Despite the all-star superhero cast, Justice League Heroes fails at rescuing gamers from a lackluster gaming experience.
Not relying much on a substantial story, the plot behind Justice League Heroes basically boils down to the ever-resilient Justice League of America battling the evil genius Brainiac and his ragtag assortment of super villain lackeys working under him. While it is quite common to find the “threaten mankind by destroying the world’s much loved superhero team” story arc in typical comic books, it doesn’t really hold much interest in video game form. Adding to the game’s lack of interest, the selected villains the Justice League encounters are very bottom of the barrel. Fighting against the big named megalomaniacs like Brainiac and Darkseid is well-received, but actually getting to them unfortunately requires going through some utterly forgettable bad guys such as The Key, Queen Bee, and Killer Frost. Good thing the good guys are a lot more appealing.
Despite the early flaws and insipidness of Justice League Heroes, being able to play as some of comic universe’s most legendary superheroes is what the game is all about. Superman, Batman, and The Flash are just a few characters available, but gamers can expect a much diverse cast than just the man of steel, the dark knight, and the fastest man alive. Other crowd favorites such as Wonder Woman and Green Lantern make an appearance, but lesser known JLA members like Zatanna and Hawkgirl help round out the decently sized character selection.
Justice League Heroes plays as an action RPG with the camera naturally situated high above the action, and forces gamers to grind through level after level of brainless enemies in an effort to gain experience and raise their superheroes levels. This formula is certainly tried and true, but fans of Marvel’s infinitely more fine-tuned and popular X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will find this game almost verbatim to their beloved game series.
The concept is relatively simple as the game is divided into levels where only two members of the JLA can fight multitudes of baddies at a time. As players defeat bad guys with their various punches, kicks and special attacks, small experience orbs will drop and accumulate until a character reaches the next level. Players can then boost their superheroes’ stats to gain even more health, energy, or any of the other upgradeable categories.
While upgrading and assigning new abilities to the Justice League can be considered enjoyable, the monotony of navigating featureless levels and fighting countless enemy drones in order to level up is not. On top of that, occasional levels feature small annoying side missions, like rescuing civilians or destroying select objects, in order to proceed through the level. It’s always a good idea to toss in some mission elements in a combat heavy game such as this, but these missions end up becoming more of a chore than the much needed diversion from battle.
Other negative aspects of Justice League Heroes include cheesy and overused dialogue from the voice actors, a lack of better multiplayer options besides two-player co-op, and an unbelievably short single-player campaign, which actually could be seen as a mercifully positive aspect for people who find themselves being forced to play through it to write a review for their campus paper.
The few redeeming values that the game actually possesses are its role playing elements of upgrading characters and powers, the inclusion of two-player co-op (albeit no other modes), and secret shields hidden throughout levels which allows gamers to purchase and unlock new characters and costumes. Even though it is great to see and unlock more JLA members to play with, like both popular Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan, overall the abundance of game-killing flaws amass and destroy any chance of making Justice League Heroes a redeemable game. For the superhero enthusiasts that insist otherwise, either pursue this game as a weekend rental only or go check out the Marvel licensed games like Ultimate Alliance instead.