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Post by Fickle81 on Jun 24, 2012 18:45:44 GMT -5
This is where I post short reviews of games with a trailer attached to them at the end, like I do on Facebook. Let's start with:
Skullgirls...a downloadable game via PSN and XBLA for $15, and let me tell ya it's more than worth that price. It's a fighting game with an all female cast of characters that's kinda like a simplified version of Guilty Gear or BlazBlue mixed with MVC2. Although it's a great game, I do have a few issues with it:
-Very bare bones selection of characters (8). There are gonna be 2 more added later as DLC, but even then the selection is slim
-Not many game modes
-Rather cheap AI in the arcade mode
-Combo system doesn't always register hits right
-Absolutly no character specific command list ANYWHERE in the game, not even in the training mode. Maybe the reason why they did that was to promote the nostalgic feeling of playing fighting games in the arcade where you have to learn moves via a magazine or strategy guide before going into said arcade. However, that was a reflection of a time that no longer works today as the standard for pretty much all fighting games is to have a character command list option whenever you pause the game. I don't wanna have to download a PDF off of the official Skullgirls website to find out what the character's moves are.
These basic design faults aside, it's excellent for fighting game enthusiasts (like myself) and well worth the money.
4/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jun 24, 2012 18:47:45 GMT -5
Braid…this game is absolutely amazing. Don't let the detailed colorful cartoony graphics and old school kiddy sound effects fool you...this is very much an adult oriented game. Put Super Mario Brothers, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, Christopher Nolan's Memento, and a pinch of Michael Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind into a blender and this will be the result. It takes conventions of old school gaming (platforming, simple "save the princess" plots, etc) and turns them on themselves. The main game mechanic of reversing time is masterfully implemented and is even interwoven within the game's plot (the major theme of undoing past mistakes).
Speaking of said plot, it's fantastic. Some might be turned off by its subtleness (it's ANYTHING but simple though) and multiple interpretations, but for me personally, that shit is right up my alley. The game's ending is powerful bonifide genius and changes the entire game. The only real complaint I can throw at it is that it's a bit short, but when put against all the game's strengths, this issue becomes microscopically minor.
This game has changed the landscape of game development and has allowed more indy titles, like the similar Limbo, to have some of the limelight. It has not only become one of my favorite modern titles, but also one of my favorite games of all time. An absolute goddamn masterpiece that should not be missed.
5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jun 24, 2012 18:49:29 GMT -5
Finally finished this game, Outland, recently and it's awesome overall. Gameplay is kinda like if Castlevania Symphony of the Night (combat platforming with a Metroid style level design) had wild kinky sex with the vertical shooter Ikaruga (the polarity mechanic). The graphics are, for the most part, exquisite. It feels like you're traveling through the very inner fabric of reality itself. While not the hardest game I've ever played, it gets really challenging and requires picture perfect timing and for your head to be on a swivel.
Couple of problems hold it back from being a masterpiece though...firstly while the graphics throughout most of the game are splendid, the color used in the last level makes a lot of enemies and obstacles hard to see. That might have been done on purpose to increase the challenge, but it did so in the wrong way (increased the challenge on a cheap level). The other problem is the structuring of some of the boss fights, in particular the second to last boss fight, which has a chase action set piece sequence before the actual fight even starts. It's cool the first time around, but if you die during the fight itself, you have to do the entire thing (chase sequence and all) all over again, which can get quite aggravating.
Overall, fantastic game that's well worth the money (around $10-$15).
4.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jun 24, 2012 18:51:05 GMT -5
Man On Fire The Video Ga…er I mean Max Payne 3 isn’t as great as the “professional” game critics would like you to believe. While you can have fun with it, it suffers from a multitude of problems. This is gonna be rather long so bare with me:
-The storyline, while competently written, is bland, completely unengaging, and feels like nothing more than an afterthought used merely as a means to tie together all the action set pieces. Not only is it nowhere near as compelling as the storylines for the previous 2 games in the series, it practically pretends said 2 games don’t even exist. It almost comes off as a Max Payne reboot rather than an actual sequel. Also, as I alluded to in the opening line, this game’s story has more similarities to the Tony Scott film Man On Fire than I care to count…from the story structure right down to the game’s aesthetic look, it reeks of Man On Fire as if it were directed by John Woo.
