JoyStiq: Injustice: Gods Among Us XBox 360 Review

DC goes Battle Royale!

NetherRealm Studios has decided to give our favourite DC heroes and villains a stage on which to beat the snot out of each other and it sure does look pretty and is loads of fun to play. Injustice: Gods Among Us is the new kid on the block in the fighting games arena and it holds its own against the big boys like its stablemate, 2011's Mortal Kombat. In fact it’s pretty much Mortal Kombat with new mechanics added to the gameplay. DC has never had its own brawler unless you count Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which you should seeing that it’s still fun to play. Most gamers grew up on fighting games. I remember running to the ‘games shop’ (we never called it an arcade) near my house after school with a pocket full of 50 cent coins with the aim of kicking butt. Most of the fun in fighting games comes from mastering all of the characters’ hellishly difficult moves and stringing a bunch of cool combos together. Looking back I realise that this was actually an achievement on the same level as attaining a PhD. Injustice allows you to spend hours mastering a character like Batman’s moves so you can kick Superman in the head in a showdown.

I’ve yet to meet a fighting game with a storyline that actually makes sense and Injustice doesn’t stray from this time-honoured tradition. The story in Injustice exists solely to give you a rather flimsy reason as to why DC’s roster of characters are all standing around beating the nonsense out of each other. This isn’t a bad thing because you’re really only playing to beat up a bunch of virtual people. The plot explains things like how Batman is able to beat Superman into a Kryptonian pulp. Everything kicks off with in an alternate reality in which the Joker tricks Superman into murdering a pregnant Lois Lane, which results in the destruction of Metropolis because the Joker linked bombs to her heart beat. Superman loses his mind and kills the Joker in fit of super rage. Batman witnesses this and because of his moral inclination cannot stand for it. This results in two sides being established; evil Superman and those who side with him and Batman and his side of good guys. Add an incident that allows travel between alternate universes and you have Injustice: Gods Among Us. It’s all fun.

As I’d mentioned earlier, Injustice looks pretty. The characters are well designed and they look good. The Joker looks especially creepily crazy, which we like. The game levels look amazing and are interactive. Each level is tiered and you can beat your enemies through walls and such to launch them into the next tier in a spectacular fashion. The fighting stages include classic locations like the Batcave, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and the Justice League’s Watchtower. You get to battle it out on many of the places in the DC universe where you’ve ever wanted to see a showdown between DC’s finest or worst – depending on your inclination.

The gameplay in Injustice is all the things you’re used to in fighting games with cool twists added. Every match consists of only one round and each player has two health bars and the match ends when both those bars run out. The four-button control scheme consists of light, medium and heavy attacks. The fourth button activates an ability unique to each character. This is one of the features in the game that levels the battlefield for characters like Batman and Green Arrow against behemoths like Superman and Doomsday. Characters are divided into ‘power characters’ and ‘gadget characters’. The former use their brute strength and super abilities to bash your skull in and the latter rely on weapons and other external mechanisms to defeat their opponents. Speaking of external mechanisms, each level is littered with interactive elements each character can use differently. Superman can throw a car at his enemies whereas Batman can use that same car to launch himself into the air and pull off a combo. Players also have super meters that you can fill by pulling off cool combos against enemies or by getting clobbered. You can use the meter to either to perform special attacks or to compete in wager battles by means of the Clash system. When you go into wager mode a cutscene pops up to interrupt the current play and each player has to put a portion of their meter energy on the line. The player whose wager is the most wins the clash. The clash can only be activated when you’re down to your second health bar. This adds a great strategic element to the game in addition to the interactive elements littered around the levels. I like this system of gameplay as it makes every fight more exciting. The game isn’t difficult to get a hang of but mastering it is a different matter – that requires some effort. The game doesn’t have much of a tutorial system so players have to master character moves during actual combat. The game does include different game modes in addition to the Story Mode and sparse Training Mode. These are Battle Mode, Versus Mode and S.T.A.R. Labs (missions that consist of Batman using S.T.A.R. Labs facilities to complete objectives).

Online multiplayer options consist of King of the Hill and Survivor modes. In the latter mode players spectate matches whilst awaiting their turn. This mode supports up to eight players. Survivor Mode consists of players carrying over whatever health they had left from previous battles throughout as many fights as possible. Playing through all of Injustice’s modes unlocks artwork, new costumes and music.

Pick up Injustice: Gods Among Us for approximately R600.00 at your nearest games retailer. Injustice is nowhere near being a great fighting game but it’s fun to play and because it’s not as technical as Tekken or Street Fighter anyone can pick it up and have a great time fighting against their favourite DC characters. The roster is on the skimpy side but DLC will probably fix that soon enough.

Pick up Injustice and button mash your way through the ranks.

Cupboard Person of the Week

Superman

“It's not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. ... It's about what you do... It's about action.”

With the Batman trilogy's director, Christopher Nolan producing and 300's Zack Snyder in the director's chair I have faith the movie will be worthy of the Superman mythos.

This week I’m pulling out the biggest gun of them all! This post will be riddled with exclamation marks to emphasise the awesomeness of this more-than-man! Everything about this guy’s extreme; there are no half hearted attempts at anything on his part. I am referring, of course, to the greatest hero of them all, Kal-El or Superman as we know him on planet Earth.

