Nakuzami
[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]
- 6,896
- Posts
- 13
- Years
- Age 25
- The Forgotten Crossroads
- Seen Nov 15, 2023
[css-div="text-align: justify;"]So, this is my first blog entry here, and I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with this thing. Reviews? Journal? Something else? An all over the place mixture? Who knows. I already know from past experience that I'm not really good at this kind of stuff, so it may be that my entries are few and far between. But bare with me!
As far as this first entry goes, I think I'm just going to "review" (I've never reviewed ANYTHING, so it's not going to be much of one. xD) a new game that came out Tuesday. It's probably already obvious, but that game would be Injustice: Gods Among Us, a brand-new Fighting game by NetherRealm studios, the creators of Mortal Kombat. Chances are I'll spoil a few things in here, so only read if you've already played the game, don't plan to ever play the game, or don't really care about spoilers.
I'll give you a hint if you can't tell: it's a fighting game that centers around characters from the DC Universe comic line. This isn't the first time NetherRealm has worked with DC characters in a fighting game: they did something similar with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, which came out a few years ago. However, I can already tell you that this game is far superior to MK vs DCU.
I've never really been a fan of the Mortal Kombat games. They're okay, but I couldn't really enjoy the style of gameplay. It always felt awkward to me compared to other fighting games, such as Tekken or Soul Calibur. I understand that's not the case for everyone, and my confusing ex-but-not-really boyfriend can attest to that, considering he introduced me to the series. Injustice, on the other hand, feels so much better compared to Mortal Kombat games, yet the basic style remains the same. In MK games, combos always seemed awkward and everyone seemed to really almost completely on characters' special moves. In Injustice, I can actually chain a decent combo without ever using a special move, which is nice.
Enough of the background story, though. Onto the game itself.
The majority of the Injustice story line takes place in an alternate universe. By "majority" I mean absolutely everything except for a few cinematics. The introduction to the game shows the aftermath of a nuclear bomb in an alternate universe, but the game itself starts off in the regular DC comics universe (if you can even say there is one, considering there's so many.) in Metropolis, right before the nuke went off. In this universe, the Joker is in the center of Metropolis with Harley Quin and a nuke ready to blow. Batman comes in to save the day, of course, even though this is Superman's city. Pfft, lazy super-guy.
After a moment, most of the other heroes in the game (there's a cast of twelve heroes and twelve villains, twenty-four in all not including DLC characters, of which there are to be at least four.) fly into Metropolis to assist the Bat. Of course, just as they arrive, something happens and pulls them into an alternate universe. This event actually stops the nuke from going off, but it pulls them into the other universe where the other nuke has already went off, five years later.
In this universe, Superman has practically gone mad after his wife and unborn child were killed at the hands of The Joker. After killing The Joker, Superman had started to gather other heroes and villains of the world, a new set of morals filling his rage. Due to his power and the fact that few can stand up to him, plus the fact that he's trusted and apparently slightly charismatic, he amasses a decent army of heroes, villains, and everyday soldiers. Long story short, he takes over the world and rebuilds Metropolis in his image. Because he's a narcissist like that.
When you enter the game, you start off playing as a rather confused Batman. After fighting The Joker, soldiers from Superman's Regime (the proper name for it seems to have slipped my mind. New Earth Order, or something like that.) appear and attempt to arrest Batman, a wanted criminal in this world. Bruce uses one of his device thingies that I don't know the name of to immobilize the soldiers via inducing a splitting headache. He then drops a smoke bomb and makes his escape.
Now, that's enough of the story to explain in annoying detail, I think. You don't need to know too much, and all of that occurs in the first five minutes of gameplay, so there's obviously too much to explain. You end up going through about twelve chapters, each chapter showcasing a different playable character and about four fights each, with cutscenes in between each fight. Each character has unique dialogue, character powers, and super moves, all of which are pretty neat. During clash scenes, where each player wagers a portion of their super meter in a little showdown of sorts, characters have quick little exchanges with each other. What is said depends on which two characters are being used, and most combinations of characters showcases unique dialogue, which can be pretty amusing at times (such as Harley Quin versus Green Lantern).
