Reviews VideoGame / Injustice 2

Got three main points I want to hit on here, so hopefully I don't get too sidetracked and write an novel length review. The actual fighting gameplay of Injustice 2 is fun, but undermined by my struggles to reliably produce fighting game inputs. The story and characterization of Injustice 2 are pretty good, and hit on a few notes of tragedy I found appealing, but a bit underdeveloped in places and could stand to have more chapters and development. And the gear collection and RPG elements that're so prominent they're on the front page are nice in concept, but undermined in execution by mobile game live-service nonsense. I got it for six bucks at 90% off and it's a good time at that price, but I probably wouldn't get it full priced unless you're more into fighting games than I am.

For those familiar with Netherrealm Studios's content, Injustice 2 is another installment in the overall model established by Mortal Kombat 9, and largely plays like an updated version of the first game. Characters have a special power, and while too many of those for my money involve just giving the character a buff that doesn't meaningfully change the way they play that much, they're all easily activated by button presses. Also like the first Injustice, stages have lots of Super Smash Bros. style interactibles to smash into enemies, vault off, or generally add a bit of fun party-game mayhem to the chess-with-reflexes that typifies the genre.

Unfortunately, while after decades of practice I can eventually produce the odd input, it also sticks to the old fighting game standby controls, which are, while not overwhelming, trickier than I'd like, and that undermines the higher strategy of the experience for me, even fighting the computer. Characters do play somewhat differently, but when actually producing fighting game inputs is hard and the fundamentals of uppercut-leg sweep-knockback attack are easy, I feel disincentivized to actually utilize them in favor of said fundamentals, which makes characters feel less unique. The special full-meter attacks are fun, if sub-optimal, and they do get old after you've seen them a bunch, but I still use them because I don't have the dexterity to reliably use meter on moves. It doesn't help that, in grand fighting game tradition, the final boss of Ladder Mode, or whatever you want to call it, is a cheap son of a gun against whom victory seems to boil down to "hope he doesn't use the cheapshot moves that shave off half your health while you whittle down hitpoints that double yours!"

Speaking of, the live-service elements mostly impact the game for the poorer. I loved Soul Calibur and its character creation/customization tools (although I could've done without the last installment changing up the controls to be more like complicated traditional fighting game inputs I can't reliably wait I'm harping on it), but Injustice 2 pairs them with live-service elements that make them less fun to play with: character levels gating actually using the fun-looking gear-pieces, gear having actual stats attached, gear dropping in lootboxes, random daily missions to grind for random characters' stuff. I'm willing to forgive a certain amount of Fighting Game DLC nonsense, but pairing it with this is just... it's not great, and while I didn't look I'm sure there's also places to dump real money into this stuff 'cause it's a Netherrealm game and there always is.

It doesn't help that actually playing Ladder Mode for character endings (some of them pretty rad actually!) is heavily obscured by all this randomized nonsense.

Finally, the story. I can see why it's contentious, and while I don't think it's a total fumble, I did enjoy it. It's shorter than the first game's, which is mostly for the worse, and it seems to want me to play through it twice with different characters each time, which I'm probably not going to do, but it does have some good ideas and I want to acknowledge that. Much as I miss the thematic importance of Original Recipe Superman flying into this dark new timeline to save the day, setting things all within a single universe (mostly; what's even going on with Black Canary and Green Arrow anyway?) does keep the stakes tighter and more focused. The tragedy of how Superman and Batman used to be the best of friends, before Superman's tragic grief and Batman's inability to open up and communicate let to an endless cycle of doubling-down that turned Superman into a villain and destroyed almost every meaningful relationship in Batman's life got me pretty hard, especially when the last chapter of the story was all about what good friends they used to be and how the World's Finest still work together incredibly well.

Unfortunately, it also squanders a lot of potential. Several villains' character endings show that there was potential for chapters based around them, but if it ever existed it's all on the cutting room floor, even when it means fighting the handful of Society members over and over again in many stories. Multiple characters' depths are only hinted at, which leaves interesting dynamics like actually fleshing out these villainous versions of Wonder Woman or Nightwing frustratingly underutilized. An interesting argument against the Misaimed Fandom that feels the way the Regime handled things was correct, that killing off supervillains can also have consequences, is implicit in the story via showing an embittered and hardened Captain Cold actually being more dangerous as a result of the Regime's activities or Reverse Flash being trapped in the present and able to kill the Flash outright as a result, get mentioned exactly once, in the prelude to the very last chapter of the game. And I was surprised how little of the game Supergirl was really in, even if it was just because she was enjoying a reasonably popular television program at the time, since her flipping on the Regime was a big narrative crux of the game.

Also, man do I not like Batman's gameplay. My biggest complaint about the first game was that it gave Batman way too much focus, and even if it's not quite as true as it used to be, there's definitely too many Batman characters clogging up the roster. Especially Harley Quinn, who's inexplicably talking in her super-high-pitched annoying voice after the last game established she only talks that way around the Joker, or indeed the Joker returning to take up a roster slot from beyond the grave again, who could easily have just been a moveset clone of Harley Quinn like Mister Freeze is for Captain Cold.

The DLC characters all make sense for a comic book game, but they're pretty much split down the middle between those who got in because they're from famous but indie comics and those who got in because of outside media. The Enchantress in particular has an interesting character gimmick, but man, much as I enjoyed it in the theater, reminding people that Suicide Squad existed was probably a bad idea.

Injustice 2 was a pretty fun couple days' entertainment for $6. I do not know if I would recommend getting it at the full market price of $60, plus more for DLC. And if Netherrealm continues to double-down on live service elements, I might just go back to engaging with their games through Youtube story compilations rather than actually playing them.