-While the game play is satisfying for the most part, not only is it very repetitive, but very little has changed from the game play of the previous titles. At least Call Of Duty has the excuse of having a new game in the franchise released every single year, so game play mechanics remain virtually unchanged. With Max Payne however, this is the first game in the series since 2003. To have hardly any game play changes in that amount of time feels rather cheap…and what little game play tweaks that have been added aren’t very good anyway, which leads me to my next point.
-The Last Man Standing mechanic…basically how this works is if you have at least 1 bottle of pain killers and sustain a potentially fatal shot before you can heal, the game allows you to target your attacker in slow motion and kill them with 1 hit before automatically healing…but if you DON’T shoot the enemy, you die automatically. A great concept in theory…in execution however, it’s flawed beyond belief. For one thing, it seems to work whenever the fuck it wants to. Sometimes you can have the target reticle pointing directly at the enemy that shot you, pumping countless rounds into them, and nothing will happen until the game allows it. Sometimes this happens when your weapon isn’t pointing at the enemy, which is understandable…however, other times it happens when you’re pointing it DIRECTLY at the enemy, which is unforgivable. Then sometimes the camera will wig the fuck out, causing the environment to get in the way of your shot, thus causing your demise. Then there’s the aspect of multiple enemies being in the general vicinity of the one that caused the critical injury…while the game does its best to automatically target the enemy that hit you, when there’s more than one enemy in the area, the game will sometimes get confused and not aim at the enemy that it should. Oh, and did I mention that the game doesn’t allow you to reload in the event you run out of ammo while trying to shoot the enemy that hit you? Yep…it doesn’t matter if you have more ammo that you can reload your gun with. If you don’t hit the enemy with the amount of ammo already in your gun…tough shit, you’re dead. So let’s say that one glitch I described about pumping a bunch of bullets into the enemy with nothing happening occurs and you happen to run out of ammo while this is going on, even though you BLATANTLY shot at and SUPPOSEDLY hit the enemy…fuck you, you’re dead. Absolute bullshit.
-Speaking of glitches, the game has its fair share. Sometimes when you kill an enemy, they will stand in place with their arms in the position as if they are still pointing their weapon at you, even though said weapon was knocked out of their hands when you hit them with the killing shot. Also there was a segment where I was escorting a character and ran into yet another enemy cluster. If I happened to leave the character behind to go to the next area before dispatching all the enemies, they would get killed…which is fine, except for one problem. There were a few occasions where I took out EVERY SINGLE enemy in the damn room, then checked and rechecked to find that I had indeed killed them all…yet the battle music was still playing. When I tried to advance into the next area, my escort character was killed as if I hadn’t killed all the enemies…that’s right, an enemy popped out of thin fucking air and killed my escort character, causing me to do the segment all over again. This happened 4 fucking times before the game decided to allow me to advance properly after killing the EXACT SAME amount of enemies as I had killed the previous times I did the segment (yeah, I counted). Absolute FUCKING bullshit.
-Multiplayer, while fun, is too chaotic for its own good. There is very little skill involved and relies mostly on dumb fucking luck. This is one of the few multiplayer games I know of where trying to implement strategy and tactics will get you killed. It rewards pure aggression and a lot of the time practically comes down to a joust like charging game. And just like the regular game, the multiplayer isn’t free from glitches either. While it didn’t happen to me, a friend of mine told me that he encountered a glitch where he ended up having a negative dollar amount in his account.
