Injustice 2

It has been a while since I put some time into a Netherrealm game. I’ve at least played all the recent releases but none of them had substantial single player content that kept me coming back for more. Most of the time I tend to play through the arcade mode with every fighter and that’s all I do. Yet that has changed with this game. Like usual before I go into any details let's quickly sum up what's happening in the world of Injustice 2 first.

Batman has locked up Superman after he tried to force the entire world to bow to his will. Afterward, Batman tries to rebuild a broken world but other villains still stand in his way. After bringing together a few trusted allies they try to hunt down Gorilla Grodd's new army before they can do something villainous. From that point, things just keep getting out of control. All of this is told via well-produced cutscenes that play out like a blockbuster movie. The story itself isn’t original but it is told well. Plus it is bolstered by how good everything looks. All the characters animate well in cutscenes and the voice actors do a good job of conveying the different scenes. It only takes about 4 hours to finish but it does have a bit of replayability since a few chapters give you a character choice so if you want to see how the each scene might play out differently it is worth replaying it once. Yet a cool story mode isn’t enough to make a fighting game great so let's go over the other modes next.

The Multiverse is another single player mode. Which consists of 6 different challenge words that help and hinder the player depending on the challenge. For example, one world always gives out an assist that will aid in different ways like summoning Raven to uppercut your opponent. While others will give armor to your enemy thus making it tougher to succeed. Competing any of these worlds will give you loot to upgrade and change the look of all the fighters in the game. Which is one of the strongest points in why you might want to keep replaying this. Seeing a bar go up and then being able to equip some awesome looking armor is just as effective in a fighting game as it is in an RPG. The online modes are the usual set. Which really just comes down to different ways to fight someone online. Not really something I tend to do often but the net code is good. Now let me quickly go over why loot is good yet still a little flawed.

All the different pieces of gear are unique and change the look of all the characters. Plus they add stats that can cause more damage or some other effect. Some even give an ability like being able to call a cat as Catwoman. Which is really cool but their effectiveness is a bit limited since they are only useful in player/offline modes.I know why they wouldn’t let unique abilities in ranked but it seems a little sad that they don’t get shown off in a tournament. Feels like I've been going over everything but the part where you battle DC characters against each other in a 1 vs 1 fighting match.

It is very similar to the first Injustice with combos consisting of 3 button presses that can then be extended by using the right special move. The moves come out correctly when pushing the buttons and once you do learn how to do a juggle combo it feels awesome to pull it off constantly. Even the special moves are easy to pull off with a simple down back motion or a variation of that like a left-right motion on the d-pad. Making it real easy to jump in and just play without knowing that much about how a fighting game works. In a lot of ways, this is a really good beginner fighting game if you’ve never played one before. Some stuff like the loot could be confusing at first but it wouldn’t take that long to learn how everything works. Overall this is a really good fighting game that could be enjoyed by anyone that likes the DC universe. Plus it has one of the most robust single-player content that I’ve seen in a long time. If you like me and mostly play fighting games offline then this game is certainly worth playing.