The Sphinx: What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?

Superman: They Surrender.

-          Grant Morrison

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t like this guy much to begin with. In fact, there was a part of me that outright hated him! He was just too good at everything for me to take him seriously as a hero. He is almost perfect dammit! This is strange in itself, that I’d hate the guy for being too rad-ical. I liked (and still do) super muk muks (as Dan Turpin refers to ‘em) like Batman who are at the ‘peak’ of human excellence and whatnot because at the end of the day they’re human and if I train hard enough I could be like them. This was a naive thought, though, because when it’s all said and done Batman’s also too good to be true. Thus, after looking at Superman from a new perspective I’ve started appreciating him for what he is in the DC universe. I actually like him quite a lot now, especially after reading Final Crisis: Superman Beyond by Grant Morrison.

“It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the skies and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.”

-          Batman

I agree with Batman's sentiment that Clark is the most human of us in that he lives up to most of the virtues that we uphold as being good and true but never seem to be able to live up to. He shares some similarities with Jesus in that regard. The whole idea of man made perfect and all. As our greatest hero he sets the standard for us. Philosopher, Peter Kreeft says of Christ that He is not the exception when it comes to being the perfect human being but the rule. Superman's whole ideal is the same, he seeks to inspire people to stand up and be more than they ever thought they were and to uphold justice in all that they do, regardless of their power and abilities. People don't have to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to stand up against the tyrannies of this world. But it does look cool dealing with them by shooting heat rays out of one's eyes, you have to admit.

Superman's one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe but his humilty is quite astonishing and he is willing to give his all, body and soul, to protect is adopted homeworld against powerful threats like Darkseid, who in Final Crisis launches an attack against existence itself. In a squeeze Superman's the dude you want by your side: powers that embody the term badassery (a real made-up word, Thato!) and humility that makes you think you're on the same level as he is. He is without a doubt DC's greates hero and I, for one, cannot wait to see him in all his glory on the silver screen next year in Man of Steel. I really hope the reboot does him justice because all the movies thus far made him seem a little bit silly. With the Batman trilogy's director, Christopher Nolan producing and 300's Zack Snyder in the director's chair I have faith the movie will be worthy of the Superman mythos.


P.S. That turned out a little more serious than I'd intended. Not enough Pow! and Bam!

The Plan

In this life one needs a Plan, a towel, a tie and a hammer to make it big. If you’re lacking any of these tools be assured that your name will never go down in the annals of history as a person who was legend. The last three items on the list are easily acquired by anyone 21st Century-savvy enough to walk into a store or two and fork out some cash (which can be acquired through begging, stealing or by being employed). The Plan, though, is the nut-kicker. Without a solid Plan things will not fall into place for you.

Have you ever see Ocean’s Eleven? Yes? Good. George Clooney and his gang are people with a rock solid Plan in that movie. So much so that they went and carried out their Plan in two more movies. That’s the sort of thing you should be aiming for with your Plan.

Everyone wants to win at life and keep on winning till the day they die. Some people are so good at winning that they do so even after they’re dead. These are the people who have their names spoken in hushed tones of reverence. They are legend and had a solid Plan.

What constitutes a solid Plan though?

First things first: a list.

Ask yourself what you want in life and jot it down, every little thing you want. A lightsaber, super powers, Wonder Woman as your girlfriend, to become a surgeon, 2.5 kids, a bat mobile, jot everything down. If you’re going to make a list, you might as well make a proper list. It’s no use messing around.

With that out of the way you have to ask yourself how much effort you will need to invest into getting the ridiculous stuff on your list. This, alas, is the part where you have to be realistic. The best way to go about attaining your desires is to get hold of money, loads of it. The more money you can get the easier it will be to get people who are much more intelligent than you are to spend all their time finding a way to get you super powers.

The coolest way of making loads of money is to rob a bank and use that money to start a lucrative crime syndicate that allows you to have your grubby paws in every cookie jar on the shelf. It is recommended that you spend a few years on this part of the Plan. Also, try avoiding going to jail if you can. If you do get caught spend your time behind bars getting a business degree of some sort and doing push-ups. Use every step in the Plan as a learning experience. The only thing that can stop you is death – avoid it at all costs.

You will know you’ve made it to the top when you find yourself at the head of a boardroom table at the top floor of a skyscraper, surrounded by shady crime bosses clad in Armani suits and whose faces are wreathed in Cuban cigar smoke. Also, you’ll be donning a very snazzy tie and own several comfortable towels. It’s at this point in your life that you can get everything on your list by means of bribery and/or intimidation by way of hammer-wielding thugs (dressed as Thor if you like). Patience, that most admirable of virtues, would be a great addition to your repertoire at this stage (if the years of working on the Plan failed to bestow it upon you – you slow learner, you) but if you do get a little impatient once in a while torture a henchman or two – it’s such a great way to release all your pent-up emotions.

That, furry friends, is how you win at life.


Disclaimer: George Clooney gives this Plan his approval as being rock solid. Also, he is Batman with nipples. That is all. As you were.