Injustice 2 Hands-on Preview
We had the chance to play Injustice 2 at a Canadian launch event this past Wednesday in Toronto. The event floor was laden with gorgeous art from solo shots to collage pieces featuring dozens of heroes and villains battling it out. So how was the game? After a lot of success with Injustice: Gods Among Us, NetherRealm Studios is continuing the story of an evil Superman while delivering a great gameplay experience.
Now I’m not much of a fighter guy, but Injustice 2’s set of moves and combos can be picked up by any player no matter their skill level. While playing novice adversaries, I was able to string together a few nice combos that felt empowering with Captain Cold, but it was my frozen villain who was taking a beating when facing some of the more experienced attendees – his Flash was just too fast, unfortunately. The controller input is immediate and I never felt like I was cheated out of a move as I grappled and punched my enemies in a plethora of gorgeously designed environments. I think of them as environments or levels and not maps because like the first game, Injustice 2’s locales aren’t simply a backdrop to the 2D battles happening in the forefront. They are living, breathing characters that are just as important as the DC characters you choose to battle with and their impact on the outcome of matches depends on how each player uses them to their advantage.
________________________
“The controller input is immediate and I never felt like I was cheated out of a move as I grappled and punched my enemies in a plethora of gorgeously designed environments.”Â
The best way to describe it – and fans of the first Injustice might understand a little better – is that the sequel’s environments feel like a 3D world that was then turned sideways to fit the format of a fighter. They don’t feel like they were added after the fact. During a match on the ‘Gotham City – Empire Theatre’ map, I noticed the tank vehicles from Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight sitting in the background before a mercenary popped up from behind, jumped on top, and took hold of the turret. In this way, not only are the maps important to the actually gameplay experience, they are visually appealing as well. I caught myself at times paying more attention to the happenings in the background more than the ass-kicking in the foreground, and that’s a testament to the sheer production value and level of detail that developer NetherRealm has injected into the game. The backgrounds aren’t just full of little details, they are part and parcel of the experience. And that’s without even mentioning the ability to go to different parts of the map after one fighter sends another hurling down into the earth or through a rock wall and into a new setting with different variables.
That same attention to detail is displayed in the overall graphical fidelity of the game in its environments and character designs as well as its animations. During a Q&A at the event, Creative Director of NetherRealm Studios and co-creator of Mortal Kombat Ed Boon spoke about the game’s story mode and how they wanted to get a cinematic feeling across to the player. We didn’t get to see any campaign footage at the event, but I think the developers are selling themselves short. Forgetting the single-player experience, Injustice 2’s normal battles feel cinematic, with Firestorm attacking his villains as the camera switches to an interesting angle, or Flash warping through some kind of time paradox to send his enemies crashing into themselves. Or even the close-up shots of characters duking it out in the all-new Clash feature that has players wager a portion of health to the winner of the mini-duel. Injustice 2 has incredibly high production value, and as someone who needs a little more reason to pop in a fighter and grab a controller, it’s inclusion of awesome looking shots and subtle animations, alongside the potential for another epic story that rivals cinematic games outside the genre, gives it an edge over its competition for players looking for that kind of experience. And if you’re just there for the combat, it’s been tweaked to provide some more intense and close battles.
The sequel also introduces an all-new gear system that is acquired from gear drops. Gear drops include different customization options that allows players to build their own, unique forms of their favorite heroes. I assume this will work best online where higher level players will be able to distinguish themselves through the use of different gear. The developers also mentioned timed gear drops that earned from challenges similar to how Hitman provided players with timed assassination missions. The different sets of gear include common, rare, and epic variations.
As someone who is not the biggest fan of fighters, it was Injustice 2’s cinematic approach and superb production value alongside some gorgeous looking and mechanically important environments that make me consider playing it over other fighters that only focus on the combat. If NetherRealm can apply this level of production value and crank it up for the campaign alongside what the same great cut-scenes from the first game, Injustice 2 will offer up a fighter that attracts more than just fans of the genre.
