Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Kevin Conroy, Jeffrey Combs, Robert Englund, Tara Strong, Alan Tudyk
Intro:
Injustice 2 will give your free time a highly-addictive kicking and leave you begging for more.
You’ve heard the argument at school, in comic book shops and on internet forums. Which hero would win in a fight? Batman vs Superman, Catwoman vs Wonder Woman, Green Lantern vs a terrible movie adaptation – who will be triumphant? Thanks to Injustice 2, the latest fighting game from NetherRealm Studios, you can answer the question in real time, in your lounge room; pants optional.
Injustice 2 is the sequel to 2013’s Injustice: God’s Among Us, and continues the tale of divided superheroes and villains, and the arenas in which they beat the shit out of one another. The original game was a good time, but if you’d rather gargle a tankard full of razor blades and ground glass than subject yourself to the shrieky, nightmarish experience of combat games online, it had a limited shelf life.
Happily, Injustice 2 offers an embarrassment of riches in terms of content. To begin with there’s the 4-6 hour story campaign, in which you control a rotating roster of heroes and villains, ultimately siding with team Bats or Supes. The story is a bit of a goof to be honest, with some wince-inducing dialogue and outrageously contrived premises for fights. That said it is gorgeously cinematic and features fantastic voice actors like A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Robert Englund aka Freddy Krueger as Scarecrow and Re-Animator’s Jeffrey Combs aka Doctor Herbert West (!) as Brainiac.
Once you’ve completed the campaign there’s still plenty left to do. If you’re a glutton for punishment – or just spectacularly good at fighting games – you can head online to punch on with your fellow gamers. If you’re less proactive, but still want some sweet, sweet loot, you can enter AI battles with other players where the game plays out the matches for you – and you reap the lazy benefits.
However the jewel in the crown of Injustice 2 is Multiverse mode. This is a mode that features a number of temporary alternate realities, where you’ll fight various foes, at different levels of difficulty, with modifiers changing the way you play. The modifiers might feature flaming assistance from John Constantine, or perhaps the map will tilt back and forth like a seesaw, or poison bombs fall from the sky. The more you fight the more you’ll level up (towards the cap of 20) and grind for loot, which drops in Mother Boxes of various flavours. Naturally you’ll want to upgrade your preferred characters as you can then take them into tougher Multiverses and get even more fancy defence-boosting-trousers or strength-enhancing tiaras. You can also customise the numerous clothing options of your characters, so get ready to spend a lot of time cosplaying on screen.
Quite honestly this could, and in fact should, feel like a grind but when the combat mechanics are so tight and well-honed it’s hard to complain. The spectre of micro-transactions does enter into the proceedings somewhat, but can be ignored with no detriment to your enjoyment.
Ultimately Injustice 2 is one of the most consistently engaging, enjoyable and surprising fighting games in years. It takes everything that was great about Injustice: Gods Among Us and makes it faster, prettier and deeper. If you’re even vaguely interested in fighting games, DC superheroes or grinding for gear, Injustice 2 will give your free time a highly-addictive kicking and leave you begging for more.
