My first experience with NetherRealm's game,and it's a blast!
Let me clarify first, i never play Mortal Kombat before, i rarely play 2d fighting, and i don't even know much about DC superheroes except for Batman and Superman, but this game successfully excited me. Unjustice: Gods Among Us is my first experience with NetherRealm and it gives me hell of a blast!
The Story
I don't expect a good story from a fighting game, especially with my experience with Namco's 3d fighting games so Unjustice really surprise me with its pretty good single player story. In alternate universe, Superman is tricked by The Joker to kill Lois Lane, resulting a nuclear bomb, which connected with Lois's heart, explode in Metropolis. Driven by anger, Superman do what he think as the best way to ensured peace within the world filled with 'filthy' human. Some superheroes support him, some are not. Those who are not, bring Superheroes from -supposedly- our universe to help them. Now it's up to this joint operation between our Superheroes and those alternate Superheroes to takedown Superman's regime. The story is separated into 12 chapters, in each chapter you will control different Superheroes and Supervillains. The story have its own downside, sometimes i think that 'are these so called superheroes really can't solve anything without bashing each others head?' some fights feels forced too but it still far,far better than the stories in Tekken and Soul Calibur series. It have quite good script and pretty cool voice acting. The single player story can be last up to 5 hours including the cutscenes. Oh yeah there are classic battle mode too which you fight 10 random opponents, in the end you will get an ending video for each characters. But you might want to finish the single player story first because the endings are tied with the core story.
7.5/10
The Gameplay
At the beginning of the game you will get a basic tutorial on how to play Unjustice. It's pretty basic and to be honest it's pretty much the same with Tekken or Soul Calibur (more on Soul Calibur). Besides your standard light attack, heavy attack, direction attack, and 3 or 4 combo attack, you get special moves which triggered by simple 2 direction button and attack button, these special moves is unique for every characters for example Batman's grappling hook or The Joker's laugh gas. There are also super power meter which you can fill by successfully lay a hit. These meter can be use for Clash, a system triggered by you or your opponent that immediately stop any combo, after that you wager the amount of your super meter. The one with larger wager will win and get additional health according to the losers amount of wager. This interesting system can only be use once and only when half of your character's health depleted. The super meter can be use to trigger the super moves too. When your super meter is full, by simply pressing both trigger button, your character will unleashed an awesome super moves which will take pretty large amount of health from your opponent. This move can be blocked but it's pretty tricky. There are no rounds in Unjustice, instead you get 2 bars of health. When one is drained, the game will stop for a moment, giving the winner a time to celebrate and the loser a time to regain power.
Another interesting twist is the environment. You can use items in the environment to attack your opponent or simply navigate the map. For example Batman can operate the missile from his Batmobile on the Batcave map while Superman can smash the opponent with his...uh...plane? in the Fortress of Solitude map. These hazardous items brings chaotic and fun combat in every battle. Each map have multiple tier level too which you can send your opponent to by a simple combination of back and A button. The transition is awesome and will bring enough pain and damage to the one forced to go.
The AI is pretty though, in medium difficulty, they will effectively punished you with series of combos and environment attack. Thankfully, most of the time, the game know if it goes too far, so it will hold back and let the player win. This system applied heavily in the single player story. I'm suck at fighting game so i really appreciate the accessibility of this game.
There are enough content in this game, in battle mode, there are various game modes you can play, classic 10 random opponent, 10 heroes only, 10 villains only, survival, poisoned where your character will lose health constantly during battle, injured where your character only have half of health bar, and many more which you can unlock.
Every battle will give you XP, raised your XP and you will raised your level. With every new level you achieve, you will get rewards like access key and armory key. This keys can be use to open items like musics, customs, concept drawings, and game modes for battle.
The rooster is pretty enough although i wish for more. Each character have unique moves and mostly are fun to use (unless for the big brawl type like Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Bane, and Solomon Grundy which i never like to use). My favorites are Batman, The Joker, Green Arrow, Harley Quinn, and surprisingly, Aquaman.
8.5/10
The Graphics
One thing that i noticed early in the game is the camera, why is it place so far? I rarely play 2d fighting so i just assumed that this is the default setting for 2d fighting game. It's unfortunate because when it comes to fighting game, i want to see the detail of every character's model. Most of the superheroes and supervillains have awesome reimagining design in this game, notably Superman which don't wear his weird red underwear. My complaints goes to the boring Black Adam and ugly looking Wonder Woman and Raven. What happen with Wonder Woman? She have big, broad, ugly, and unproportional shoulder. The same with Raven which have an ugly face. I need to look up in the internet just to make sure if the comic also drawn them this ugly and it's not!
The animation is superb, each blow feels brutal and heavy, with cool blood effect, it even look more gritty. It's also very fluid and smooth.
The environments are destructible although mostly are just cosmetic. The game also suffer from the auto repair floor which bother me since Tekken Tag Tournament on PS2. The environment also feels boring and bland.
Fortunately, the game run in steady 60 FPS unless for the super moves and level transition animation.
7/10
The Sound
The sound effects are great, the voice acting is pretty good too. Sadly the music is kinda boring. They might aim for the majestic, epic theme but it's never reach that.
7/10
Verdict
Unjustice: Gods Among Us is a great 2d fighting game with good single story campaign, fun gameplay, and lots of contents. Sure it could do more in graphics department (especially the art direction) and the music but it's not a deal breaker. This is a very good start for a new IP. 7.7/10