Xbox 360 Review: Injustice: Gods Among Us

Can NetherRealm do justice to the source material in this fighter?

I’m a big fan of DC and Marvel heroes and over the years I’ve been looking for a beat-em-up that makes the most of the characters, Marvel hasn’t quite pulled it off. DC came close in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but fell short. NetherRealm redeemed themselves with the reboot of MK last year and have returned to the comic book heroes of DC, but can they please fans of both franchises?
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The thing that is impressive about Injustice: Gods Among Us is it’s story, it’s like a comic book fan’s dream with alternate realities, Superman becoming an evil dictator and two versions of characters like Green Arrow, The Flash and Wonder Woman having opposing views to the regime. It’s also quite a lengthy story, which is surprising for a fighter like this. Real effort has gone in to please DC fans and it’s paid off.

If there’s a complaint about the story mode, it’s the gimmicky quick-time events between battles. They just don’t gel with the overall style, I personally hope for a sequel set within the alternate reality, or some DLC to extend it. Now I’ve never been great at fighting games, but the great thing about Injustice is that it if you get beaten on a high difficulty, it will scale it down for you during the story. NetherRealm want you to experience this tale and its well worth sticking around for.

After you’ve completed the story, there are missions where you can gain up to 3 stars and these can vary from mini-games, fighting characters in a specific way and so on. They do grind on a bit though and could have been handled better. In terms of balancing between characters, it’s pretty solid…although the likes of Solomon Grundy and Lex Luthor in his robot suit do pack some damage.
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It does feel very much like a Mortal Kombat game when you play it, you’ll build up a power meter that you can unleash when it’s full and will be character specific. For example, Batman will end up tagging a character with a batarang and then they’ll get run over by the Batmobile. The roster is impressive with the likes of Batman, Superman, The Joker, and Harley Quinn but offers less known characters like Black Adam and the runt of the litter, Aquaman.

Online matches work well for the most part, but as with most fighters entering online does result in a level of lag. Each character has their own specific moves and mastering them isn’t easy, but thankfully a practise arena is available to do just that and has options to set the AI too. In terms of presentation, Injustice looks impressive and runs at a steady framerate. Wonder Woman looks a bit odd with the Mortal Kombat style, but the other characters fit incredibly well. The stages are well designed too and transitioning from them is always fun and well done. The voice-acting is superb for the most part, with only the odd duff lines from The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.

The Verdict

Injustice: Gods Among Us makes the most of the DC characters and settings, mixed in with the combat of Mortal Kombat. The story is great, the combat is tough but more approachable than other fighters and online is always fun. The only injustice would be to not recommend it for fans of either DC or fighting games.

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