In most levels, there are also Transitions. Transitions are basically where you knock a character through a wall, dealing a large amount of damage and moving the battle to a different part of the arena. (Hint: in order to do that, press ←X (PS3) or ←A (Xbox 360). I didn't learn that until after the story mode, because I accidentally skipped the tutorial.) Environments in this game also play a huge part. By using R1, or RB, you can interact with many items in the environment in various ways, such as throwing objects or knocking characters into objects. Characters also interact with different objects in different ways. Weaker, more acrobatic characters like Batman may use a large item to do some fancy flippy moves, whereas stronger characters like Superman or Wonder Woman might just pick up a car and slam it down onto you.
Outside of the Story Mode, there are also many other things to be done. In fact, Story Mode is probably the shortest mode in the game. For Single Player, there are also Battles and S.T.A.R. Laboratories missions. There are a wide variety of Battles to play, and each one has its own unique parameters. Some are as simple as fighting only Heroes or only Villains, and others may have your character poisoned, constantly losing health, or you might have to go through all ten matches without having your health refilled in between. I haven't had the chance to play all of the Battles yet, and even getting through Classic Battles can be a pain sometimes. The only character I got through them with so far was Nightwing. I haven't even used all of the characters yet! The fun thing about Classic Battles is that, upon completion, you receive a cinematic ending for the character that you win the final battle with. If Nightwing's ending is anything to go by, then they are certainly interesting. Also, when you start the game you don't have many types of Battles available to you. This is because you must unlock most of them via Access Cards in the Archive, under the Bonus Features section of the game. Access Cards and Armory Keys are obtained upon leveling up, which you do by getting experience after each battle. Access Cards are used to unlock Battles, portraits for your Hero Card, Concept Art, Music, and more. Armory Keys may be used to unlock alternate costumes for all twenty-four characters. There's one costume for each character, and each one is either a Regime or Insurgency costume from the alternate universe in Story Mode.
As I mentioned, there are also S.T.A.R. Labs missions. These are all interesting scenarios unique to each character, although you have to play through with certain characters to unlock missions for others. You start off as Superman, so needless to say I haven't really done many missions. (Not a Superman fan. He's annoying, stupid, overpowered and overrated. Granted, characters like Batman are also incredibly overrated, but they're not annoying, stupid and overpowered.)
On the Multiplayer side, you may partake in a few different types of fights. There's regular Ranked Matches, Player and Private 1v1 matches, and Player and Private King of the Hill and one other that I forget, lol. You may also create lobbies of up to one hundred players. There are also Daily Challenges that you can complete for rewards, such as winning a certain number of online matches as certain characters.
Lastly, outside of the main game there is also a mobile app on the iTunes marketplace, or whatever. This app apparently functions like some sort of card game, but I don't have an iPhone or iPad, so I can't really tell you much about it. I do, however, know that it may connect with the main game and unlock rewards for your Hero Card.
That's all I can really say for gameplay, so onto pointless information that I feel like sharing.
As I've mentioned, the game roster consists of twenty-four characters: twelve heroes and twelve villains, as well as at least four other DLC characters. Here's the full roster:
Heroes:
Villains:
DLC:
My favorite character so far happens to be Nightwing. Going into the game, I expected to main Raven, considering she's one of my favorite DC characters. Sadly, her voice is awkward. She's not voiced by Tara Strong, her voice actress from Teen Titans, although one very misleading Green Lantern trailer did have her with Tara's voice, and Tara does voice Harley Quin in the game, so . . . yeah, whatever, lol. One other character that has pretty nice gameplay is Aquaman. Going into the game, I knew very little about Aquaman other than the fact that he was apparently very underrated and very unloved. Injustice has completely reversed that view for me, however, and now I think I might have to pay more attention to the King of Atlantis.
I can't really say much about stages, as little has been posted yet and I currently don't have access to my television to check, lol. But, of course, there are favorites like Metropolis, Atlantis, The Batcave, Gotham City, Wayne Manor, Wayne Manor (Night), Joker Asylum, and more.
To date, there's only one DLC available for all to buy, not including the Season Pass (which I HIGHLY recommend if you plan to buy any DLC), and three pre-order bonuses, depending on where you ordered from.
Available DLC (taken from the Injustice wiki):
Pre-Order Bonuses:
And I supposed I should give the game a rating!
