Injustice 2: Fans of the Series Will Love This Sequel (VIDEO REVIEW)

Uncolored Page is back with his latest game review–Injustice 2. Watch the video below for the rundown. Transcript is also provided below.

Injustice 2 is the sequel to NetherRealm’s previous super hero punch up, Injustice: Gods Among Us. This installment promises to offer more to the player in terms of modes, features, customization, and more. Did NetherRealm do Injustice justice? Let’s talk about it. For those that are super into fighting games I want you to know that this isn’t coming from an EVO god, while I do consider myself pretty good at feeling out fighting games, I just want to be the best at the barbecue.

The story of Injustice 2 is a continuation of the first, following the aftermath of Superman’s destruction and eventual imprisonment. Batman is trying to get the gang back together to face off against Gorilla Grodd’s regime and ultimately, Braniac. Again, you play as different character throughout each chapter, this time adding a few chapters where you can switch between two characters. The game features 12 chapters in total, and each one gives proper reasoning for you to use the character it stars. It also has two endings that are available to play through. This is also where the game’s graphical improvements over its predecessor shines. The game looks downright amazing in cutscenes, the animations and facial expressions on each character look very detailed and natural. From Wonder Woman’s angry grimace to Harley Quinn pursing her lips to blow a bubble with her bubblegum, it just looks great. NetherRealm continues their track record of having pretty decent stories in their fighting games, and even adding a difficulty setting to them, unlike another popular fighting franchise. For a fighting game’s standards, the story is alright, but it does come with a few caveats, with some characters showing up seemingly just to be in the story somehow. I distinctly remember one character in particular showing up, fighting one person, then leaving, which to me seemed very forced and contrived. The plot also has occasional side stories that lead nowhere and really adding nothing of note to the story as a whole. Though if you bought this game, it’s more likely you came to hear about the gameplay.

 

 

The gameplay here is very similar to the first, you get your favorite heroes or villains and make them beat on each other until the other one can’t fight anymore, using strings of combos, beautifully animated special moves, interactions with the stage, and very destructive, fantastical super moves. New additions include small changes that can make for big table turners, such as meter burning dodge rolls and using your meter to get out of combos if you’re tired of getting your scalp knocked back. It boasts a great 28 characters, 29 if you pre-ordered for Darkseid, all that feel different and very viable, except for Darkseid who is a heap of dumb garbage that got me beat up by Superman for an hour and a half straight. I should also note that they took out a few, so you may want to check the roster list to see if your previous main didn’t make the cut. While the gameplay does feel similar to the first, this installment adds the gear system which can alter a character’s stats and looks for the Multiverse and online player matches. The four base stats are strength, ability, defense, and health, so now you can create multiple different builds for your characters, maybe you want a Batman that’s a tank, maybe you want Catwoman to be stronger, it’s up to you. You get the gear from playing the story, playing in the Multiverse, leveling up, and from Mother boxes. Despite popular belief, they are 100% earned through gameplay. There is a microtransactions system in place, but that’s only for the power source crystals, which can only be used towards shaders, which can also be earned through gameplay. I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about them. Besides, it’s really fun to deck out your character in the various modes this offers you.

 

 

Besides the story, you can also play a new mode called the Multiverse, where you can fight in various ladders with various fight modifiers, you can earn gear, and also level your characters. Some of these ladders present very formidable challenges like fighting a level 20 Superman using whatever level your Darkseid is. They’re pretty fun, even though as I mentioned earlier, Superman was beating the brakes off of me for almost 2 hours, so make sure to go in prepared. There’s also the main attraction, bodying dudes online. The very first night I played Injustice 2, I got into a ranked match, to my surprise it was already running really well. My wait time was fairly quick, I didn’t have any lag, and the input delay isn’t terrible. It looks like the feedback they got in the beta was really put to good use. Online you can play ranked, casual, set rooms, and have king of the hill tournaments. The gear system doesn’t work in ranked luckily, but you have the option of turning it on and off in the options.

 

 

Overall, I think this is a fantastic fighting game with plenty to offer. The only issues I can think of are minuscule, things like maybe you won’t like the chances of getting gear for a character you like in a box, or one of your mains from the last game didn’t make the cut. The main issue that will face players is how little the core mechanics have changed, if you didn’t like the first one, it’s not very likely you’ll enjoy this. If you got bored of the first one really fast, you’ll get bored of this one just as fast. If that stops you from picking this up, I’d totally understand.

Also last thing, if you play this online and you’re one of the many people that just crouch and wait the whole match– you suck.

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