[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote]
When it comes to fighting games, I always take a different stance compared to the rest of FGC and also the critics. While stuff like cinematic stories, deep combat systems and online modes' stability are THE priorities for them, I care more about the amount of content, how enjoyable they are if played in a casual manner for fun, and how well they perform in terms of technical stability. That's why I'm not fond of Injustice 2 despite its many enhancements in terms of combat and visuals, and even getting chosen as the fighting game of the year.
I usually don't care about stories in fighting games, but since NetherRealm makes a big deal out of them, I think it's only fair to review them. The story in Injustice 2 is nothing special and we have seen it hundreds of times already. Basically, long time enemies unite against an even bigger enemy, they beat the new guy and immediately turn on each other, with one side emerging as the victor. Still, this old premise can be turned into something amazing with enough care and attention put into it, which has not happened here.
For starters, there are many storytelling cliches that you know and hate: A monologuing villain that is built up to be a big deal, but is pathetically defeated. Everyone behaving out of character, suddenly getting clumsy or forgetful for the sake of the plot. The story forgetting a previously established fact or ignoring current events, also for the sake of the plot. Characters patiently waiting for another person to finish dropping exposition, or reacting to developments like if you are watching an [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOxutBMCOUc]Indian TV drama[/url]. And finally, we have the classic fake out deaths.
Then, we have a long-standing issue of NetherRealm's stories: Trying to address too many things in too little time, making it impossible to allocate proper time to everything. As such, the pacing feels very off, making me feel like either the story needed to be longer, or it should've been told through two games. A bunch of the characters also only appear once or twice in the whole story, having very insignificant or useless roles to the point you can remove them and not much would change.
Finally, there's the matter of the Injustice comics. As these comics mostly cover the time gaps that are not addressed in the games, there are numerous instances in the story where you honestly don't know when certain stuff had happened or why some characters are now friends/enemies. I am also very disappointed that Injustice 2 does not utilize some storytelling opportunities of the comics and does its own thing instead. For example, [spoiler]Robin would have had an understandable reason for killing Zsasz and joining Superman as in the comics, Zsasz murders Alfred Pennyworth[/spoiler]. But instead, we have the writers retconning this event by having him meeting his demise before Superman's regime was instated and for an entirely different reason. Adopting events like that into the game's plot and building up future tensions based on them would have made for a great story mode here. But alas, this has not happened... leaving me with a story mode that did not enjoy, both in terms of actual plot and its battles.
The story mode of a fighting game is a fantastic opportunity to ease players into the controls and battle mechanics, while also showcasing different characters at the same time. However, Injustice 2 completely fumbles this opportunity because of its AI difficulty. The game's AI on normal difficulty is pretty damn aggressive (especially compared to the 1st game), constantly going for combos that deal as much as 25-30% damage, leading to painful matches in the story mode as you are switching between characters and might end up with someone you are not comfortable with. And considering how the combat system is like, it prompts you to either play on lower difficulties, or lose once on purpose to make the AI more tolerable.
Credit where credit is due: The combat system is much better in this game. It's faster, more responsive, the stage transitions are not as powerful as before and even warns you if you get near them, and clashes no longer feel like drawn out borefests. In addition, release date issues like the zoner character problems are dealt with, so the online mode is not overwhelmingly full of spammers. Still, enjoying this game's combat heavily relies on you actually putting in the required amount of time to learn it.
Here's the thing: This combat system is very unfriendly towards casuals/newcomers as it's very technical and demands a lot of time & dedication. You can't come in and utilize your muscle memory as the characters in this game function differently, demanding you to thoroughly learn whoever you want to play as. You can't simply switch between characters at any time, as everyone has different skills & frame data, so you would need to redo the learning process. You can't do much with the bare minimum as your online opponents will thoroughly kick your ass, and any AI level above easy will also do the same. Although I don't know if you'd ever want to get this game for an offline experience as it blows in this regard.
Depending on what you believe in, Injustice 2 will either be fantastic or utterly awful when it comes to the amount of available content. If you think Multiverse mode's periodically generated challenges (which are akin to MK's Living Towers and apply modifiers to your matches) are enough, you will be pleased with what you get here. But if you wanted a variety of modes and unlockables, like in the 1st game, this game will not deliver.
The archives are removed, which means you no longer can unlock content such as concept arts, musics and backgrounds. "S.T.A.R. Labs" is gone, instead of getting rebalanced and reintroduced. There are no character biographies like the first game, so if you are not a DC fan, good luck surfing the web to find out who is who. All of the different, customized arcade ladders from the 1st game are removed in favor of the multiverse. And last but no least, extra costumes are gone in favor of the new and gacha-inspired gear system.
Yes, the gear system is literally a gacha. You collect coins and mother boxes as play rewards, then buy/open them to get a completely random gear for a completely random character. You need to spend a lot of time grinding for loot boxes, just to finally get a gear for a character you are actually playing as. But it doesn't end there, as some gear require your character to have a specific level and if you don't qualify, you either need to grind or use/buy one of the secondary currencies to apply its looks on another gear. And you know what's the funniest part about all this? The second player in a local versus match cannot access them! Why? Because on consoles, the game requires them to login with their account in order to sync their gear, but they removed this functionality on PC.
Unfortunately, that's not the only issue with this PC release. Menus, entrances, supermoves and winning poses are all still capped at 30 FPS, requiring a community fix. The game might crash whenever certain characters are chosen/encountered. Your controller may suddenly stop working after a few minutes. The game uses its own cloud saving system, so you might lose progress and/or gear if your internet connection starts acting up, or if the servers go down. I also ran into a freezing issue that happened every 5-8 seconds, with its cause being the game trying to connect to its online services.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
Improves combat & visuals compared to the 1st game, but regresses in everything else. Story is bad, lots of content are gone, gear system is a grindy nuisance, and there are some technical problems.
