“I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not to break something. To break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control for even a moment or someone could die.” – Superman
We all remember these famous words of the Superman portraying his careful nature not to hurt even his enemies. But what would happen if this changes and the Earth’s guardian Angel turns against this very belief. What devastation would befell upon the fragile people of Earth if Superman with his infinite deadly power desired to rule this planet instead of watching over it?
Netherrealm Studios – the studio behind the legendary fighting game Mortal Kombat cooked out a subtle comic book way for this to happen garnished with a multiverse dimension hopping storyline in the game Injustice: Gods Among Us.
The game gives a detailed storyline that develops along the very lines of the heroes and the villains trying to break sweat (and at times bones too) in order to prevent the ultimate fall of Earth to the tyrant hands of Superman who has lost all faith in the humanity. The game has done what feels like almost an impossible stunt to pull for most fighting games: write an interesting story plot to bind the gamer to the game. We have witnessed Superman’s “retirement” in Kingdome Come and also seen his destructive powers whilst he was being mind controlled, but never before have we seen this super being do something substantial enough that the very Bats rise against Supes! This isn’t about some crazy alien who just needs a place to call home – it’s about a GOD who his hell bent on taking away the free will of his disciples – the Earthlings and fellow guardians!
Let us talk about the fighting experience and characters of the game first. If you have played Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition before, then you will feel right at home using the four button configuration to bring down the wrath of characters. The game has 30 different characters including the Justice League’s original cast from DC Comic world. Kevin Conroy as the Dark Knight himself and George Newbern as Superman in the game do not fail to surprise us as it cements the game’s beliefs emerging from the original Justice League series itself. The close-ups on the main characters good and the quality compares pretty well to the most recent animated series but the crispness of the in-fight characters seem to get lost whilst they try to smash and break each other. The game offers most of the variants of characters right from DC world – another classic maneuver by Netherrealm Studios. The only thing that seemed disappointing to us was the lack of that awesome streak from the visual dip especially when the game is a high end next generation fighting game running heavy straight at 1080p and 60 fps. The detailed environment instead of making it sharper and smoother results in a fighter that looks somewhat less impressive that we would have imagined it in our minds to be. The game is certainly not distorted with ugly images but just misses the mark of perfection by just a bit.
Coming over to the character controller, each character has three basic attacks controlled by three buttons including light, medium and heavy attacks and a special quick power button. The quick power button (default J key) varies for every character like Batman summons 3 robo-droids, Wonder woman switches over between her lasso and sword-shield, The Flash can perambulate to his speed world where the movement of opponents become slow for a period of time. There are also many unique combinations of these buttons along with movement keys that can summon upon varied damage yielding attacks. There is also a power gauge which fills up with time and when it fills up you can unleash a devastating and the most deadly character specific carnage attack. Another feature that we found worth mentioning here is the use of interactive stage settings. There are 15 stage settings and each of the stage can change over to a sub stage, thus in all there are 30 stages for the ultimate battle between these “Gods”. There are many deadly props like rockets, shields, boxes, etc. that you can use to give your opponent a painful jolt that can’t be blocked. Many may see this a disadvantage that these attacks are unblockable but we found this rather fun as it adds to the notoriety level of the game. Also with a perfectly timed kick you can throw you opponent bouncing off into the sub stage yielding a considerable fall in your opponent’s HP. It was fun seeing Joker bouncing off the bat cave walls as Bats gave a kick in his guts sending him into the dark depths of the cave. You shall indeed feel like a superhero while bringing down havoc onto your opponents with this interactive stage settings.
Apart from the spell bound story mode there are other interesting modes to keep you occupied for a long time like: S.T.A.R. labs, Training, Battles with countless number of sub stipulations like Classic mode etc. S.T.A.R. labs offers various character specific missions. It won’t really prepare you for the real combat but sure is a good way to know the combos of your character. The practice mode provides a good way to train a particular character and get yourself comfortable with the various moves and combos of that character. Repeated move practice can sure buff up your character with easy handling and better timing of the attacks. There are a number of stipulated battle variations in the Battle mode where you can select characters from Heroes only (or villains only), fight with poison running through your veins or even take on multiple enemies each fight starting without replenishing your HP. The battle mode indeed offers various challenges that you can take head on directly and this mode indeed shall keep you occupied and binds your interest in the game even after you finish the 8 hour long story.
You might face some problems if you are a newbie playing your first fighting game as the first time game training only provides a very basic move set and information about the 3 different types of attacks and the wager clash and super power move which at some time might seem insufficient to new players. Another downside that we found was that you are on your own when it comes to figure out how the controls and the alternate configuration of control works and the absence of replays and frame data adds up to the complexity. However, once you get in sync with the game play the Injustice will not disappoint you at any point.
The multiplayer mode of the game is a completely different story though. This mode is still in its de-novo state as the online matchmaking often is not successful and the wait to find opponents to fight against is usually long and even if a match is found, there is a considerable amount of lag that makes the multiplayer playing experience scarred with a lot to be desired. The KingOfTheHill and the Survival Modes may offer a great prospect in the future but if these issues won’t get solved then these are not a definite attraction of the game rather a disappointment.
