Injustice 2 Review – Overview, Storyline, Pros, Cons, And More

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There are problems in the game industry in creating compelling narratives in one-on-one fighting style games. One of the following entries in this Injustice 2 review is a prime example of this issue. DC’s Injustice story is engaging, exciting, and relevant through the scores of even matches between characters. This feat is built on the backs of well-known pop culture icons, so there was a lot going for it in the beginning. We should all hope a smart room of writers could craft a compelling reason for these rogues to battle, and our hopes are fulfilled with a layered story about alliances and the consequences of loyalty.

The graphics are phenomenal, with a carefully crafted artistic vision for every character. This game takes a hint from its predecessor and expands on the ability to use your environment to your tactical advantage in a fight, adding in a slew of creative ways to harm your sparring partner.

The controls are a direction based system that’s designed to stop the random abuse of button smashing. This can frustrate for the novice player, but with a little practice and some familiarity with the character, you can learn everything you need to know.

The fights are epic—in the beginning. Though two experienced players can continue to have memorable and challenging matchups, the replay value of the typical pairings can grow stale. Replay value is stifled by the gratuitous cut scenes that interrupt the flow of play.

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The evil Shinnok, an ancient and powerful warlord, has been released from his amulet prison. The earth-realm sends its best fighters, led by Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, into the battle once again to save the universe from domination. This new world and back-story give the developers an opportunity to introduce a handful of new characters, which all seem to fit nicely in the Mortal Kombat fighting style.

The XL version of this game is a late-generation port from the initial PS3 release. Unlike a lot of other ports, this one holds up nicely, taking full advantage of the late-stage shaders and physics engines they now have at their disposal. The environments are dynamic and don’t add too much noise to the playable area, making the focus on the action in front a lot easier. The gore and violence are as animated and overblown as ever, even introducing several new classes of end-match finishing moves.

Mortal Kombat XL is the most comparable title we played for this Injustice 2 review, and that’s saying something about the quality of both games. These franchises have benefitted from keeping the button hardware static while innovating the play system inside the game. Players can keep their hard-earned muscle memory while continuing to challenge their skills with new fight mechanics.

There are several new playable characters besides all the franchise favorites, plus three variations to each one on the playable board. That number of fighting variations leads to exciting matchups every time, pitting diverse move collections and play styles against one another. The classic challenge tower is still in the game, this time adding new challenges to changing match styles as you climb up the ladder of success.

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There are a lot of story arcs to cover here, so we might have a tough time really explaining what’s happening in the King of Fighters XIII. It’s the thirteenth in the series, but a direct continuation of the eleventh installment. It is the official conclusion of a late-series story arc for the character Ash Crimson. We can’t judge the complicated storyline too harshly, because this is an Injustice 2 review. DC Comics has built their empire on the back of complicated, crisscrossing, inter-dimensional storytelling, so no one else on this list would compare.

The King of Fighters XIII uses a cell style animation made popular by the latter Super Street Fighter games. This was the cream of the crop in graphics—for the previous generation of consoles. This is an expensive game for the last generation gaming console, so it’s a good thing the animation style brings a dose of nostalgia.

The developers have stripped several of the previous mechanics from this installment, including the Clash system, the Guard Attack, and the way your super XP is calculated and spent during the match. In the place of those old mechanics, they’ve added in some fun yet simplified dynamics. The new Drive Cancel system of fighting mechanics makes the use of your super moves more strategic by adding in a combo execution system that splits the XP bar into a second count called Hyperdrive.

With the introduction of a second combo bar, called the Hyperdrive, you can time your use of special and super moves in tandem. This gives you the ability to stack hit combos like never before. The characters can deliver punishing combinations of moves once they learn how this new system works.

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The storyline bar is set low in the world of one-on-one fighting games, and we’re not so sure that Battle Fantasia cleared it. Voice heavy story and narratives were a common staple on all game types by the time this was released, so there was no good reason not to update the text-based storyline for this special port edition. These types of fighting games are loved for the fast play and rapid match turnover. Seeing this much reading for such little reward kind of defeats the purpose of these game styles.

These arcade ports are often disappointing, and it’s hard not to feel that way about this game. The graphics were revolutionary ten years before this was ported onto third-generation consoles. The three-dimensional rendered character looked great, but it was stifled by the restrictive two-dimensional movement on the screen. There is a marked improvement for Battle Fantasia, but in an Injustice 2 review, these PS3 port-level graphics just won’t cut it.

This is from the post-button smashing era, so there is an attempt to organize the special button combinations. It’s an impossible task because now we’ve gone from joysticks to thumb-sticks, and with the sensitivity dialed up in newer generation consoles, this can get kind of tedious. It’s not unheard of that you might get ghosted on the more rapid fighting combos.

Battle Fantasia is fun and cartoonish, which can get annoying for someone that likes to play for marathon sessions—oh, and they are not a Nintendo fan. This has a lot in common with Super Smash Brothers. Battle Fantasia is fun and engaging in short bursts, which is perfect for an arcade cabinet, but maybe not so much at home.