Injustice: Gods Among Us Review
Game Emblems
The Good
The Bad
Injustice provides a complex fighter with some unique twists, but is found wanting in features that have become commonplace in its contemporaries.
The Good
- Brutal presentation makes you feel powerful
- New mechanics build upon Mortal Kombat's foundation in creative ways
- STAR Labs missions are a fun distraction.
The Bad
- Minimal educational tools
- Disappointingly dull story
- Lacks replay support.
When it comes to superheroes-turned-street fighters, DC Comics' stable of superfriends have always received the short end of the stick. While Marvel enjoys the steady success of Capcom's legendary Vs. series, the likes of Justice League Task Force and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe have not done DC any favors. Injustice: Gods Among Us, the latest fighter from the house of Mortal Kombat, aims to break this combo with a fighting system that builds upon the lessons of MK, while also introducing a few new tricks. But for all its complexities, Injustice unfortunately falls short when compared to its contemporaries.
If you are familiar with Mortal Kombat, you will feel right at home in Injustice. Character movement has that same deliberate, staccato style that's distinct from the fighting genre's Japanese-developed counterparts. That style feeds into the satisfying weight and brutality of each attack, whether it's Bane breaking you over his knee or Hawkgirl taking her mace to your face. Controlling these characters feels powerful, and the destruction you bring upon your opponent and the environment add excitement to each fight.
While MK and Injustice have a similar feel, their underlying mechanics are very different. Injustice has three attack buttons and a special trait button. Whether it's flight, healing, or a simple strength boost, these traits are unique to each fighter and play into their particular abilities and histories. The distinctions are clearly apparent, and don't just boil down to slightly altered punches and kicks.
Clashes are another interesting mechanic. When activated, they instantly interrupt a combo, and then both players secretly spend an amount of their super meter. If the fighter who initiated the clash spends more, he regains health proportional to the amount spent; otherwise, he takes damage proportional to what his opponent spent. Clashes can be used only once per round, per character, and only if the initiator is down to his second health bar. The threat of a clash adds an interesting dynamic to the back half of a fight. It forces you to constantly reevaluate how much meter to save and spend based on what your opponent has stored.
While clashes are only a two-time threat, Injustice's interactive backgrounds are a constant hazard. Peppered throughout each stage are items--a missile here, a motorcycle there--for characters to use. Different characters use these items in different ways. Some use these objects as weapons to be smashed over an opponent's head, while others use them as springboards to quickly navigate the arena. These items are a fun way to augment your fighter's arsenal and take stage awareness to a new extreme. Knowing that a combo could put your opponent near a deadly item might make you think twice before launching your assault.
It's too bad that so many characters simply destroy these background objects. A stone tablet that Batman can spring off of to reach the other side of the screen, Superman just smashes. Superman--along with the game's other heavyweights--smashes almost everything he touches. In some stages, it is too easy to smash all of the interactive objects early on simply to deny your opponent their functions. This is especially troublesome for characters with limited mobility options who need these items to compensate for their shortcomings.
By
Maxwell McGee, Editor
Maxwell McGee earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Arkansas, and has contributed to The Escapist, GamePro, PC Gamer, and more. His introduction to video games was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, and he has never looked back. He welcomes your feedback through the site, or Twitter.
150 comments
Just because one game ( I think it was a transformer game ) had a dlc that would unlock every thing for you We've been screwed ! A bunch of little kids must have stolid daddy's credit card and bout this . Now we don't get to unlock stuff at the end of a game anymore we have to spend real money to unlock what is already on this game . WTF?
I don't do it , even now with the UNJustice league , they now have my favorite player LOBO ! But if you look at his dlc you'll see he's just a few kls Not MB . So that means they are charging you $5-6 for what you already have ! It's just BS . STOP BUYING THIS CRAP Sheeple !
1 Like I don't get it. I just finished the Story Mode and I had a great time. The story is kind of silly, indeed, but it's the kind of silly stories we find in most superhero comics (with interdimensionnal evil twins and all). Anyway, it has a substential story mode, wich is already more than most fighting games offer.
And the tutorial is OK. The basics are shown, no need to take us by the hand. And hey... Every single move and what it does is textualy explained in the move list... Isn't that enough?
1 Like For anyone that has not played the Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, pick that game up instead, it's far better than this.
3 Like I'm a fan of MK so I'm enjoying this game. The environmental addition to the combat is pretty cool. I actually found the story to not be as bad as the reviewer it was better than MK's story.
@oflow better than MKS story? are you high? MK has the best story arch of any fighting game. The new Mortal Kombat youtube series is also amazing.
3 Like @Dredcrumb9 @oflow It's not really the story itself that is so amazing, it's how the story is fleshed out. It's highly immersive and 100% streamlined. This is what makes Injustice's story mode amazing.
6 Like Im a huge fighter fan ranging from CvS2, soul calibur, tekken and virtua fighter. None of them have good stories. I thought the story from injusice was awesome and kept me coming back for more to find out what happened. I do agree that injustice doesn't match the depth of the fighters I listed above, but its still a great game in its own right, and the best story in fighting games.
@Loshead Mortal Kombat Games have the best stories and the only good stories in fighting games, this new injustice game is okay, but not even close to the awesomeness of Mortal Kombat. i think you people are all a bit too excited.
