I love Mortal Kombat. For the past decade of my life I prayed for the day my favorite franchise would return to the classic formula that made me love it in the first place, and last year, it did. It’s those same things that I found so enthralling in the Mortal Kombat retelling that are evident in every nook and cranny of NetherRealm Studio’s new game based on the DC Universe of characters and lore, Injustice: Gods Among Us.
Familiar nuances are everywhere in Injustice, from supermoves, to the 2D plane with 3D character models, down to the way Batman uses his grappling hook exactly like Scorpion would his spear. The DC superheroes and villains movesets don’t differ much from the typical kombatant, but easily surpass them with finesse, velocity, and sheer power.
Supermoves are spectacular, to the purest definition of the word, and are perfectly fitting for each of the DC comic characters. The Flash blazes a trail across the entire planet to pick up enough speed for one serious sucker punch. Superman, with his locomotive-besting power, uppercuts his opponent out of the Earth’s atmosphere, leaps past tall buildings to catch and powerslam a beaten and battered body back into the arena pavement.
Each stage is ripped right out of comic books, spanning many different areas. The right attack can send a player several blocks away or down through floors of a building into the basement. Environments are as detailed as they are deadly, providing plenty of opportunity for interactivity and destruction, even using certain aspects as weapons. Weapons even react differently depending on superhero or super power.
Only six characters were shown during E3, but the character selection screen has room for 24 heroes and villains. Plus, with NetherRealm calling the shots, there’s bound to be some secrets or hidden characters. The biggest surprises, however, are sure to be storyline-related, as this is an all-new take on the storied characters said to blur the line between good and evil. I don’t know, leaving my demo I felt malefic, but only because I have to wait so long to get my hands on the full Injustice: Gods Among Us experience.
