What I Bought Today – Injustice: Gods Among Us…The Game, Not The Comic (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Well, a certain game that I promised everyone I’d take a look at is out, which means it’s time to check out…

So, even though I don’t have an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Wii U, I got the game for the Wii U anyway since N. Harmonik DOES have one, and we generally try to hang out at least once a week. This means I have plenty of time to play the game regardless. So, with that said, let’s take a look at Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Now you’ve heard me rant and rave about this game, in particular how Lois Lane is murdered, how Superman kills Joker and becomes a tyrant, and how Damian Wayne murders Dick Grayson, takes his place as Nightwing, and joins Superman’s side. Also, one thing I forgot to mention, in addition to all of that, how Wonder Woman is completely for his actions and decides to try and get into a relationship with him (WHY do we keep seeing these two as a couple?!). However, here’s where NetherRealm Studios has thrown the mother of all curve balls at us. This is actually an alternate-realities-colliding story, where the heroes of a more traditional modern DC world are pulled between dimensions to help save this world where all this badness has happened. In other words, the mischaracterization was intentional. Now granted, this does have a level of lameness to it, since this plot has been done a number of times in comics and in the Justice League animated series, but my opinion is that if you feel you have something new to add, then go ahead and try it. Really, at this point, I’m more amazed they kept this a secret, although admittedly the clues have been there for a while now.

For a pacifist, Raven can seriously knock the snot outta ya.

So how are the characters handled otherwise? Pretty well. Certain elements of both the pre and post-Flashpoint universes are utilized to the point where it almost feels like a hybrid of the two. For example, Wonder Woman is still a demigod, but the Amazons’ back-stories seem unaltered. Her and Superman are just close friends as Superman is married to Lois. Also, Superman wears what appears to be a modified version of his New 52 Kryptonian Armour that’s had its belt changed to yellow, like his old tights had. Personality wise, everyone acts as you would expect: Aquaman is the badass king of Atlantis, Superman is the gentle giant who will alter plans to keep as many people out of harm’s way as possible, Wonder Woman is compassionate and strong of mind and body, Green Arrow is snarky and full of himself, and Flash…well, Barry Allen continues to make me wish Wally West was here instead. lol Also, for anybody bothered by the fact that Superman is the main villain, I should also note that it’s good Superman who takes him down.

Y’know, much as Mister Freeze would be awesome in this game, for the sake of keeping things fresh, I’m glad we got Killer Frost instead.

As far as the actual gameplay goes? Well, I never doubted it would be a good fighting game, considering the people who made it, and I was right not to. This game is as solid a fighter as you can expect nowadays. All the characters feel unique, each having their own superpowers, abilities, special moves, and whatnot. The playable characters are Aquaman, Ares, Bane, Batman, Black Adam, Catwoman, Cyborg, Deathstroke, Doomsday, The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Harley Quinn, Hawkgirl, The Joker, Killer Frost, Lex Luthor, Nightwing, Raven, Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel), Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Superman, and Wonder Woman. While I mostly played story mode and a couple of single battles (since we only had one controller and had to alternate between us), I will say that, thus far, my favourite characters to play as are Aquaman, Batman, and Nightwing.

Does anybody else wonder what would happen if Kratos was in this game too? lol

Can’t complain about the sound at all. The music and sound effects are all great, and having a lot of my favourite voice actors for various characters makes this all to easy to feel comfortable with. The graphics are fine, except in the very first cutscene with some VERY derpy looking police officers. One admittedly small thing I kinda have to bring up, though: We had captions turned on, basically out of habit since we never wanna miss important details in the dialogue and like to keep our bases covered, and for some reason, the captions never seemed in sync with what was going on in the cutscenes. Lines would appear several seconds after people started talking, and some lines of dialogue would be left out entirely. Not sure what that was all about.

Green Lantern’s light VS Sinestro’s might

So, with all this said, I’m sure this brings up a question: Does this change my opinion on the comics?……..No, not even a little. In fact, this actually opens up whole new issues. For example, if this was an alternate universe story and the characters’ alternate costumes were to differentiate them, then why are the characters of the universe where everything turns to crap wearing the costumes from the universe where everything turns out okay? Why does Superman say nothing to Joker when he kills him and Batman is seen doing nothing to stop him in the comics, when in the game, Superman yells at Joker for a long while and Batman has to be thrown away to keep him from stopping Clark? I get the feeling there was a lack of communication somewhere, or it was done to keep people in the dark. Either way, though, I am not a fan of the comics at all, aside from the one where Harley Quinn and Green Arrow hang out. THAT was adorably hilarious.

Superman = NOT A VILLAIN

So that’s my thoughts on the game. Does it have problems? Yes. Are elements of the story clichéd? Sure. But overall, I still liked it. It’s still a good game that I think a lot of people, be they comic book fans or fans of fighting games, would enjoy. Though here’s hoping that the next DC game is a little less dark and dire. That’s all from me for today, and I will see y’all tomorrow with my haul of comics…I am gonna be so broke by the end of the week. Ja né!