PLEASE NOTE: Sorry for the sucky intro. First game review I’ve ever written, so I really don’t know how to write it.

For those unaware, Injustice: Gods Among Us hit store shelves a few weeks ago. It was a highly anticipated game developed by NeatherRealm Studios. I at first wasn’t excited, but I eventually decided I was going to get it. It was the first game I ever pre-ordered. I even bought the Season Pass, which includes four extra fighters and Flashpoint costumes for Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Deathstroke. And for Pre-Ordering it from GameStop, it includes Red Son costumes for Superman, Wonder Woman, and Solomon Grundy. I put it in my X Box 360 as soon as I got home. I would of put this review up shortly after I beat it, but I was busy using the X Box and have since been too lazy to write it. Anyway, let’s just get right in. I’ll try and be as Spoiler-free as possible.

The game begins with a pretty cool cutscene with Batman interrogating the Joker until Superman barges in. Batman attempts to stop him, but Superman still grabs Joker by the throat and we learn Lois Lane, her (& Superman’s) unborn child, and all of Metropolis were killed. Superman kills him with his heat vision (it was posted on youtube before the game came out, so I figure I’m not really spoiling anything). Once the cutscene is over, we’re introduced to Batman who is in Arkham Asylum. While there, he gets jumped by Deathstroke and the first fight of the game begins.

Here, I began thinking “Okay, this is pretty cool.” You learn how the game works, from simple attacks to combos and such. The game doesn’t tell you this stuff, you have to pause the game and pull up the moves list. A bit annoying, but fine, not every game has to hold your hand the entire way through. So you play as Batman kicking Deathstroke’s butt until you’re sent to the Watchtower.

And right about here is where I almost ragequit. You get into a fight with a few characters (Bane is the main one I remember). In the background, Martian Manhunter is standing there, watching you fight. As much as I like the guy, I’m fine with him not being a playable character. But to have him stand there in the background, watching you fight without attempting to help in any way? That is bullcrap and is a giant f*ck you for every Martian Manhunter fan who bought this game. Now before anyone calls me an MM fanboy and that’s the only reason I don’t like this, I would of had the same reaction to any character, whether I liked them or not. From Dr. Fate to Captain Cold to Darkseid to Black Canary, etc. No character like that should just sit on the sidelines watching you fight! I understand that this really doesn’t detract from the game, but it just really p*sses me off.

Now I’m not going to go into major detail about the plot, simply because the game is new and I don’t want to spoil it for those interested. Instead, I’m just going to talk about the game’s combat for a while.

The combat is pretty simple. Use the control stick to move yourself, use the X, A, Y, and B buttons (Or their equivalents if you’re playing on a PS3) to preform different attacks or combine them to do some combos, I believe you use the Right Trigger to block (if my memory is correct), and you press the LB and RB buttons to charge up some type of super move each character has if their little bar in the corner of the screen is high enough.

The combat is simple, smooth, and responsive, the way a game should be. It’s very cool at first, and is able to stay pretty cool as you keep switching character after every few fights. However, as time goes on, you’ll notice that the combat gets a little frustrating. This will progress overtime until the combat becomes so broken that the game borders on unplayable. As the game progresses, the combat becomes so broken that the ONLY way to win a fight is to mash every button on the controller at once and hope you get lucky. This becomes a major problem when you’re playing as characters that suck (such as Wonder Woman).

On the plus side of the combat, it is pretty fun if the game is in a good mood and you can actually play instead of button mashing. I had a lot of fun playing earlier in the game as Green Lantern and Aquaman. And Ares was pretty fun.

Even outside of story mode (Arcade Mode I think it’s called), the combat is the game. I tried Arcade Mode using Shazam (who was pretty cool), but it just got ridiculous. If it gets to the point that Nightwing is defeating me with ease because the combat is so broken, then the game has failed. Seriously, I was fighting Bane using Ares and later Doomsday, and Bane is so overpowered and the combat is so broken that it’s not even possible to beat him with the button mashing trick. The only way I’ve found to defeat Bane is at this point in Arcade Mode is to take the disc out of your console.

