The newest-released work of the team that created Mortal Kombat is a blast. If you liked arcade games, you ‘ll like this as well. If you like action games, this is the game for you. If you have strong thumbs and are a hardcore gamer that isn’t really interested in the storyline, but just wants to play the game to become better at it, then you will definitely want this. Injustice: Gods Among Us puts superhero power in the palms of your hands.
For the story, I’m going to keep it short, because there’s really not that much to say. The DC superheroes (Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow etc.) are fighting some of the villains, of whom the Joker has a nuclear bomb. In order to stop him, a couple of heroes make a dash towards the detonator, but somehow they disrupt some space-time continuum and they teleport to another dimension. In this alternate reality, the nuke didn’t set off, but the Joker had later on poisoned Superman, who then killed his family. Afterwards he sought revenge and became evil because he had destroyed Metropolis and killed so many people. Superman then turned a few other heroes for his cause and it is now the goal of the superheroes to free Metropolis and then return to their own reality.
Injustice is truly great to play. The attacks are so varied, but for every character the combo list stays the same because every character has about the same attacks, but in many different forms. For instance: the ranged attack of Harley Quinn is just a pistol, but Batman’s attack does something totally different. He grabs people with his bat-grapple, then jumps toward the enemy and kicks him or her away. The fighting game is made with an extremely modified version of Unreal Engine 3, causing everything to look smoother and better than in the Mortal Kombat that released in 2011. Along with normal moves, every character also has a super move, which can only be triggered when the bar in the bottom corner is completely filled. These cause a lot of damage, but can be avoided by jumping or blocking. The dynamic surroundings make everything feel more like a real fight between superheroes. The ground shatters, debris falls down and objects shake heavily with every punch. Some of the objects can also be used to damage your opponent, so it’s important to keep an eye out for the icon that says you can do something with the environment.
There’s a wide array of characters. In total there are 12 heroes and 12 villains, all plucked from the DC Universe, but there are still 4 additional characters coming, of whom the first one is Lobo. The 12 standard heroes are the Flash, Nightwing, Batman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Superman, Raven, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Shazam and the Green lantern. In the camp of the villains you have the Joker, Harley Quinn, Solomon Grundy, Lex Luthor, Catwoman, Deathstroke, Ares, Killer Frost, Doomsday, Sinestro, Black Adam and Bane. These characters are all playable and have extra unlockable skins. Injustice also features some gamemodes. You can play through the story, battle a string of enemies in Battles, complete a couple of small missions in S.T.A.R. labs or fight other people in the multiplayer in King of the Hill or standard Versus mode. The S.T.A.R. labs have 10 missions per character, all with a little storyline of it’s own. So in total you have 240 missions, but if you pre-ordered, you got 20 extra challenges. The XP you earn through the story or the labs missions count to your level in multiplayer as well, which will help you a lot if you’re not that good yet. If you want some extra skins for the game or if you’re on a budget and are still saving up for it, you can also download the free mobile game, in which you can unlock various items from skins to portrait cards for multiplayer. You can get it here.
Injustice: Gods Among Us is fun and entertaining because of all the different characters and gamemodes, but it’s hard to master at first if you’ve never played fighting games before. However, with a bit of determination, you can become good at it and like it more than ever.
(available for xbox 360 (version tested), PS3 and Wii U)
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