Injustice Gods Among Us Review

Just who would win a fight between the Man of Steel and The Dark Night? Fresh off the success of the Mortal Kombat reboot Netherrealm studios now try to tackle the world of DC comics do they succeed? read on to find out.

The fighting system of this game is bo

th simple enough for players who don't play many fighting games to have a good time but also deep enough for fighting game players to not feel that this game is too simple. The game features three attack buttons plus a button that uses a characters unique ability. These abilities include such things as a strength boost for Superman or an added glide on Batman's jumps. The final piece of the pie comes in the shape of an interaction button that allows fighters to use aspects of the arena to batter their foes. Strength based characters such as Wonder Women will pick up elements of the environment and smash them other other player but other characters whom do not posses super strength will bounce off these objects enabling them to run circles around the larger fighters.

Like Mortal Kombat before it Injustice features a lot of content in comparison to other fighters. First and foremost there is complete story mode, in this story Superman has turned into a dictator who along with a group of heroes rules with an iron fist. During this mode players are taken through the plot and through seamless cut scenes that drop you into a range of fights. It's an engaging plot that fans of the characters should enjoy featuring a ton of fan service.

The Roster of fighters is deep from the well known like Batman and the Joker to the less will know such as Killer Frost and Solomon Grundy. This allows for many different fighting styles to be represented, fancy being a grappler? then Bane is for you, prefer to stand back and throw projectiles you will love playing as Deathstroke.

The games also has a great suite of online features, every fight both on line and off grants experience that is used to buy alternate costumes concepts art and other goodies. Online enables you to place bets on who will wing the match in particular modes such as King Of The Hill where the winner of the fight stays on and the loser goes to the back of a queue of players or Survivor where a player must defeat as many people as possible on a single health bar.

S.T.A.R. Labs is a series of challenges designed to offer a taste of different characters from simple combo trials to more elaborate mini games such as guiding Catwoman's cat Isis through a museum dodging security patrols and laser trip wires as she goes. This is a welcome break from the actual fighting but many of the challenges can be frustrating making progress in this mode difficult to attain.

There are also modes that feature a more traditional approach simply putting a ladder of fighter in front of you and allowing you to fight through them. Modifiers can also be added to these such as tackling each fight with a new fighter or beginning with less health.

The problems with Injustice begin to show when you compare the game to its predecessor. While the story mode is substantial not all of the characters are playable in it. This makes the story far less epic than it could be and if more twists and turns were added to the plot it would have been much better value for money.

Another problem is that the story is set up in an, admittedly excellent graphic novel that was released in the run up to the games release. The problem with this is that many of nuances of the story are only hinted at during the game, this is a real shame as it really is a great story.

There are also a couple of modes that were present in Mortal Kombat such as the one armed bandit that created an entirely random fight every time. To have a game that drops features is a real disappointment.

The fighting Mechanics are mostly excellent but the super moves (pulled of by pulling the back triggers once your super meter is full) are suitably epic, but they lose their effectiveness when you have seen them several times. Also another system that lets you bet your super meter on a quick time event to regain health seems to just make fights drag on rather than turn the tide of battle.

The graphics too are uneven. While most of the characters are well represented there are a few that look a little off (Wonder Women in particular looks very strange in comparison the the other female fighters). Additonal character skins are a great incentive but many of the best ones must be unlocked by either buying the collectors edition or, worse still buying and beating the iphone game.

Overall injustice is a solid fighting game that can be easily recommended to fans of the DC Universe but will have a lesser appeal to anyone else. The game is still worthy of being played but it is sadly a little less than the home run many had hoped.

The LHSRAting for Injustice Gods Among us is 7/10