Okay, I’ve wanted to talk about this, but I had to get combat out of the way. Remember how at the beginning of this I said I pre-ordered it at GameStop which was suppose to come with 3 alternate costumes and I got the Season Pack which was suppose to include alternate costumes and an extra four fighters? Well, it turns out the extra four fighters are DLC, and the Season Pack only lets you download them at a discounted price. Kind of annoying that I spend 15 bucks on it only to find out that it wants me to spend more money to get what I paid for, but fine. I hate DLC and find it a waste, but it’s popular, so I don’t blame the companies for cashing in on it.

The costumes however are a different story. In the bonus area, there’s a place where you can buy costumes, concept art, etc. using XP points you got in the game. I have bought every costume in the game, and there’s none of the advertised alternate costumes. The only costumes in the game are ones seen in-story. I’ve went everywhere in the game, and I’ve found no way to equipping the alternate costumes, whether they be the ones that were suppose to come with the game or the ones I bought using the XP I made in game. I read online somewhere that you could get an alternate costume for Green Arrow that’s his costume in the Arrow TV Series, and the voice actor even changes as the same guy who plays Ollie in the show (Stephen Amell I think his name is), but that’s nowhere to be found. I’ll at least give this one a little slack since it could be DLC, but still. What’s wrong with making these things something you unlock in-game?

So as of right now the game, the combat is mildly entertaining at the start until it becomes broken, repetitive, and not fun. It has alternate costumes that are nowhere to be found or able to be equipped. So, if I’m not going to get my money out of the game’s combat (for more than an hour), I might as well get my money’s worth out of the game’s story. I know I said I wouldn’t spoil the plot for people who didn’t know it and didn’t want it spoiled, but I need to cover this. I’ll do the best I can not to spoil it. But here’s the main jist of it:

After Superman kills the Joker (which turns out was on an alternate Earth), Superman basically overthrew the Earth’s government and became Earth’s ruler (with a new, darker costume). He had other heroes join him in this, and they’ve become a group known as “The Regime.” They have very strict laws and are pretty much rounding up (or killing) other heroes who oppose him.

Now, does anyone remember the old Justice League animated series (later known as Justice League Unlimited from 2001? If so, good. Now, does anyone remember a two-part episode called “A Better World”? It involved an alternate universe where after Lex Luthor became President and The Flash was killed, Superman killed Luthor with his heat vision and pretty much overthrew the Earth’s government. He (along with the rest of the JL) got new costumes and became known as the “Justice Lords.”

See the similarities between the two stories? There are some differences (such as in Injustice, Batman forms a small group to attempt to fight Superman), but overall it’s the same concept. So, the creators of this game were too lazy to make up their own plot, so they stole the DC Animated Universe’s idea and slightly tweaked it in order to not be a total rip-off.

Also, one last thing I have to point out. Guess how long it took me to beat this game. I started at an estimated 1:00 PM. When I beat the story mode, I looked at the clock and it was 5:38 PM. The game took about 4 and a half hours to beat. For an X Box 360 game (or pretty much all console games for that matter), that is pathetic, and there’s no reason this game should be this short. Even if my 1:00 estimate is wrong and I started the game an hour or so earlier, there is still no excuse I should beat a game that quickly when I wasn’t even trying to do a speed run. I admit that this is only counting the story mode. I did not try Multiplayer or S.T.A.R. Labs, as I got bored and frustrated two hours before hand.

I’ll tell you a secret, Injustice: Gods Among Us SUCKS!!! The combat becomes broken after playing long enough, the plot is lazy and unoriginal, and it only takes a few hours to beat the story mode. Overall, I do not recommend Injustice: Gods Among Us. Give it a go if you want, but 1) Approach with extreme caution and 2) Wait until you can get a used copy for 20-30 bucks. If you want a good fighting game with DC characters, I recommend Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.