A Marvel Fan's Review of Injustice: Gods Among Us

If you haven't notice or I haven't mentioned, I'm a Marvel fan. If you've seen my Pull List Reviews, you can see that I dabble in some DC, but it is limited. Some DC classic stories stand out (The Dark Knight Returns, Red Son, Kingdom Come), but, as a rule, I don't much enjoy DC characters.

I could explain further, but I think I'll save it for a Marvel vs DC post... or series of posts, really.

For now, all you need to know is that I'm on team Marvel, and am reviewing the DC fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Oh, I also suck at fighters.

Roster

The first thing every fan will be looking at is the roster. Almost all the characters in this game should be recognizable to dedicated fans and not-particularly-interested-fans alike, and for that it suffers.

Check the image for the full roster. Some good choices, some obvious staples, and then some characters that should have been removed:

Solomon Grundy: I know they needed big, slow moving heavy hitters, but why Grundy? Why not take the plunge and put some Darkseid in there? They've got more than enough Batman characters, another Superman would villain would have been kosher. Instead the big guy makes a cameo during a level transition.

Ares: I guess Wonder Woman needs a villain... Oh, wait. The Flash doesn't have a villain represented. Ares could have been COMPLETELY removed for just about anyone else. I dislike generic gods in my comic books and their related video games.

Killer Frost: Who the hell is this? We really needed a Sub Zero knockoff, who even has the annoying slide move? There are plenty of other female choices if that was a deciding factor. Starfire or a Supergirl would have been a MUCH better choice.

All the other characters I can see a decent argument for, but there was also a glaring under-use of alternate skins/costumes. Nightwing could have had a Robin, Flash to Reverse Flash, Superman to Bizarro, etc... Maybe some new voices would need to be done, but they did it with the special Arrow skin.

Oh, yeah. It's impossible to get all the skins in the game. Actually, unless you pre-ordered at several places, it's impossible to get a whole bunch of skins, which is pretty depressing.

Roster has holes that may be addressed with DLC, but I'm pretty tired of DLC being shallow money grabs, and that's all they tend to be for fighting games.

There is a prequel comic series, if you're interested

Story

For me, I enjoy playing through the story of fighting games the most. This game has a pretty standard "Superman gone dictator" story, but it works well with the characters and the fights (though characters like Killer Frost and Grundy really show themselves as foolish additions when they pop up).

There is even an OH SH** moment, which is nice. Story is at least worth it.

The ARCADE mode, called "Battles" does allow you to unlock endings tailored to specific characters, but they are inconsistent. Doomsday becomes basically a god and is shown going off to hunt down a strong opponent (Lobo). Superman... decides to have a bomb placed in him so he never goes rogue. The endings are all over the place, and are actually worse for some characters.

Gameplay

It's a fairly simple fighter. There are definite room for skilled players, but nothing breaks the mold here. Level transitions are fun, the interactive environments add a some dramatic changes to fights, and overall it is easy enough to get into.

Being a superhero game, though, I wanted more or better ultimate attacks, though.

Online

The online mode is a weak point. Matches can take forever to find and rage quitters absolutely make the it a mess. You can tell how many times someone disconnected in their career, but that's the only negative to doing so. When an opponent quits mid-match, it means that you get no credit for any of the challenges, no victory, and no experience points.

... What the hell were they thinking? Disconnects shouldn't ruin MY game too -- it might not be the most fun, but let me beat on an unmoving character so I can still get credit! And rage quitters need some kind of punishment -- possibly a delay in being able to play online again.

Verdict

If you like DC (and specifically the presented roster) and don't mind fighting games, I'd say go for it. If you can find a group of appropriately skilled friends, it could be a lot of fun. If you don't have a lot of patience/aren't willing to practice enough to become skilled, the general online population may not be for you (I can spend entire matches getting pummled into a corner with no way out :/).

Rating: 6/10

So many missing characters...