Injustice: Gods Among Us

The latest fighter from NetherRealm (the guys that made Mortal Kombat 9) pits all your favorite DC Comics characters against one another. Overall its a solid fighter that certainly has a lot of draw for fans of the characters, but otherwise may be skipable. I definitely recommend playing Injustice, but only renting it because if you haven't bought it already as a fan of DC then there isn't much reason to own it. 6/10 More after the break.
Injustice is a solid fighter with a lot of unique elements to it. The roster composed of some of the biggest DC characters with more to come in DLC. You can finally beat the crap out of Superman as Batman and see some real violence to it, not the dulled down kind of action like in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. NetherRealm did a really great job with MK9, and they carried a lot of that game over to this one, its easy to see parallels between the two. Batman plays kind of like Scorpion, Killer Frost has some moves straight from Sub-Zero's playbook, and the button combos to execute special moves are pretty similar in both. Injustice, with its unique roster, plays to its strengths and dedicates a button to character specials (Batman throws batagrangs, but some aren't as cool Superman just gets more powerful) which are part of a meter that allows you to give some umph to your specials, or if full you can do a character special which is kind of like a fatality. These additions make it an easy fighter to pick up and do some damage with your favorite DC characters.

Its pretty apparent that NetherRealm wanted this game to be deep enough for hardcore gamers to really get into this game, but the fact that it uses back to block and the wager system will keep Injustice from ever being take to seriously. Since there is no dedicated block button trying to press back in a fight leaves the controls feeling sloppy. For whatever reason they left in L2 as switching stance, which could easily have been left out and let L2 be a dedicated block button. They also included a Wager system that seems odd and out of place during a match, after your first health bar (your armor) has been depleted a yellow line appears above your health bar indicated you can use a wager, pressing back + R2 (meter burn) lets you Wager your meter against your opponent which not only breaks their combo but also gives you a chance to regain some health. I understand wanting to give players who are struggling a chance to break their opponents momentum, but it also completely kills any pace to the match the same as the character specials. I could easily see this game being enjoyed by serious players, but I would imagine them disabling wagers, character specials and level transitions.

Speaking of level transitions, they are cool and generally entertaining but ruin the pace of the fight. The are a bigger part of  having interactive backgrounds which is a fun addition to the game. The interactive elements are easily used with a press of R1, but some inflict way too much damage and could easily be abused. I'll be interested to see how players use them/don't use them online; using the interactive levels could allow for interesting strategies by having to know your levels along with your fighters, but I think to truly test a players skills they should be left out (and there is an option for that)

I personally will be playing Injustice more than just beating the story, I enjoy fighting with the characters and the way they work in the game. But I don't see Injustice taking over as a game for competitive gamers. While enjoyable the mechanics just aren't tight enough for the game to be taken that seriously, but it is really fun and is a great addition for fans of fighting games or DC comics.