There’s other issues I have with it, but I’ve covered the main glaring ones. This game has been getting all kinds of praise from “professional video game critics” and some gamers alike. It looks like I have to be the turd in the punch bowel and call foul, cause this is NOT a 9/10 game that people have said it is (or 4.5/5 by my rating system). It’s fun sometimes sure, but there are just too many problems that overwhelm and overshadow any potential of greatness this game might have had. I CANNOT recommend buying it at its current new $60 retail price. Wait for the game to drop in price or find it used…$30 is the ABSOLUTE most I would pay for this if I had the chance to do it over again. This game BARELY gets a…
3.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jun 24, 2012 18:52:08 GMT -5
Well, I’m certainly REALLY late to the party…the M.U.G.E.N party that is. For those unaware, and I’m sure there are a lot of you, M.U.G.E.N is a PC fighting game…actually, that’s not entirely accurate. What it really is is a PC fighting game ENGINE, meaning that it allows for unheard of player customization. In fact, when you first download it, all it has is 1 character (technically 2, but it’s just a palette swap of the same character), 2 fighting stages, and little if any music. It’s up to YOU to build upon the game, technically making it a simulator as well. How do you do this exactly? You do a Google search for everything mentioned in the previous sentence, and trust me you’ll find a remarkable amount of content. Wanna see Batman vs. Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid? How bout Mortal Kombat’s Sub Zero vs. Jin Kazama from Tekken? Hell, you can even make really out there matches happen like Optimus Prime vs. Sonic The Hedgehog. Anything you can think up, chances are somebody has made probably multiple versions of those characters each with their own fighting styles, special moves, and super moves. To me personally, building your own roster of characters is part of the fun of it, and if you know what you’re doing, you can build a roster of over 600 fighters. Hell, if you’re talented enough, tools for the game exist that allow you to make YOUR OWN fighter with an astounding amount of detail. Best part of it all? It’s all FREE. However there are some drawbacks, one of which is that you have to have some PC knowledge in order to fully take advantage of the game (like knowing how to properly edit system files). This could be intimidating to a lot of players, but there are plenty of easy to follow tutorials out there to guide those confused players through the entire process. The other major problem is that since character creation offers so much freedom, that gives the game some unapologetic balance problems. There are some characters out there that are so fucking powerful that if you chose a regular balanced character, the only way you’re gonna be able to beat an opponent who has a ridiculously god modded character is if that player just sits there and let you beat them. Since this system is all player developed, there are also occasional glitches and crashes, but none of the glitches I’ve encountered are game killers and it has only crashed on me once. I’m SERIOUSLY addicted to this game now. Fuck World of Warcraft (or any other MMORPG for that matter) and fuck Minecraft. THIS is my addicting poison of choice. www.elecbyte.com/mugen(Not gonna have a trailer for this one) 4.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 4, 2012 8:00:13 GMT -5
Under normal circumstances, I view a videogame based off source material from another medium (like movies) with disdain because 90% of them suck. However, I just recently completed episode 1 of this new series of games based on The Walking Dead and I'm thoroughly engrossly hooked.
Developed by episodic game series pioneers Telltale Games whose claim to fame includes the Sam and Max series, Wallace and Gromit game adaptation series, Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People series, and the Back To The Future adaptation series, The Walking Dead implements a gameplay style that's a hybrid of point and click and traditional adventure roaming. However, the main attraction to this game is player choice that results in the game being altered in either cosmetic (choosing player conversation responses) or dynamic (essentially choosing what characters live or die) ways that will be applied to all later episodes of the series. Since it's only 1 episode in a 5 episode series, this particular game is rather short (you can beat it in about an hour and a half). However, in this case that's a good thing because due to all the dynamic choices you'll be making in the game, you'll want to replay it to see what the game will be like if you made different choices. Most games that utilize this feature are long RPG style games (like The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, and Fallout series to name a few) who's time consuming lengths don't invite replayability from my perspective, so this game being short makes me want to play through it again to see the result of all the different choices.
Like in the comic book/TV series the game is based on, it has some really wonderful characters (none of the ones from the comic book/TV series are in this though) that I've already grown to love and even despise. There are some dialogue hiccups ("being good is...good" wow, really?) as well as some story ones (why worry about not knowing the combination to a lock you used to lock the front gate and apparently "trapping" yourselves in when there's a back door? And apparently there are no walkers in that backdoor area?), but for the most part the writing is solid. There are some really emotionally hard hitting plot twists and when certain characters meet their end, you feel it.