5 Like Vote.. Is the reviewer a D-Bag or Tool? Vote now for his ridiculous review. This game is at least an 8.5 (like IGN gave it an 8.6) and his reasons for dropping the game are almost laughable if it wasn't so sad. What a moron!
3 Like he didint like the story is this guy serious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ign loved the story someone else should have reviewd this game his given an awsome game a shit score which is obviously stupid compared to what its getting elsewere
lol at Gamespot. Just stopped by to see and yep still a dumpster fire over here. Terrible review like usual.
5 Like Bad review.The game was great, maybe not perfect, but the story was definetly not a negative aspect of the game.
HAPPY PILLS !!!!!!! really? i know that story isn't a big criteria for most combat games but this a lame addition to the plot device.
2 Like @daviz88 how else can you get all these different DC characters into the game and make it still feel atleast a little plausible that Harley Quinn can beat Superman?
Atleast they tried to explain it somehow instead of just ignoring the fact that normal human beings are as strong as Super beings.
looks a good, when i saw the cover i thought it is an adventure game such like Batman games, but anyways I would got this game if it releases on PS Vita someday
1 Like apart from the bad texture whats the deal with their costume, is it suppose to be an armor or what. maybe they were trying to make it more stylish but in combination with bad texture it just looks nasty.e.g batman
6 Like Maxwell, I don't know you at all so please know that what I'm about to say isn't personal. I'm so disappointed that you say this game had a bad story line. The story made you try out other characters and had amazing twists. I'm surprised it didn't get the "OH SNAP" award...Can you honestly tell what other fighting game has a good story line? But honestly you lost my respect and I can't trust what you say anymore.
3 Like Superman is suppose to be to able to smash virtually anything! Along with a few other heavyweights in the game! But overall I think the game is pretty darn good because it's designed do brings about "fair play" even among the most lethal of combatants if the DC World. Having said that, let's just enjoy it with milk and cookies of course! Or after a few hours a stiff drink or two....
I gottta agree with McGee on this one, I went out to walmart two days ago picked up the combo pack with DCU vs MortalKombat and Injustice and well both games are good in there own ways but they just don't have the chops compared to alot of other fighters I have played over the years.
I do gotta say I'm a huge BlazeBlue and guilty gear fan so my judgement is a little jaded but i would've gave the game a Seven myself honestly its good but nothing to write home about.
@BlackBaldwin ArcsSys fan? Capcom fan here. I'd give it a 7-7.5 myself. No replays = no 8. So you're not that far off.
11 Like I just can't stand Maxwell. Not because I just happen to disagree with him every single time, but it's his character/personality and his style of gaming that irritates me. He never has anything funny nor intelligent to say. I don't think he should be reviewing serious games.
Injustice has BY FAR one of the best [fighting game] stories I've ever come across, and I've played nearly all of them since the days of the ol' Sega Mega Drive. But even if the story was disappointing, the action/fighting is not. It's amazing!
8 Like Disappointing story? Maybe we played diff games here but I thought the story was outstanding. Some of the lines in the story mode were instant classics and it kept me intrigued throughout moreso than most rpg storys anymore. And this one was a fraction of the amount of time most RPGs storys are. I don't consider a 7 rating a bad rating by any means but to be honest this is the first fighting game in a LONG time that has really kept me wanting to come back for more night after night.
1 Like does anyone notice that the joker looks like the shinigamy riok from death note XD
4 Like I don't know where this guy is coming from but I totally disagree with his Bad points.
1st, the game's tutorial pretty much set the player (especially the beginners in a fighting game) up to speed with almost every fundamental of the combat controls and moves. For intermediate to advanced players it is still nice to try this out not only for the achievements/trophies but also to see how the controls/moves are.
2nd, the game's story is totally awesome specially after reading the Injustice comics which sets up the game's back story and sets the tone for the game. So either he didn't take the chance to capture and internalize the story or he just doesn't get much of how DC works...
A 7.0 for an awesome game like this is a bit or rather very unfair, he should've at least checked why his Bad were bad thoroughly, until it can't be disputed, then that's the time it is really that bad but for this game, his bad points are quite his personal opinion and to be rated by a gaming site by his lack of knowledge/research is quite unfair.
1 Like @Aseroth So it's unacceptable for someone to post a bad review because it's just there opinion, but you express your opinion stating it is great and your opinion matters?
That doesn't sound like a hypocritical statement at all lol
2 Like @metalagro20 @Aseroth If you're reviewing a game from a specific category you need to know more about what it is. A Fifa fan won't do a good job of reviewing Skyrim. So if you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk about it at all (Not saying you as in "you" btw, mean McGee) It should not be someone's opinion when it comes to reviews, it's supposed to be all aspects laid out and examined without bias. And clearly from what I can see he did a worse than mediocre job at it.
@metalagro20 @Aseroth If you just read my comment, just as I mentioned, his opinion is his opinion, but to be used in a "gaming site" without further evidences or something to backup his claim and then finalizing the rating that then would be used by others to decide whether to buy a game or not is something else, if this is "just his blog" it's well and good, but this is a final rating for a game and some of his points are still debatable but yet they made it final. I'm not after the person but how they accepted the finalization of this review for the whole team/site is why I said those things.
You know what they say about opinions right? Just like assholes, everyone has one and just about all of them stink.
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Injustice: Gods Among Us
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Developer(s): NetherRealm Studios
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: T
Injustice Gods Among Us Navigation
