So I finally got to play Injustice after Detour, and man, what a fun game that is.  But I want to ramble about the story mode for various reasons, mostly good, a few bad.  

Behind the cut for spoilers.

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So the story itself is really good.  It’s on par with the DC animated movies/the Justice League animated series and all that.  In fact, there’s an episode of Justice League that reminds me of the story mode here.  In the episode, Superman kills Lex, and ends up creating this “perfect” world that isn’t so perfect.  Our Justice League ends up in that world (parallel dimensions) and things go from there.

In this story mode, the Joker has planted a bomb in Metropolis.  He’s tricked Superman in a most horrible way that leaves Lois, his unborn child, and millions of people in Metropolis dead.  Superman decides that enough is enough and actually kills the Joker.

This is universe number one.

In a second universe, the Joker has planted the same bomb in that world’s Metropolis, but the Batman from universe one transports everyone to his world before the Joker can detonate the bomb.  He wants to stop his world’s Superman, who has gone a little nuts.  All of the heroes are bad guys and side with Superman because they fear him.  Lex is actually a good guy in this world because he also wants to stop Superman.  In fact, most of the villains are good guys, even Harley Quinn works with Batman.  

Now, for the positive remarks.

The story flows well and uses the same system the new Mortal Kombat did, in which you play with a character and progress the story.  I think its smoother in Injustice, mostly because all of the characters are connected.  It’s not like, “Hey you’re Johnny Cage now suddenly Scorpion,” it flows better because all of these heroes/villains have history together.  I also need to comment on how Injustice manages to be just as brutal as Mortal Kombat without fatalities.  You actually don’t need them, nor do you miss them at all, not like in MK vs DC.  

The story in itself is so great because you’re not sure who to trust.  Lex is a good guy?  Yeah right, whatever.  But wait, so is Harley?  What?  No, no way.  And you’re playing and you’re waiting for someone to double cross you.  It gets interesting with the Joker there because, in the first universe, he’s dead.  This gives the situation two different POVs.  There’s the good guys being thrown into the backwards universe where Superman is evil, and then there’s Joker as he discovers what’s going on, and you know he’s going to cause a mess.

You also expect Superman to have a change of heart.  Guess what.  He doesn’t!  He stays evil!  And he is really, really evil.  He literally does get rid of whoever stands in his way no matter who they are.  There’s a really heartbreaking death in the story where he kills Shazaam for talking back to him.  If you don’t know Shazaam’s back story, he’s actually like a 13 year old kid.  And he kills him, no problem.  That caught me off guard completely because, you know, it’s Superman.

Then there’s the stories with the other characters.  Like Batman.  And Nightwing.  And… that whole mess.  It’s definitely a game where you want some spin-offs for everyone.  Nightwing is Damian Wayne, not Dick Grayson.  He’s not Dick Grayson because Damian Wayne killed him.  Nightwing and Batman are definitely at odds with one another, especially since Damian is his son.  Just… it’s really, really intense.  And you’re like, “Damn let’s get some DLC for THIS story.  While you’re at it, how did Harley Quinn start working with Batman, can we talk about that please?  Thank you.”  

The only real downside with the story is that it kinda feels short.  I’m not sure if it was because we were passing the controller around or not, but… I dunno, the Mortal Kombat one feels longer.  The Mortal Kombat one was also harder, mostly because Shao Kahn is a jackass.  It does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, so I’m hoping for a sequel.

My biggest gripe is… Wonder Woman.  She becomes a love interest for Superman after Lois dies.  That’s not my complaint.  My complaint is that she stays in that role.  She’s not the kick ass woman I played with in the demo.  At first I thought it was because, you know, you don’t get to play with her right away.  But as the story goes on she just… feels useless.  You look at all of the other women doing things and you’re just waiting for Diana to jump in and… nothing.  Like, she gets knocked out or caught in traps and just… no, no.  Not to downplay Green Arrow, but if he can survive something, surely an Amazon can right?  

It’s not that I was expecting her to stand up to Superman (because no one did, they were too scared), but even the Wonder Woman of the other universe that was coming to help just… felt tacked on and useless, like they didn’t know what to do with her.  

All and all, I thought it was well put together besides my two complaints. Then again, with it being short, it didn’t end like Mortal Kombat’s story where EVERYONE DIED EXCEPT FOR LIKE TWO PEOPLE!  There’s room for more story, especially because the bad Superman wasn’t killed.  There’s still room for him to be bad, and I hope they play with him more, because he was a really good villain.

Not to mention that with all of the DC characters out there, NetherRealm Studios can go on and on and on with this franchise.  The Batman universe alone can make how many games?  How many sequels?  Just… seriously, if you’re a DC fan, give this game a try.  Or, if nothing else, watch someone play the story mode.  Or watch it on Youtube.  Something.