As of this writing, episode 2 has just been released to critical acclaim just like this one did. I need to get on that shit, and so do you...as well as this if you haven't played it yet.
4.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2013 8:23:46 GMT -5
Tokyo Jungle
For those of you who know of/remember/love the underrated SNES gem known as E.V.O: Search For Eden (ANY of you here? didn't think so), allow me to introduce you to the modern day version and my latest addiction. Tokyo Jungle is a PS3 exclusive (purchase and download on PSN for $15) where you take control of your own animal (ranging from pomeranian dogs, deers, tigers, and lots more) and try to survive a post apocalyptic world where mankind is extinct.
You try to survive by hunting/killing/eating other animals, marking territories to take them over, and mating to create a pack and make sure the generation continues. Animals fall into 2 classes, which are carnivores and herbivores...whichever class you pick essentially alters the game's difficulty (herbivores are challenging to play as due to not having nearly as much food sources and always being hunted by carnivores). You also must contend with the elements such as ever changing environmental pollution which will raise your toxicity level as well as diseases which affect your potential meals (eating an animal infected with rabies will drastically increase your toxicity level)
It sounds like such a mundane game, but it really isn't. The combat is a blast (despite its simplicity), the stealth element creates tension filled strategy (it's used by carnivores for sneaking up and killing a potential meal in 1 strike and herbivores to escape death), and it's really exciting when you come across an animal that doesn't appear often (the largest animal I've encountered and killed/eaten is a zebra. I've also encountered polar bears, tigers, and even raptors). My only real issue with it is that the camera is fixed on a scrolling 2D scale, which makes catching/killing some animals needlessly difficult. This is a fantastic game that shouldn't be missed, especially cause it's only $15.
4.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2013 8:26:58 GMT -5
Surgeon Simulator 2013I found a series of videos on YouTube of playthroughs of this and couldn't help but get it myself. Holy fucking shit, where do I start. Basically you play as a one armed surgeon with a severe case of Cerebral Palsy in an attempt to perform a successful heart transplant...oh and if you're expecting medical accuracy, you can forget about that right now cause the game has you REMOVE the ribs AND lungs in order to get to the heart...yes you read that right. If you've ever heard of the flash game known as QWOP, mix that with the board game Operation and you've got this. You control each individual finger with specific buttons (A,W,E,R,and the Space keys), using the mouse to move the arm while pressing the left mouse button to lower the arm and holding the right mouse button while moving the mouse to rotate the arm. So as you can imagine, it controls like utter hot rotten ass, but that's actually the game's charm. One minute you'll be frustrated at either not being able to grab anything or poorly grabbing it at an awkward angle and the next minute you'll be laughing your ass off at knocking over tools with your arm, dropping tools into the large incision, or dropping tools (as well as ribs, bones, and organs) on the floor thus losing them forever. Adding to the charm is the overbearing music that's so over dramatic and 80s sounding that it sounds like it belongs being the intro/outro song for an 80s soap opera with a hint of Day of the Dead style synth. You can tell the designers made it this way on purpose to troll people. It's pretty obvious when it says "you only took (X minutes: Y seconds) to brutally murder this patient." when you lose and the fact that you can win the game by removing the bad heart and just dropping the good heart in (without even connecting it in any way and without even putting the lungs back in and the ribs back together), and when you win it says that the surgery was a success followed by "He looks fine to me..." or "He'll probably live..." This game has already been gaining a reputation and following online for being a so bad it's good game. Objective rating: 1/5For the lulz rating: 4/5You can either play the game in a browser window with flash or download it to your computer with the following link: gamejam.bossastudios.com/
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2013 8:29:20 GMT -5
Okami HD (PS3)
It took me about 2 weeks, but I FINALLY finished Okami. Back in the day, I loved spending this much time investment in a game (it took about 55 hours to complete it to the level in which I was satisfied with). Nowadays, not so much.
