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Injustice: Gods Among Us

Injustice: Gods Among Us

In parallel worlds, there's always the potential to see something new. Something unexpected.

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In the comic book medium, that usually translates into heroes with boy scout ethics doing something out of character. Case in point: Superman doing something particularly nasty to The Joker after Metropolis is destroyed. as the opening to Injustice - a flash forward as the game's events unfold to tell the story that leads to this scene taking place. This isn't your classic DC Comics story. But would you expect anything less from the creators of Mortal Kombat?

Injustice focuses on a darker take of the Justice League - DC's version of Marvel's Avengers - and drops them into a one-on-one brawler with both a competitive multiplayer and a single player campaign swinging you through the different characters as the story unfolds. We're witness to a rather cracking opener as the camera cuts between different multi-hero clashes and dialogue that fits well with what we know of the characters' personalities.

Injustice: Gods Among UsInjustice: Gods Among Us

It's a proper ‘who's who' for comic fans, as both heroes and villains are stacked high on the fighter select screen.

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In the squad are 24 fighters supernatural characters to choose from. Including twelve superheroes like Batman, Superman, Flash and Wonder Woman, as well as Green Arrow, Aquaman and Raven. On the side of the super-villains we've got the Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Bane, Lex Luther and Black Adam (more characters are expected as post-release DLC), and all are subdivided by their weight and speed differences, so there's plenty of tiers to choose from whether you go villain or hero.

Each has a special attack that fits their superpower (Flash runs around the world to deliver a huge roundhouse blow, Batman calls up the Batmobile to slam into foes) the stage-specific attacks, such as slamming your opponent through different levels of the Batcave, add a really nice touch.

In keeping with the genre, super attacks are only offered once you've full-filled a representative energy bar at the screen's bottom, through the usual route of successfully chaining attacks together. Combining environmental attacks, combo chains and flowing directly into supers is the integral part of combat.

Injustice: Gods Among Us
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There's fifteen fighting arenas in all, with multiple interactions in each. Interaction signalled by a on-screen icon. Hit the button and you'll treated to short but stylish cinematic similar to the power moves, either hammering your opponent against an object, or round-housing them to another area of the arena - and you're able to fire them back up to the original area, as the arenas are built with a circular connection in mind. Convert that super-human scrapping, and you're watching people being punched through skyscrapers, shot out of teleporters.

While there's no round split during matches, with scraps restarting with an insult from the first round winner, this is a close to Mortal Kombat you can get without the blood or gore - unsurprising given the licence. Yet even with that, punches and kicks hit with an intensity that reflects the superhuman muscle behind them, while skills and gadgets lend themselves to intriguing chain attacks and showy combos.

For newcomers and casual gamers Netherrealm has integrated an extensive training mode. Here we'll learn the basics of control and advanced combat tactics, as well as dig into the most interesting mode: the STAR Labs missions. These mini-games, over two hundred in number, have ten-apiece assigned to each character and contain a mini story arc - it's not just standard combat either. In Catwoman's level for instance, she send outs her cat to explore a museum. We control the cat, and have to dodge lazer barriers and guards.

Injustice: Gods Among Us

The control method's moved from the standard four attack buttons - that expected finger acrobatics to be successful - in order to appeal to a wider audience. A, X and Y are used for fast, medium and heavy attacks, while B activates the specials There is also a grab button (LB) and the environment interaction button (RB). If the super meta bar is completely filled, the two shoulder buttons (LT + RT) can be pressed to execute the devastating super move. There's no block. Quite clearly, then, the game is complex.

After every fight we get experience points. Nicely, it's only the winner who'll take the points for all credited moves during the fight - the loser only gets the points for the battle itself. Whether we can use this XP for anything other than bragging is uncertain.

Everything looks promising, though as with most fighting games likely those that'll get most out of it long-term are those skilled in the genre. But the story campaign tailoring is such that even cape fans not bale to chain complex moves will get a kick out of playing as their favourite icon - good or bad, and we're looking forward to continuing the Superman Vs Batman argument on console.

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Injustice: Gods Among UsInjustice: Gods Among Us

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Injustice: Gods Among Us

REVIEW. Written by Jonas Mäki

"Without the fandom, you're more likely to see the shortcomings of Injustice: Gods Amongst Us."



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