6/5/2017

Take two things that I love: comic book heroes and Mortal Kombat, put them together and chances are real good there will be gold. There was with Injustice: Gods Among Us and as soon as a sequel was announced, I was downright giddy. Now that one of my most anticipated games of 2017 is finally out, here is my quick review of Injustice 2.

The story is told in the same chapter style that has been used in the last several Mortal Kombat games and I love how seamless it all is. The quick pace and smooth transitions from the actual fights to the cutscenes helped keep me engaged in the story, which is great since this is better than the past several years of DC theatrical releases. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a couple “Oh Sh*t” moments watching it all unfold. While story modes in fighting games can feel tacked on (see: Street Fighter V since it was LITERALLY tacked on),  this one will give you moments of excitement, humor and suspense and well worth your time.

The other main single-player mode is The Multiverse. This replaces the “Living Towers” from Mortal Kombat X and keeps content fresh. These are successive fights as you make your way through the requisite number of fights, most of which will have modifiers such as turbo speed, falling ice, random earthquakes and much more. This mode will be where most players will spend the majority of their time.

All along the way, you are earning gear for all the fighters in the roster. Gear can come via drops after matches or in “Mother Boxes” that can be earned by completing Multiverse events or Daily Challenges. This gear changes your character cosmetically (sometimes drastically) and will change the base stats such as Strength and Health. Gear is ranked under Common, Rare and Epic levels and some even carry set bonuses which will give an extra boost when combined with other pieces of the same set.

The one downside I will give here is that it can be overwhelming at times, there is so much loot to be had and way too many forms of currency that it’s easy to have your head spin and not want to put the necessary time into the mechanic.

Online has the regular suite of modes with Ranked and Unranked matches, the gear stat boosts can be disabled in Ranked matches making for a more even fight. King of the Hill mode is also here with players in the queue to take on the previous round winner. I do like this mode best but I do miss the cute avatars that were present in the Mortal Kombat (2011) version of KotH. Server stability was up and down at launch but it seems to have leveled out since.

There are also Guilds. These are basically clans that contribute to achieving Guild Trophies and have a specific Multiverse and Guild Mother Boxes to get even more gear. This doesn’t seem to be as big of a meta game like the Faction War was in Mortal Kombat X, but hey, it’s more loot.

This is one of the best looking fighting games I have ever played. The character designs are so well realized from the stock gear all the way up to the Epic pieces. The fighters look like they are living on these stages as the lighting can be downright breathtaking. The voice acting top-to-bottom is very well done, Kevin Conroy is still in his Batman prime but Alan Tudyk as Green Arrow nearly steals the show for me. The Ultimate Moves are mostly good as some really stand out such as Green Lantern, The Flash, Atrocitus, Joker and a couple others while some of them seem a little bland such as Catwoman, Black Canary and Blue Beetle.

When it all comes down to it, Injustice 2 is a lot of fun to play and even though things can get overwhelming and not every mode is a hit (the A.I. Battle Simulator mode just doesn’t make much sense to me personally),  Injustice 2 brings back the formula that made the first game so successful while adding enough of a spin to help it stand out as one of the very best fighting games out there and one I had a lot of trouble putting down. I figured I would really enjoy Injustice 2 and I am thoroughly pleased.