Okami originally came out in 2006 (where it received universal critical acclaim and even a few game of the year awards), but was recently re-released with an HD graphical upgrade, Now that I've finally played it, I definitely see why it got so much praise. It's huge, innovative, has quite a bit to do in it, and the combat is fun and satisfying. With that said however, I have a few issues with it:
-You have to sit through a 15+ minute unskippable cutscene before starting the game. You can skip it in new game plus, but the fact that you can't just skip it from the get go sucks and really tries your patience.
-Issun is one of the biggest douchebag sidekicks in video game history.
-My biggest peeve is with the celestial brush. As innovative as it is, it only works properly about 75% of the time. There will be moments where you're trying to draw a particular shape only for the game to either not recognize it or think it's a different shape entirely that causes a different effect than originally intended.
-There is a segment near the end where you have to fight all the previous " big demon" bosses before the final battle. Problem is, the designers missed one (the twin owls) and instead had you re-fight a boss that wasn't considered one of the "big demon" bosses (the queen spider).
-Weak and abrupt ending.
Even with these flaws, I still give this a glowing recommendation. Just be prepared to invest quite a bit of time into it.
4.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2013 8:32:51 GMT -5
Shadow Of The Colossus HD
I'm sorry people, but...SOMEBODY has to say this, and I guess it's gotta be me...this game is pretty fucking terrible. I've only beat 2 of the colossi so far, and I'm already dreading playing the game any further (but I will...to completion...god help me). Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a game that is just filled with boss fights, which each one being like a puzzle in how to approach beating it...but the execution is just so fucking horrendous that any originality this game has is completely wasted.
What completely kills this game is the GOD AWFUL control. For starters, the control scheme itself is more convoluted and pretensious than the plots of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 combined. When you think of the control scheme for platform/adventure games on any of the Playstation consoles, you usually associate the X button with either jumping or some kind of attack. Here, the X button calls your horse. You use the triangle button to jump...that's right, the fucking triangle button. Who fucking programs the jump function to such an awkward button? Team Ico apparantly. To be fair, you can change the button command layout in the options menu, but I usually don't do that cause the default control scheme is what the designers WANT you to use as per their vision. I can count the number of times I've changed a game's control scheme on one hand and still have plenty of fingers left over, but in this instance I pretty much had no choice cause the default layout was just that awkward.
And whose fucking idea was it to require a whole seperate button to grab/latch onto platform ledges and climbable areas? That is some of the stupidest shit I've ever seen in a game, especially cause I can name games that came out as early as 1996 (the original Tomb Raider for example) that wipe their asses with this stupid idea by making their respective game characters AUTOMATICALLY grab/latch onto things just by holding the jump button. Then to execute a tactical roll, you have to press the jump and grab button at reletively the same time. It's bad enough that executing said roll is a 2 button command when it could have been assigned to other buttons that are currently being used for completely USELESS camera functions (zooming/locking the camera on the colossus? Like I'm not gonna be able to fucking see it given how huge it is), but they just had to make said 2 buttons are normally assigned to conflicting actions. Cause you know, that won't cause any problems like, say...having the timing of a jump and grab while on a colossus platform be off a fraction of a second, causing you to roll right off the edge of the damn thing not only causing health loss, but having to start the battle progression over from square fucking one.
Then there's the game's camera...one of the most uncooperative punk ass cameras I've seen in a game. A good camera STAYS in the position you put it in. This one, however, snaps back to its original position if you let go of the right analog stick. I thankfully haven't experienced it yet, but I just know the camera doing this is gonna frustrate the fuck out of me when I'm trying to navigate and jump on platforms. Then there's controlling Argo the horse...my fucking god. It somehow manages to achieve the seemingly impossible task of being too stiff and too sensitive at the same fucking time. If it’s in a full on sprint and you nudge the analog stick a quarter of a fucking centimeter, it will slant in that direction and the only way to course correct is to jam the stick in the opposite direction, which of course causes it to weave into said opposite direction so you have to keep fighting with the stick back and forth until you FINALLY straighten the horse out. Oh, and try using your sword glow technique to find a colossus while riding the horse. Guess what’s gonna fucking happen…whatever direction you move the sunlight reflection of the sword, Argo is gonna go that direction because the brain trusts of Team Ico decided to use the left analog stick for BOTH the sword reflection movement AS WELL AS Argo’s movement. You would think that, in their infinite wisdom, they wouldn’t design certain colossi battles to outright require you to battle them on horseback with how hideous the controls are. Well, you would be dead ass wrong cause Team Ico doesn’t give 2 shits about your better judgment.