Well, as far as fighting games go, I say 9/10 stars. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
Storyline-wise, I'd say a 7/10 stars. It was good, but it felt short. I was 90% done with it in the first three hours of playing. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
And, if anyone ever feels like playing, I'm Dr_Nakuzami on the PlayStation Network. I'm not the greatest, losing most of my Online matches, but I'd like to think that I can hold my own. Even so, it's all for the fun of it, right? d:[/css-div]
As far as this first entry goes, I think I'm just going to "review" (I've never reviewed ANYTHING, so it's not going to be much of one. xD) a new game that came out Tuesday. It's probably already obvious, but that game would be Injustice: Gods Among Us, a brand-new Fighting game by NetherRealm studios, the creators of Mortal Kombat. Chances are I'll spoil a few things in here, so only read if you've already played the game, don't plan to ever play the game, or don't really care about spoilers.
I'll give you a hint if you can't tell: it's a fighting game that centers around characters from the DC Universe comic line. This isn't the first time NetherRealm has worked with DC characters in a fighting game: they did something similar with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, which came out a few years ago. However, I can already tell you that this game is far superior to MK vs DCU.
I've never really been a fan of the Mortal Kombat games. They're okay, but I couldn't really enjoy the style of gameplay. It always felt awkward to me compared to other fighting games, such as Tekken or Soul Calibur. I understand that's not the case for everyone, and my confusing ex-but-not-really boyfriend can attest to that, considering he introduced me to the series. Injustice, on the other hand, feels so much better compared to Mortal Kombat games, yet the basic style remains the same. In MK games, combos always seemed awkward and everyone seemed to really almost completely on characters' special moves. In Injustice, I can actually chain a decent combo without ever using a special move, which is nice.
Enough of the background story, though. Onto the game itself.
The majority of the Injustice story line takes place in an alternate universe. By "majority" I mean absolutely everything except for a few cinematics. The introduction to the game shows the aftermath of a nuclear bomb in an alternate universe, but the game itself starts off in the regular DC comics universe (if you can even say there is one, considering there's so many.) in Metropolis, right before the nuke went off. In this universe, the Joker is in the center of Metropolis with Harley Quin and a nuke ready to blow. Batman comes in to save the day, of course, even though this is Superman's city. Pfft, lazy super-guy.
After a moment, most of the other heroes in the game (there's a cast of twelve heroes and twelve villains, twenty-four in all not including DLC characters, of which there are to be at least four.) fly into Metropolis to assist the Bat. Of course, just as they arrive, something happens and pulls them into an alternate universe. This event actually stops the nuke from going off, but it pulls them into the other universe where the other nuke has already went off, five years later.
In this universe, Superman has practically gone mad after his wife and unborn child were killed at the hands of The Joker. After killing The Joker, Superman had started to gather other heroes and villains of the world, a new set of morals filling his rage. Due to his power and the fact that few can stand up to him, plus the fact that he's trusted and apparently slightly charismatic, he amasses a decent army of heroes, villains, and everyday soldiers. Long story short, he takes over the world and rebuilds Metropolis in his image. Because he's a narcissist like that.
When you enter the game, you start off playing as a rather confused Batman. After fighting The Joker, soldiers from Superman's Regime (the proper name for it seems to have slipped my mind. New Earth Order, or something like that.) appear and attempt to arrest Batman, a wanted criminal in this world. Bruce uses one of his device thingies that I don't know the name of to immobilize the soldiers via inducing a splitting headache. He then drops a smoke bomb and makes his escape.
Now, that's enough of the story to explain in annoying detail, I think. You don't need to know too much, and all of that occurs in the first five minutes of gameplay, so there's obviously too much to explain. You end up going through about twelve chapters, each chapter showcasing a different playable character and about four fights each, with cutscenes in between each fight. Each character has unique dialogue, character powers, and super moves, all of which are pretty neat. During clash scenes, where each player wagers a portion of their super meter in a little showdown of sorts, characters have quick little exchanges with each other. What is said depends on which two characters are being used, and most combinations of characters showcases unique dialogue, which can be pretty amusing at times (such as Harley Quin versus Green Lantern).
In most levels, there are also Transitions. Transitions are basically where you knock a character through a wall, dealing a large amount of damage and moving the battle to a different part of the arena. (Hint: in order to do that, press ←X (PS3) or ←A (Xbox 360). I didn't learn that until after the story mode, because I accidentally skipped the tutorial.) Environments in this game also play a huge part. By using R1, or RB, you can interact with many items in the environment in various ways, such as throwing objects or knocking characters into objects. Characters also interact with different objects in different ways. Weaker, more acrobatic characters like Batman may use a large item to do some fancy flippy moves, whereas stronger characters like Superman or Wonder Woman might just pick up a car and slam it down onto you.
