Although NetherRealm Studios are likely best-known as the developers of the more recent titles in the Mortal Kombat franchise, you might also know that they’ve also produced two games in an original intellectual property based on various aspects of the DC Comics universe.

These games, Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2, are somewhat similar in many respects to other NetherRealm titles such as 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot. Nevertheless, I think they contribute enough to NetherRealm’s fighting game formula to deserve their own spotlight.

One of the main attractions present in each of NetherRealm’s fighting games is an in-depth story mode, which allows players to experience each game’s lore firsthand. Essentially, these story modes allow players to discover the circumstances present within each game’s universe by controlling various characters through story chapters filled with several battles.

Of course, I suspect that the story modes present within NetherRealm games would be considerably less memorable and enjoyable without their interesting plots. I personally consider the plot of Injustice to be quite enthralling due to its original concepts, and usage of assets and storylines present within the DC Comics universe.

Because I find Injustice’s plot to be so interesting, I’d like to discuss my thoughts on it first, before I get into the other features the game has to offer. I’ll do my best not to include any major story spoilers for those of you who might not be familiar with Injustice, but I’ll include as much detail as I can so as to more effectively illustrate the gravity of the circumstances taking place in-game.

Injustice’s story begins by displaying images of a totally destroyed Metropolis, complete with televised announcements, declaring that millions of people have been killed. This large-scale destruction, as it turns out, was perpetrated by Batman’s longtime adversary, the Joker.

Before the destruction takes place, Joker finds himself in possession of a considerably large nuclear bomb, which he plans to detonate in the heart of Metropolis. The scene then shifts to Batman interrogating Joker within the Gotham City police headquarters.

Superman soon bursts in through the wall of the interrogation room and demands that Batman step away from Joker so that Superman can essentially take matters into his own hands. Superman, in a state of unbridled fury, accuses Joker of having somehow drugged him and tricked him into inadvertently killing his pregnant wife, Lois Lane.

After Joker cracks one too many one-liners at Superman’s expense, the Man of Steel proceeds to violently execute him (which thankfully takes place off-screen). As a result of his actions while he was in an altered state of consciousness, and the grief caused by the death of his wife and unborn son, Superman loses his moral compass. He vows to devote his time to exterminating all instances of crime the world over, usually by violent means.

Over time, Superman somehow manages to erase all democratic institutions of government on Earth. In place of these modern governments, Superman consolidates his authority and declares himself High Councilor of what he calls the “One Earth” regime.

Basically, Superman promises that every nation on Earth will be free of crime, so long as they comply with his administration’s methods and policies. Superman recruits various heroes and villains alike to serve as his lieutenants and indirectly dissolves the Justice League in doing so.

After a close encounter with a portion of the One Earth regime’s military forces, Batman realizes that Superman and his underlings constitute the current greatest threat to Earth. He consequently decides to enlist the aid of any heroes who haven’t been recruited or killed by the regime.

Alongside the allies he recruits, Batman initiates an insurgency with the intention of overthrowing the One Earth regime. The fate of the planet then falls upon the shoulders of Batman and those loyal to the insurgency’s cause.

That’s essentially all I can say about the story without spoiling anything. The story goes on to include the discovery of parallel universes and things of that nature. That sort of thing gets complicated rather quickly, in my experience. In light of that, I don’t see a need for me to discuss those aspects of Injustice’s story mode.

As I said earlier, I find the plot of Injustice quite interesting. Although DC has created many memorable story arcs in their comics, I think the creative direction NetherRealm took when developing Injustice and its story mode is a welcome breath of fresh air. The comics that serve as a prequel to the story events within Injustice are a nice touch as well.

Additionally, though I’m not as well-versed in older DC comic storylines as I’d like to be, I seem to recall several story arcs in the comics where Superman would be considered “evil.” As I said, I think Injustice’s developers put a unique spin on that concept, and it seems that strategy paid off.

Injustice is quite similar in many ways to another of NetherRealm’s signature fighting games, namely the eponymous 2011 reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise (henceforth referred to as “MK9”). These various similarities have been both a boon and a curse to the first Injustice title.

For instance, Injustice’s combat system uses the same “meter” system present in MK9, wherein fighters fill a meter with energy during combat and, upon filling their meter completely, gain the ability to perform a heavily-damaging “super move.” This system might help players who are new to Injustice, yet familiar with MK9, adjust to the gameplay more quickly.

Injustice also contains standard modes such as “arcade mode” ladders, as well as the S.T.A.R. Labs mode, which functions almost identically to MK9’s Challenge Tower mode. I don’t mean to imply that’s a bad thing, however. The mode contains quite a few combat challenges for each playable fighter, which might help players get used to the combat system, and perhaps decide on a “main” fighter for their unique play styles.

Do you remember the rather infamous, critically-panned 2008 release Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe? If so, you might know that within the context of said game, DC villains and Mortal Kombat characters had access to the series’ trademark finishing moves, known as Fatalities. DC Heroes, on the other hand, had access to “Heroic Brutalities” instead.

I hoped to see a similar, yet improved, version of this feature appear in Injustice: Gods Among Us; sadly, however, the game features no finishing moves of any sort. I suppose that’s understandable though since NetherRealm aimed to tone down the violence within Injustice to such an extent that the game would receive a “Teen” rating from the ESRB, rather than NetherRealm’s usual “Mature” rating.

There’s one more major thing I want to mention about Injustice before I conclude this review. You might remember from my review of MK9 that I mentioned the PC port of the game was plagued by significant optimization issues that negatively affected gameplay in my experience.

The most egregious of these issues were constant fluctuation of the game’s frame rate, which caused the game to run very slowly if it dipped below 60 frames per second for any length of time. Unfortunately, Injustice suffers from these same problems, though not to the same degree as MK9.

In my experience, fights are completely playable and don’t slow to a crawl as they tend to do in MK9, though the frame rate fluctuation is still noticeable.

Considering the fact that Injustice was released almost exactly two years after MK9, it seems that NetherRealm at least made an attempt during that time to improve the game’s optimization for both offline and online play, but it appears that they hadn’t quite figured everything out before the game’s launch.

In light of that, however, I’m quite pleased to report that the more recent NetherRealm releases (Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat 11) haven’t demonstrated the presence of any such issues during my time with them. This signals to me that NetherRealm cares enough about the quality of their games to bother properly optimizing them and that they seem to have learned from their past mistakes in that regard.

On a final note, I should mention that the only version of Injustice that’s available for purchase on Steam is the so-called “Ultimate Edition,” which adds six new playable fighters and an array of various skins for other characters.

Considering the game’s age and everything included alongside it in the “Ultimate Edition,” I think its normal asking price is more than agreeable. If you consider the idea of Superman becoming a tyrannical planet-wide dictator interesting, or if you’re enough of a DC fan to be curious about what the developers of Mortal Kombat were able to do with a new IP, I highly recommend Injustice.

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Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition

19.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Large Roster of Familiar Characters
• In-Depth Story Mode

Cons

• Optimization Issues May Prove Problematic
• Lack of Certain Features Might Disappoint Fans