Then there's the battle with the colossi themselves which is some of the most frustrating shit I've ever had to deal with in a game. It's intriguing at first, learning how to climb them in order to find their weak spots. However, the aforementioned control problems make things more of a chore than they need to be. Not to mention the fact that every 2 seconds, your character fidgets around like a douche factory, trying to hang on to the colossus fur either because the colossus moved a fraction of a centimeter or because the game decides it wants to bust your balls by making your character hang on for dear life eventhough the colossus isn't moving at all. Not only does this cause a severe delay in button inputs, to where you're constantly pushing buttons in the vain hope that he will finally do what you want him to do, but you also have to contend with a grip stamina meter that is constantly running out that will cause you to fall if it does, again not only causing you to start the process all over again, but also potentially cause health damage as well. And please don't use the excuse of "realism" to defend this nonsense. Realism in a game is fine but a game's #1 priority is to be fun, and if the realism sucks all the fun out of the game, said realism has no place being in the game.
THIS game is considered a "masterpiece" and a "soulful artistic experience?" The FUCK are these people smoking?! Again, I'm gonna finish it...but so far?
2.5/5
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2013 8:34:58 GMT -5
Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS3)
NetherRealm Studios follow up to 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot doesn’t disappoint. It’s also not a carbon copy with DC characters either, like some people may have thought it would be, as there are quite a few differences in terms of gameplay mechanics. The first major difference is the elimination of rounds, instead implementing the “Killer Instinct” style of having 2 health bars. Another difference is in character variation, whether it be slower characters that either pack more of a punch or have combocentric special moves, or what kind of “character powers” they have…yes, each character has a special ability unique only to them. For example, Batman can summon remote control batarangs to use as either projectiles or a shield, Superman can enhance the power of his moves, and The Flash can slow down time for his opponent, to name a select few. Sure there are a few characters that are overbearing (examples being Nightwing who is fast combo freak who can switch weapons as his special ability and Raven who is cheap as fuck), but for the most part, it’s fairly balanced roster wise.
Then there’s the environments…holy shit do these ever play a HUGE role in gameplay, probably bigger than any other fighting game I’ve seen. Each stage has so many interactive sections to them, it will make your head spin…and the most interesting thing is certain characters react differently to certain environment hazards in certain stages. For example, one of the stages has a floating car…if you’re playing as Superman, or any other power character, you can scoop it out of the air and throw it at your opponent…if you’re playing as Batman, or any other character incapable of lifting the object, they’ll either bounce off of it as a method of defensive avoidance or they’ll place an explosive on it and it will damage the opponent if they’re close enough. However, the REAL highlight of the stages are the stage transitions. Most stages have 2 or even 3 sections to them, kinda like in Mortal Kombat 3 when you end up in a new area by uppercutting an opponent through the ceiling (except here the transition point is on either the left or right side of the screen as opposed to the ceiling), and knocking your opponent through an area to get to another one is a real treat to behold as not only are you treated to your opponent brutally busting through everything along the way, it does considerable damage to them AND counts as combos. It actually becomes a crucial strategy in the match to execute stage transitions on opponents and watching the results never gets old.
