I recently felt the desire to spend some time with 2017’s addition to NetherRealm Studios’ collection of fighting games; as I hadn’t done so in quite some time according to Steam. Of course, I’m referring to Injustice 2, the direct sequel to 2013’s Injustice: Gods Among Us.

I mainly elected to do so because Injustice 2 has been on my “to-review” list for quite a while and I’ve finally found the time have a second look at it. To that end, I wanted to determine whether there existed a reason, or perhaps even several reasons, why I had allowed Injustice 2’s existence to slip my mind for so long. I see no harm in revisiting the forever-changed version of the DC Comics universe in which the events of both Injustice games take place.

Injustice 2 is different from its predecessor in a multitude of ways, and I have mixed feelings about several of the more prominent aspects that separate the two games. Throughout this review, I intend to explain exactly what those aspects are and why they’ve served to complicate my general opinions on both Injustice titles.

Before I begin detailing the major differences between both Injustice games and the reasons I have a complex view of them, I think it would be appropriate for me to spend awhile discussing a couple of aspects which illustrate how the two games are similar to one another, for better or for worse.

A good starting point is to evaluate the plot present within Injustice 2’s story mode. I’ve stated in my previous reviews of NetherRealm’s catalog of fighting games that I personally think NetherRealm has quite a knack for making the stories told within their games particularly interesting and compelling.

Of course, I harbor that opinion mainly because I’m something of a “lore nerd,” for lack of a better description. I greatly enjoy learning all I can about several aspects of the lore within games which prominently feature a well-crafted, engaging story. I’m pleased to report that Injustice 2 is no exception to NetherRealm’s usual story-crafting prowess as far as I’m concerned.

If you’re unfamiliar with the established lore present in the Injustice franchise, I humbly suggest reading my review of the aforementioned Injustice: Gods Among Us. If you’d rather not read that article, I shall provide a brief recap of the first game’s plot and how the events therein partially set the stage for Injustice 2.

The story modes in both Injustice titles involve quite a bit of what I’ve taken to somewhat endearingly referring to as “alternate universe nonsense.” By that, I mean that there exist two parallel universes within which both games’ events take place. These universes overlap in certain ways on a fairly frequent basis. This tends to make it considerably difficult for me to keep track of exactly what’s going on in either game’s story, but I digress.

Basically, the story of the first Injustice game establishes that as the result of a massively-destructive plot orchestrated by the Joker, during which Superman is tricked into inadvertently killing Lois Lane and his unborn son, Superman almost instantly loses his moral compass after murdering the Joker in retaliation.

This chain of events leads the Man of Steel to coerce all Earthly governments to relinquish their authority to him in exchange for the complete (and usually violent) eradication of all crime on the planet. In doing so, Superman replaces all governments and military forces with his own consolidated power; he then declares himself High Councilor of what he refers to as the “One Earth Regime.”

Batman soon realizes that the corrupted Superman and the various heroes and villains he recruits to serve within his Regime constitute the current greatest threat to Earth. Batman consequently initiates an insurgency alongside several heroes who managed to avoid being recruited or killed by Superman or any of his goons. In doing so, Batman relies upon a significant amount of the aforementioned “alternate universe nonsense,” which I won’t dare attempt to explain in any detail so as to avoid any potential factual inaccuracies.

Batman’s insurgency is ultimately successful. The One Earth Regime falls, and its High Councilor is imprisoned within a specially-designed cell which constantly exposes him to light from a red sun (as opposed to Earth’s yellow sun). Red sunlight renders the tyrannical Man of Steel unable to use any of his powers and, therefore, makes him significantly less likely to escape captivity.

Injustice 2’s story begins by detailing how and why Supergirl and Superman were sent to Earth, while also revealing the cause of the destruction of their home planet, Krypton. The game also establishes the presence of its primary antagonist while telling these tales.

The antagonist in question is the supremely-intelligent alien life form known simply as Brainiac, who is initially seen directing his space-faring vessel to absorb all of Krypton’s major cities and everything contained therein. In doing so, Brainiac destabilizes Krypton’s core, which ultimately leads to the planet’s rather violent destruction shortly after Supergirl and the then-infant Superman depart for Earth.

It’s later revealed that Brainiac absorbed Krypton’s major cities into his ship in order to extract and compile all knowledge contained within everything and everyone he captured. He supposedly intends to somehow preserve these cities aboard his ship within what he somewhat euphemistically calls his “collection.”

As it happens, however, there are two crucial Kryptonians whom Brainiac was unable to capture: Kara Zor-El (aka Supergirl) and her cousin, Kal-El (better known as Superman). Once Brainiac realizes that these two are missing from his “collection,” he takes an interest in Earth after he concludes that’s where the two surviving denizens of Krypton ended up. At this point, Injustice 2’s story truly begins.