Outside of the Story Mode, there are also many other things to be done. In fact, Story Mode is probably the shortest mode in the game. For Single Player, there are also Battles and S.T.A.R. Laboratories missions. There are a wide variety of Battles to play, and each one has its own unique parameters. Some are as simple as fighting only Heroes or only Villains, and others may have your character poisoned, constantly losing health, or you might have to go through all ten matches without having your health refilled in between. I haven't had the chance to play all of the Battles yet, and even getting through Classic Battles can be a pain sometimes. The only character I got through them with so far was Nightwing. I haven't even used all of the characters yet! The fun thing about Classic Battles is that, upon completion, you receive a cinematic ending for the character that you win the final battle with. If Nightwing's ending is anything to go by, then they are certainly interesting. Also, when you start the game you don't have many types of Battles available to you. This is because you must unlock most of them via Access Cards in the Archive, under the Bonus Features section of the game. Access Cards and Armory Keys are obtained upon leveling up, which you do by getting experience after each battle. Access Cards are used to unlock Battles, portraits for your Hero Card, Concept Art, Music, and more. Armory Keys may be used to unlock alternate costumes for all twenty-four characters. There's one costume for each character, and each one is either a Regime or Insurgency costume from the alternate universe in Story Mode.
As I mentioned, there are also S.T.A.R. Labs missions. These are all interesting scenarios unique to each character, although you have to play through with certain characters to unlock missions for others. You start off as Superman, so needless to say I haven't really done many missions. (Not a Superman fan. He's annoying, stupid, overpowered and overrated. Granted, characters like Batman are also incredibly overrated, but they're not annoying, stupid and overpowered.)
On the Multiplayer side, you may partake in a few different types of fights. There's regular Ranked Matches, Player and Private 1v1 matches, and Player and Private King of the Hill and one other that I forget, lol. You may also create lobbies of up to one hundred players. There are also Daily Challenges that you can complete for rewards, such as winning a certain number of online matches as certain characters.
Lastly, outside of the main game there is also a mobile app on the iTunes marketplace, or whatever. This app apparently functions like some sort of card game, but I don't have an iPhone or iPad, so I can't really tell you much about it. I do, however, know that it may connect with the main game and unlock rewards for your Hero Card.
That's all I can really say for gameplay, so onto pointless information that I feel like sharing.
As I've mentioned, the game roster consists of twenty-four characters: twelve heroes and twelve villains, as well as at least four other DLC characters. Here's the full roster:
Credit to Ian-Navarro of deviantART
- Aquaman
- Batman
- Cyborg
- The Flash
- Green Arrow
- Green Lantern
- Hawkgirl
- Nightwing
- Raven
- Shazam
- Superman
- Wonder Woman
Villains:
- Ares
- Bane
- Black Adam
- Catwoman
- Deathstroke
- Doomsday
- Harley Quinn
- The Joker
- Killer Frost
- Lex Luthor
- Sinestro
- Solomon Grundy
DLC:
- Lobo
- Batgirl
- Scorpion
- Zod
- Martian Manhunter
My favorite character so far happens to be Nightwing. Going into the game, I expected to main Raven, considering she's one of my favorite DC characters. Sadly, her voice is awkward. She's not voiced by Tara Strong, her voice actress from Teen Titans, although one very misleading Green Lantern trailer did have her with Tara's voice, and Tara does voice Harley Quin in the game, so . . . yeah, whatever, lol. One other character that has pretty nice gameplay is Aquaman. Going into the game, I knew very little about Aquaman other than the fact that he was apparently very underrated and very unloved. Injustice has completely reversed that view for me, however, and now I think I might have to pay more attention to the King of Atlantis.
I can't really say much about stages, as little has been posted yet and I currently don't have access to my television to check, lol. But, of course, there are favorites like Metropolis, Atlantis, The Batcave, Gotham City, Wayne Manor, Wayne Manor (Night), Joker Asylum, and more.
To date, there's only one DLC available for all to buy, not including the Season Pass (which I HIGHLY recommend if you plan to buy any DLC), and three pre-order bonuses, depending on where you ordered from.
