Back in 2013 NetherReal studios produced Injustice : Gods Among Us, completely re-defining the brawling genre and bringing a large range of DC comics character’s together for a brilliant and cohesive story mode while still being able to please fans of their past Mortal Kombat series. Injustice 2 builds on that solid base by adding a ton more characters to the roster and expanding the story to deliver what I consider the best comics adaption to screen ever seen.
Set in a world where Superman is a rogue ruler dividing the Justice League into following Batman or Superman, some well known and some not well known DC Comics characters must reunite when Supergirl is brought into the world and Brainiac invades Earth threatening to destroy everything if the two Kryptonians Superman and Supergirl are not surrendered to his ship. If that wasn’t enough, the world’s biggest supervillains are forming a team led by Gorilla Grodd called The Society.
Story mode will see you play through with heroes and villains from Superman and Batman’s side attempting to reunite everyone back together through the art of a duel. NetherReal have delved deep into DC Comics history to deliver an impressive roster of crowd and fan favourites that shine a spotlight on some of DC’s lesser known characters that we are sure to see in the DC Extended Movie Universe in years to come.
The quick time events from the first game have been ditched and replaced with chapters that involve two characters, giving players the ability to choose which character to fight before beach individual fight. At first I was a little annoyed at this as I didn’t want to share character time with lesser known characters, instead I found the choice was a great way to get to know each character on the roster and how each’s different abilities can help win (or in a lot of cases) lose the fight and having to switch things up to get past the level.
Story mode took me about 7 hours to get through and while I was impressed at the extra length added on from the previous instalment, there is also now the Multiverse which houses different earths and each day new universes pop up with new challenges that will keep single players coming back to the game everyday for new things to do. It is something that this game definitely needed to ensure that those of us who do not have NBN internet yet playing everyday.
I have only been able to play a couple of rounds of multiplayer due to my hopeless internet connection and what I did play I enjoyed. Rewards from winning matches still uses the level up system for your profile, as well as know for individual characters. This also introduces the gear system, for every challenge you complete in the Multiverse you accumulate Motherboxes, the object that powers Cyborg and will be a main part of the Justice League movie coming in November this year.
Each Motherbox contains gear for every different character with different strengths and weaknesses that you can equip in the character upgrade menu. The good news is that you don’t have to keep updating your character every 5 minutes, you can have up to 5 different loadouts for each character with different pieces of gear equipped. When you are playing the Multiverse you also have the ability to apply the gear you accumulate via the menu and compare it to your current gear piece. It may sound like a little thing, but it is such a great feature for a game of this calibre.
The fighting style of this game is a straight up replica of the last game which is not a bad thing. Each character is equipped with attacks, moves, super moves and those all entertaining and cinematic power moves that will give your trigger fingers a few moments rest while your character pummels your opponent in a cinematic move. These are still gloriously detailed and the studio definitely upped the ante in this sequel.
Injustice 2 is a magnificent improvement on the last instalment and by adding a larger amount of DC characters to its roster as well as an endearing gear system. The addition of the Multiverse will keep players coming back again and again giving the game new life and a reason to keep coming back after you have finished the main story. The Injustice 2 servers seem a step up from the previous game with a small wait time in the lobby to connect with other players and the ability to play with your online friends list a great step up from the last one.
It is rare that a fighting game can achieve such a high calibre of story, characters, graphics and online play, but NetherRealm deliver this flawlessly. This game gets a full score from us here at Novastream and if you want to join our Guild just search for Novastream and come and play with us.
Injustice 2 is available now on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Review by Alaisdair Leith
