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Games of the Decade: Expansion Pass #19/Blog a Day #12

Hello everyone, how are you?

I remember watching the Justice League cartoon and its follow up, Justice League Unlimited when I was younger. They are among the best cartoons ever which are a great entry point into the DC Universe. It was always a treat seeing all the greatest heroes teaming up to stop a common foe, whether it was big or small. But what do cartoons have to do with games? Well what if I told you there exist a series of games that are just like those Justice League cartoons? Except much darker. NetherRealm Studios' Injustice is that series and for this post we are going to take a look at Injustice 2.

                                      The music is like something out of a movie

Like with many of the PS4 games I was interested, Injustice 2 was a game I really wanted to play. I had played Injustice: Gods Among Us on PS3 and I was a huge fan of it. I normally don't get fighting games at launch because these games tend ot have dlc and they eventually release a complete edition with all the dlc at a much cheaper price later on. I couldn't try Injustice 2 even if I wanted to since I had no PS4 at the time. Once I did get a PS4 I really wanted to try the game but it wasn't till last year that I finally got the game since it was on sale. Was these years of waiting worth it?

I imagine some of you have never played the first game so I'll try not to spoil anything from that one and this one. Injustice 2 takes place 5 years after after the events of the first game. This time a new threat arrives that threatens Earth and it's up to our heroes (and villains) to save the world once more. However alliances, ideologies, and past actions will be put to the test for both heroes and villains since the fate of the world depends on their actions.

Injustice 2 is a fighting game like the previous game and the game plays in a one-on-one format which features many of the mechanics that were preset in the original game. Using the environment to your advantage and level transitions are back as well and character traits which are special ailities that each character has. The gameplay and the movement has been tweaked as well, the game, at least the feel for the characters feel more tight and responsive.

 

                                                Crime doesn't win when Batman Begins

Like in any fighting game, I think the best part of the game in my opinion is the roster of characters. A common complaint about the first game is that most of the roster was Batman characters. I'm a huge Batman fan but I agree with that notion, the roster in that game was good, not great. The roster has been vastly improved here since there is more variety of characters to play as. Sure we still have the big 3 like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, but the roster also includes characters like Black Canary, Green Arrow, Gorilla Grodd, Dr. Fate, Blue Beetle and many more.

New to the game is the Gear System which allows you to level up your characters and even allows you to customize your characters. As you level up the base stats of the characters you use increase but with the Gear System you can equip gear on the characters that enhances their stats even further and they grant bonuses like more XP or more in-game money. It also changes the appearance of the characters too. There are also Premier Skins that allows you to apply them to an existing character and suddenly you're playing a completely new character. For example, let's say you don't want to play as Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) you can then use a premier skin on Green Lantern and you can play as John Stewart instead. And yes they are voiced differently as well. I love this idea since this prevents clone characters from taking space in the roster.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" It's available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and on mobile. The game has 3 Fighter Packs which each include dlc characters not available on the base roster. They include more characters from the DC Universe as well as some crossover characters from Mortal Kombat, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (all 4 of them), and Hellboy himself. It's really cool to have guest characters in the game but it has too many passes to buy. My best suggestion is to get the Legendary Edition that comes with all the dlc. The mobile game has exclusive character premier skins that aren't available in the console versions like Batwoman and Shazam. Not a deal breaker but wish they made those available in all the versions.

 

                    The stages are much more vibrant and have more variety this time

Final Thoughts: Injustice 2 stands among one of the best sequels and fighting games ever made. Everything has been improved upon from the first game. It does everything better. The controls feel more tighter and not stiff. I played the first Injustice on the PS4 sometime before 2. I had already played the first game on the PS3 many years ago, but the PS4 version was free to download last year. And the first game's controls feel stiff now compared to this one. The game looks really good too, it's a big step up from the previous game and the facial animations for the characters are really great as well and the voice acting is great too. It kinda feels like you're almost watching a movie at times.

The only flaws that I have with this game is the lootbox and the microtransaction system. Like every lootbox system in any game, you never know what you get and never get what you want. Whether there was some publisher greed from WB Games I don't know. The game assuming, you have the vanilla version has too many season passes. Granted these are for more characters, I love extra characters in games. But I think this is way too much. The best way to play the game is getting the Legendary Edition which is how I experienced the game. It comes with all the dlc characters and extras and I got it for less than $20. If you get it at that price then you are good to go.

Injustice 2 is definitely one of the best super hero stories out there. Both Injustice 1 and 2 take a page from the Justice League episode "A Better World" which answered the question "What would happen if super heroes crossed the line? Are their actions justified?" Heck, the codename I used for this post was A Better World. All my posts when they are in draft form have a codename that references what the game is and figured that was perfect. The recent DC movies have been a hit or miss, I haven't seen any of them to be honest so I'm just basing that from what the general opinion of them are. But if you want something close to a good DC movie or something that feels like a more darker take on the JL/JLU cartoons then you can do no wrong with Injustice 2.

 

                            Harley Quinn had the best character growth in these games

Sometimes the right choice is the hardest one to make. Always try to make the right choice, it's not the easiest one and it may be the most painful one but it's still the right thing to do.

That's all for this one. For the next one we are going to get some donuts to share with a friend. Thanks for reading , Happy Lunar New Year, stay safe and...

 

*All images were take by my PS4 and my copy of the game*