Available DLC (taken from the Injustice wiki):
- Red Son Pack 1: This pack comes with a costume for Superman, Wonder Woman and Solomon Grundy from the Red Son comics plus 20 Challenges based on the Red Son storyline. Get this by Pre-Ordering the game from GameStop. Red Son pack is also available on the IOS version of the game.
- Arkham City Pack: This pack comes with a costume for Catwoman, Batman and The Joker from Batman: Arkham City. Get this by buying the game from Wal-Mart.
- The "New 52" Costume Pack: This pack comes with a costume for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman from the New 52 Comic Series. Get this by Buying the Collector's Edition or Battle Edition.
- Blackest Night Pack: This pack includes alternate skins from the coveted Blackest Night comic book story. The pack also includes a zombie mode, where every character is turned into the undead. Get this by pre-ordering the game at Amazon.de or Best Buy.
- Arrow Costume: Play as Green Arrow from the Arrow TV Show! Get this by being one of the first 5000 to vote for any Super Battle or by signing up for Injustice updates via email.
- Season Pass: The Season Pass will be available when the game is released and will have Flashpoint Costumes of Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, and Aquaman. It will also come with 4 DLC characters. The DLC characters are Lobo, Batgirl, Scorpion and Zod.
- Bad Girls Pack: This pack includes alternative skins of Wonderwoman, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn. Wonder Woman skin is her appearance from her #600 issue, Catwoman skin is her Selina Kyle outfit as her costume but with no mask, and Harley Quinn skin is her classic jester appearance.
- The Killing Joke Pack: This pack includes alternate skins from The Killing Joke comic book story and comes with 3 skins of the Joker.
- Teen Titans Pack: This pack comes with 3 skins of Raven, Deathstroke, and Cyborg based on their classic Teen Titans appearance.
- Red Son Pack 2: This pack includes 3 skins of Batman, Deathstroke and Green Lantern based on their Red Son appearance.
- Blackest Night Pack 1: This pack includes 3 skins of The Flash, Superman and Doomsday based on their Blackest Night appearance.
- Blackest Night Pack 2: This pack includes 3 skins of Batman, Aquaman and Hawkgirl based on their Blackest Night appearance.
- Earth 2 Pack: This pack includes 3 skins of The Flash, Hawkgirl and Solomon Grundy based on their Earth 2 appearance.
- Man of Steel Superman Skin: Superman's appearance in the 2013 Man of Steel movie.
- Batman's Flashpoint Skin: Batman's appearance in the Flashpoint comic book story. This is a free skin with the compatibility pack update that can be bought when purchasing Lobo.
- Bane's Luchador Skin: Bane's appearance when he was in Peña Dura. This is a free compatibility pack update that can be bought when purchasing Batgirl.
- Doomsday's Containment Suit Skin: Doomsday's appearance. This is a free skin with the compatibility pack update that can be bought when purchasing Scorpion.
- Ares's Classic Skin: Ares's appearance when he made his debut. This is a free skin with the compatibility pack update that can be bought when purchasing Zod.
- John Stewart's Green Lantern Skin: John Stewart's appearance as the Green Lantern. This is a free skin with the compatibility pack that can be bought when purchasing Martian Manhunter.
- Ame-Comi Pack: Catwoman's, Wonder Woman's, and Harley Quinn's appearance in Ame-Comi.
- Lockdown Pack: This pack contains Superman's Prison skin, Batman Beyond skin, Arkham Harley skin, Knightfall Bane skin and New 52 Green Lantern skin. (Exclusive to Wii U.)
Pre-Order Bonuses:
- GameStop / EB Games / Game - Red Son Pack (Skins for Superman, Wonder Woman and Solomon Grundy, as well as twenty Red Son S.T.A.R. Labs missions)
- Wal-Mart - Arkham City Skin Pack (Batman, Catwoman and The Joker) and a bonus copy of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
- Best Buy / Amazon Germany - Blackest Night Pack (Black Lantern skin for Batman, as well as a Zombie Mode for the game)
And I supposed I should give the game a rating!
Well, as far as fighting games go, I say 9/10 stars. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
Storyline-wise, I'd say a 7/10 stars. It was good, but it felt short. I was 90% done with it in the first three hours of playing. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
And, if anyone ever feels like playing, I'm Dr_Nakuzami on the PlayStation Network. I'm not the greatest, losing most of my Online matches, but I'd like to think that I can hold my own. Even so, it's all for the fun of it, right? d:[/css-div]