The Super Meter makes a return from Mortal Kombat however, and for the most part plays the exact same role (with one exception which I will cover in just a moment). Just like in Mortal Kombat, you can use sections of said super meter to execute more powerful versions of special moves (by pressing the R2 button right after inputting the special move command. This button is called the “meter burn” button in the game), and to execute devastating super moves if the meter is completely full (and just like Mortal Kombat, can be done by pressing R2 and L2 at the same time). A note about the super moves…just like the environment transitions, these super moves are so fucking awesome to witness. If you thought the X-Ray attacks from Mortal Kombat were the bomb, you haven’t seen shit yet (Doomsday’s super move…holy shit man). Unfortunately there is one element of the super meter that’s completely new that is my main gripe with the game…the clash mechanic/system. Basically, if you’re on your second life bar and your opponent is in the middle of pummeling you with a combo, you can break said combo and initiate a mini cutscene where both characters spout a one liner of shit talking before they charge at each other…during said cutscene, each player/character secretly wagers a portion of their super move meter and the one who wagered the highest portion of their meter will win the charge. If the initiator of the clash (the one breaking the combo) wins, they will heal a percentage of health based on how much they wagered…if the initiator loses, they will receive damage based on how much their opponent wagered.
The clash mechanic is a good concept in theory, but is poor in execution. First of all, not only is it a shitty combo breaker due to you only being able to use it when you’re on your second life bar AS WELL AS only once per match, it’s the ONLY combo breaker method in the game. Second, it’s pretty damn unbalanced…if a player’s super meter is completely filled up, it’s guaranteed that they’re gonna win the clash, only exception is if the other player ALSO has a full super meter and bets the entire thing which will end in a tie with BOTH player’s super meters being completely depleted…I suppose a player could choose NOT to bet their entire super meter, but if you know your opponent has a full bar, you’d be pretty stupid not to. Third, if the clash ends in a tie, BOTH players LOSE the wagered amount from their bars. Finally, the rewards of winning a clash are rarely worth it…the most health you can get back is 30%, which WON’T bring you back to your first health bar and can be just as quickly taken away with a big combo from a skilled player…and as far as dealing any damage with it, you’ll RARELY achieve a critical hit or even a hit that is above 15% damage. The only scenario in which it can be beneficial is if a player executes a false bet using the meter burn button (R2), making it look like the player wagered part of their bar when in reality they didn’t wager anything, which can be used to trick an opponent into wagering part or all of their super meter to gain an advantage. Thing is, new players won’t know about said technique cause it’s not covered in the tutorial. Since it only has 1 useful function, NetherRealm should have gone with their initial instinct and removed it.
The story mode is very similar to that of Mortal Kombat, in which you play as certain characters through certain portions of the game. The story takes place between 2 parallel worlds…in one of them, The Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane as well as his child, causing him to kill The Joker and initiate a new world order where he is basically ruler of the Earth and any crime or dissention is dealt with in fatal fashion. This world’s Batman organizes an insurgency and finds a way to send certain superheroes (and villains) from the normal world into his to help. The story itself is pretty good as it manages to accomplish certain things like make Superman interesting (by turning him into a villain) and give Aquaman a reason to exist (he’s actually a good character to play as and his super move is boss), however there are a few eyerolling moments. First of all, the presence of The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Ares is completely pointless…The Joker especially, cause there’s a small portion of the story where you play as him, making said portion a complete waste of time. Second, there’s a very brief element in the story having to do with pills that make people invulnerable…problem is it shows up completely out of nowhere, is never explained, and nothing ever develops from it. Finally, there is a moment where the 2 Batmans fight that is fucking stupid and forced.
The only other gripe I have is the game has a very pointless level up system (only use to unlock bonus content as well as getting a couple trophies/achievements). All in all though, Injustice is a mighty fine time to be had for fighting game fans. NetherRealm has proven with this that they aren’t a 1 trick pony, at least when it comes to fighting games. I do kinda wish they would branch out and make some different types of games…but then again, nobody wants another MK Mythologies: Sub Zero or MK Special Forces.
4/5
(I’m actually not gonna provide a trailer for this one as all the ones I’ve found spoil a lot of awesome things in the game. It’s better if you get the game and see them for yourselves. You’ll thank me later.)
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