The scene then shifts to a series of events several years later, sometime after the deadly altercation between Superman and the Joker. Batman and Robin are initially seen attempting to dissuade High Councilor Superman from executing every inmate housed within Arkham Island’s penitentiary.

Upon realizing that this version of Superman would rather execute said inmates than attempt to rehabilitate them, Robin (who happens to be Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia al-Ghul) defies his father and sides with the High Councilor. As an ultimate act of defiance, Robin proceeds to execute Batman’s notorious serial-killer enemy, Victor Zsasz, to prove his worth to Superman and earn his place within the One Earth Regime.

To make a fairly long and somewhat convoluted story short, I’ll just say that some very tentative and uneasy alliances are forged over time in order to defeat Brainiac once and for all. As you might reasonably suspect, agreements that can be accurately described this way tend to eventually lead to a crossroads of sorts; I probably shouldn’t say much more than that in the interest of avoiding spoilers.

Since I’ve already technically spoiled the ending of the original Injustice’s story mode, I’ll avoid doing the same for Injustice 2 for the sake of those who might want to experience the story’s events firsthand. I shall instead move on to the other main similarity between the two Injustice titles I intend to examine, namely the combat mechanics present within both games.

There honestly isn’t very much I consider noteworthy about Injustice 2’s combat compared to that of its predecessor, though. As I recall, I haven’t encountered any glaring discrepancies in either game as far as combat is concerned. It seems NetherRealm took the idea that “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” to heart when developing Injustice 2’s in-fight mechanics.

While I admittedly would’ve preferred a bit of innovation of some description to potentially enhance the combat somewhat, I think the existing mechanics are solid enough in their own right. For example, the mechanic I’ve taken to calling the “meter system,” which was first implemented in 2011’s Mortal Kombat, is still fully intact within Injustice 2.

As such, every character is capable of potentially turning the tides of a fight by using their “super move,” which can be unleashed upon completely filling their meter during battle. That means a certain point of contention among certain reviewers that was present within the first Injustice title has made a second appearance.

To elaborate, some portion of reviewers pointed out that although these so-called “super moves” are typically entertaining at first, they tend to lose that quality rather quickly. It’s become quite apparent to me that super moves do indeed become more tedious than anything as time passes.

I think it also doesn’t help that super moves can be used multiple times within any given fight. In all honesty, I’ve found that I can only stand to watch my opponent get repeatedly bombarded by the Batwing a certain number of times as part of Batman’s super move before it begins to bore me. Perhaps that’s partially why NetherRealm elected to alter a similar system within Mortal Kombat 11 in order to make that title’s equivalent of super moves only usable once per battle.

Speaking of Mortal Kombat leads me to my final point regarding Injustice 2’s mid-fight mechanics. I mentioned in my review of the original Injustice that I wish the game contained finishing moves of any description akin to the Mortal Kombat franchise’s signature Fatalities.

Before my first experience with Injustice 2, I hoped that NetherRealm would address the idea of adding finishing moves by including, for example, something along the lines of the so-called “Heroic Brutalities” that were present in the almost universally-panned Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. To my slight disappointment, that didn’t end up happening.

Heck, I personally would likely have enjoyed even a significantly less violent version of said finishing moves. I know NetherRealm aimed to tone down the violence within both Injustice games so as to ensure that they received “Teen” ratings from the ESRB. Despite that, though, I can’t help but think there might have been some way NetherRealm could have implemented finishing maneuvers without either game ultimately being slapped with a “Mature” rating.

Alas, due to the absence of decisive finishers, each battle ends with the defeated fighter scrambling to stand up after being knocked down, only to fall to their knees a split second later. Honestly, I’ve always considered this process to be rather awkward and somewhat nonsensical. I know bringing up this aspect of Injustice 2’s gameplay is a fairly minor nitpick on my part, but I find myself consistently bothered by it nonetheless.

Having said all that, I’d like to begin the process of discussing my opinions of certain differences between the two Injustice titles I mentioned near the beginning of this review. I mainly aim to highlight and discuss a couple of major elements whose inclusion surprised me to a certain extent.

The primary reason I consider these systems intriguing is simply because I don’t recall having seen them implemented in any other fighting game I’ve played. You see, Injustice 2 includes such features as a character leveling system, unlockable and interchangeable character equipment which can be organized into “loadouts,” and character stats (such as ability power and defense) that can be improved via said equipment items.

As you might suspect, characters can increase their level by gaining experience points through battle. As characters reach higher levels, they can equip better-quality gear and, in turn, maximize their adjustable stats in accordance with any bonuses granted to them by the equipment they’re currently using.

