Injustice 2 Review

"Civil War Continues"

Campaign

Injustice 2 is the continuation of the dark story line that had Superman losing everything and then taking it out on the world. Superman begins a dark regime with no relent on criminals and Batman has to use the Multiverse to find assistance. This causes a great schism between the heroes of The Justice League and this sequel deals with the aftermath.

Some things have changed with a crisis event oncoming and a secret surprise with sides once again being drawn. Batman heads up his core squad and they begin to unravel what's to come. It's definitely a big shock coming from traditional DC origins as factions and heroes are now completely divided on their beliefs.

The story is of solid length and surprisingly well setup. You play through a chain of fights that are split into multiple chapters that each follow a set of heroes. You occasionally get a choice on who to battle with and the story gets adjusted accordingly.

It flows very well to the point that you could just play it right through like I did. It's got some fun surprises along the way with a fairly emotional tale that carries well developed characters. It might have been nice to get a bit more of a summary at the start though as some newcomers might feel confused.

Multiplayer/Armor

The multiplayer is fairly standard for a fighting game allowing you all the traditional options. Battle against others in Ranked, Casual or friendly matches with the option to do tournaments as well. It's got a wide range of competitive options that work well and it's fun to play against others. There's also a Multiverse area with timed special events that can be completed for unique gear.

The gear is a big change for Injustice 2 and really for any fighting game. While playing you level characters individually and collect gear through special boxes. These boxes are probably well known by every gamer these days as they're microtransaction-like. Within them are random weapons and armor which can drastically change each hero.

You can adjust multiple pieces of their costumes for whatever style of play you like. This can be a build towards better health, strength or some other combination. This works alright providing a slight edge based on what you wear, I really didn't find a huge different in the first ten levels and mostly adjusted things based on how I liked it to look.

Gameplay

This is definitely a slower paced fighter with a smarter approach to combat and setting up combo chains. At first I was slightly off-put by the flow of combat, but after a few matches I became very effective. Each character is well tuned and completely unique in their set of abilities.

Some even have negative or slightly adjusted characters and these help switch it up. I would have liked to see more ultimate moves available though, as it did get repetitive seeing the same ones each match (one per hero). The roster of characters is also very deep offering a wide range of huge names and smaller ones that I hadn't even heard of before playing.

It's nice to see some of these unknown heroes or villains come into the roster and have them face off against each other. There's also a solid selection of maps present with dynamic options during combat.

You can throw certain objects at your opponent over swing off of things to escape. It definitely changes combat on the fly and it's an interesting mechanic. One other slight mention I'll make is that it would have been nice to have a restart option during campaign since some fights you know you're beat right away.

The Conclusion

Injustice 2 is the complete package providing a great story with an interesting set of wide reaching DC Heroes. It's got a fair length to it with choices in who you fight with and a change-up for the universe as you know it.

There's also a multiplayer where you can battle others online with various options depending on how competitive you want to get. This is topped off with the Multiverse area offering special timed events to work towards some fancy gear.

The gear aspect of the game might feel odd for some hardcore fighter players, but it basically expands the value of the game in giving you some to work towards unlocking and directly changes the look of the heroes.

This keeps things fresh as you never know what sort of enemy you might come across and that works well even for just the story. Injustice 2 was a solid fighting game with hours of gameplay available while presenting a solid combative environment.

Injustice 2 Review on Xbox One
Review Code Provided by LEX PR

Rating Overall: 8.8