around the earth to sucker punch you from behind and Aquaman feeds you to a Great White Shark. These things are amazing. They are also fairly well balanced in terms of having to be landed at the right distance with proper timing. Otherwise they can miss or be blocked, which is a real bummer for the person trying to execute and a huge relief for the opponent.

Arenas: The arenas in the game are intricate and varied with all manner of interactivity with the backgrounds and multiple levels to which the characters can transition. Those transitions are nuts as well as they tend to do serious damage on the way sometimes via NPCs who are hanging around. The Arkham Asylum transitions are amazing as they feature Killer Croc, Two-Face, Riddler, Sandman and others waiting to kick the hell out of the transitioning character before they are deposited in the new arena. That these can be used as a finishing move is icing on the cake. The Arenas all look pretty gorgeous and provide interesting back drops to the action. I hope the upcoming DLC will add even more of them.

Aquaman Somehow Not Being the Worst Character Ever: Is there anyone who doesn’t roll their eyes whenever Aquaman is mentioned? When they tried to sell me on the Season Pass for this game and said one of the extra costumes was for Aquaman I thought ‘holy shit is that the wrong way to try to sell me on something.’ But as it turns out, Aquaman kicks an amazing amount of ass in this game and is easily one of my favorite characters. Sure his use of Great White Sharks to own fools in his super move doesn’t hurt but he is an incredibly effective keep away character that also works just fine up close. And he looks cool and has some awesome things going on in the story mode. I was very surprised and impressed with what they did with him.

The Good

Graphics: In game, Injustice looks fantastic with great looking backgrounds, terrific animations and interesting design choices. The cinematics in the story mode (and other modes) generally look great as well but there are some sketchy moments that brings the overall graphics quality down a bit. I love the use of assets from the Arkham series and the general look of the game is amazing but there are some unfortunate stumbles that bring things down a bit. Still the game looks very good and it is hard to complain about it too much.

The Roster: The roster for the game is really, really good but falls shy of great just for there being several characters that should have been included in it that were not. Sure, there are going to be DLC characters added later (the first of which is Lobo set to release May 7th) but it is really weird not to have Martian Manhunter in this thing or Zatanna or Black Canary or Deadshot or Power Girl or Booster Gold…I could go on with characters I wish were here and DLC may bring some of these fighters in but what we are offered is a really good collection of fighters. The characters are split up between Power characters and Gadget characters and this determines how their special buttons work and how they interact with the environmental items. This provides additional variety of game play while at the same time allowing for the different sorts of characters DC has to offer to interact with each other in meaningful combat. The roster is fairly deep and pretty balanced as well with each character bringing something worthwhile to the table. There are some surprises as I didn’t really expect to find Black Adam here or Killer Frost. I would still really like to see at least a skin of Bizarro for Superman.

Unlockables: The unlockables here are pretty impressive and include extra modes, costumes and artwork. The costumes are generally pretty cool although the majority of what is available to unlock is just the resistance versus regime  versions of the characters from the story mode with some New 52 designs thrown in for good measure. There is a preponderance of downloadable costumes offered for special offers and pre-order bonuses. These things almost ended up in the bad section but one way NetherRealms is going to get around people fighting online with DLC that other people don’t have is to offer free costume downloads that include compatibility codes. So hopefully I will get the Batman Beyond costume eventually even though I didn’t pre-order from wherever the hell had that (in interest of full disclosure I pre-ordered from Gamestop and got the Red Sun costume and mission pack). The unlockables in the game, though, are pretty exhaustive in amount and detail and gives you some good incentives for meeting game goals.

The Bad

Learning Curve: As mentioned above the fighting system can be a bit daunting when you first pick it up. Even with the benefit of the practice mode some basic things are hard to pull off when you start out. This isn’t a deal breaker or anything but it may put off new players, especially if they try to take their fight to the online multi-player right away. So it is important to stick with it until you get the hang of it because once you do it is intuitive and fun but that initial hump can be a bit steep to get over.

Defeat Cancels: This is a minor quibble but it bothers me that when you hit a character that is near defeat he or she will fall over and the round or fight will be over regardless of if you are starting a super move or scene transition. The timing of this is tricky but if they don’t have enough health to survive the first hit of whatever you are doing then they will just fall. This is a bummer if you are trying to end the fight in a spectacular or interesting way. This is particularly annoying for super moves as the first hit shouldn’t be a separate hit from the rest of the overall combo. A minor thing but it is annoying.

Conclusion [9.5 out of 10]

Injustice Gods Among Us is hands down one of the best fighting games I have ever played and the fact that it is done with comic book characters as opposed to the game company’s own characters is that much more impressive. An enormous amount of care and detail went into making this the definitive super hero fighting game available and anyone else attempting this sort of thing in the future should really take notice and learn. There is so much to do here that a player would be hard pressed to get bored with it any time soon and the continued support with DLC characters provides more incentive to stick around. Rarely has a game left me wanting more in as positive a way as this one does but it is super fun and I want even more of it to have fun with. If you are a fighting game fan or a fan of DC characters, or, even better, both then you need to own this as soon as humanly possible.