Interestingly, Injustice 2 lacks any sort of standard “arcade mode” as far as I’ve been able to determine during my time with the game. The absence of any organized ladder mode leaves players with two main methods of leveling up their favorite fighters without engaging in any online play modes.

Specifically, I’m referring to the “single fight” mode and the more prominent “Multiverse” mode, which I’ll discuss in further detail momentarily. I personally don’t quite consider either method ideal for leveling up fighters or determining which characters suit your play style well enough to be considered your mains.

I say that mainly because as far as I can tell, you would have to either repeatedly battle the AI in the “single fight” mode with few rewards other than character experience, or hope that the Multiverse mode happens to offer challenges that are appropriate for both your personal skill level and the character levels you’ve attained on your favorite fighters. Allow me to elaborate.

Injustice 2’s Multiverse mode functions almost identically to the “Towers of Time” mode present within Mortal Kombat 11. That is to say, this mode presents you with a selection of challenges which change in real time. These challenges can last anywhere from a matter of minutes to several hours and can only be completed before they disappear.

Upon selecting the set of challenges you’d like to tackle, you’ll typically need to win several battles within the context of whichever multiverse you chose. Should you manage to conquer every challenge placed before you, you’ll earn various types of rewards.

Rewards from this game mode include, but are by no means limited to, character experience points and pieces of gear. These challenges might require you to play as a certain character, perform certain actions during a given fight within a multiverse, or defeat an abnormally-strong boss, to name a few examples of what you’ll be up against.

Thankfully, the game is gracious enough to provide you with an estimate of the difficulty levels with which you’ll contend as part of a multiverse’s challenges, as well as a recommended level for any fighter you choose to control as you tackle them. This information serves to allow you to make more informed decisions regarding which multiverse challenges you’d like to attempt.

In my experience, most multiverses scale with your chosen character’s level and don’t require you to play as a specific fighter. The only obstacles I’ve encountered in this mode that indirectly require a specific character level are the aforementioned fights against bosses.

Additionally, you aren’t necessarily required to win every fight present in a multiverse, although doing so will provide greater rewards. For example, if you find that a boss fight is too difficult or requires too high of a character level, you can simply ignore it; you’ll still be rewarded for every other multiverse event you manage to complete.

The concept of rewards that can be earned from participating in Multiverse mode leads me to my final discussion point. Character equipment is most commonly earned by opening “Mother Boxes,” which are essentially just Injustice 2’s version of loot boxes.

The quality of the gear that can be earned from a Mother Box depends on the box’s quality; these boxes come in Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond varieties. As you might expect, the higher-quality versions of Mother Boxes consequently appear less often in Multiverse mode and are typically more difficult to earn without purchasing them outright.

I should mention that as far as I’ve been able to discern, it seems these Mother Boxes can only be earned as rewards or purchased with the in-game currency known as Credits. Credits, in turn, are earned from winning fights and selling unneeded character equipment.

However, Injustice 2 does, in fact, contain a premium currency that can be purchased with real money. This currency is referred to by the game as “Source Crystals,” which are used to purchase such things as “premiere character skins, various color shaders for character costumes, and more,” to quote the game directly.

I elected to make a point of mentioning these real-money micro-transactions because I’m quite wary of them, as are several critics who have discussed them in the past and continue to do so. I don’t consider them to be the slightest bit necessary in the vast majority of contexts, especially for a game such as Injustice 2.

Granted, I understand and typically even support NetherRealm including additional fighters as DLC in exchange for real currency; they’ve done that several times within their catalog of games, and I’ve taken advantage of that on more than one occasion. However, I wholeheartedly believe these “Source Crystals” don’t need to be purchasable with actual money, especially considering they’re mainly used for unlocking cosmetic items, if the game is to be believed.

To conclude, I most assuredly recommend Injustice 2 because I think it sufficiently appeals to DC Comics fans and fighting game connoisseurs alike. Although you won’t be getting the brutally-violent action you’d expect from a Mortal Kombat game due to such things as the lack of finishing moves, Injustice 2 is quite a solid fighting game in its own right.

I’ve personally also quite enjoyed the fact that the PC port of the game runs flawlessly on my decently-powerful gaming rig; that’s a claim which only a select few NetherRealm games can truthfully make.

After spending all this time with Injustice 2 (and the rest of NetherRealm’s catalog, for that matter), I’m ultimately left with one simple question on my mind: what’s it going to take for NetherRealm to include The Riddler as a playable fighter if Injustice 3 ever comes to pass?

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Injustice 2

$49.99

8.3

Score

8.3/10

Pros

• Gameplay Will Feel Familiar to Fans of Other NetherRealm Games
• Expanded Character Customization System Allows Players Greater Control

Cons

• Absence of Certain Standard Gameplay Modes is Jarring
• Certain Aspects May Become Tedious Over Time