Whilst attending an appointment with WB at E3 2016, we were given access to watch a presentation by developer NetherRealm Studios for Injustice 2, the sequel to the popular fighting title
For those that are familiar with the original game, this is essentially more of the same, but now, with the improvements that have been made with the sequel, it feels like a much more polished title. The biggest changes this year come from the rosters of characters available (28 from the demo we were shown and at present, we’re unsure if the total will increase come the games release) and also the customisation available to each of the characters present in the game as well. NetherRealm stated that the amount of customisable options for each of the characters in the game, will give players the opportunity to have their very own custom character online and in turn, never seeing the same outfit for each fighter online according to developer, NetherRealm. Whether or not this is possible, it’s difficult to say at present, but from what we were shown during our presentation, it certainly looks as though the game will have a ton of options on the customisation front.
Customisation options are done by playing the game. After each fight, you’re awarded with gear for your character that includes legs, armour and also capes for example and you can then also change the colour of each item or do a colour change for the entire outfit for your character. Another thing thats also effected with some customisable items is that they change the damage features of a character as well. While this doesn’t seem too big of a deal at first, the worry is that if you’re fighting someone online who has a damage boost while you haven’t got the same luxury, it could become a little bit unbalanced and its something that will need to be looked at if it hasn’t already. It seems as though NetherRealm Studios are focusing big with the custom options within Injustice 2 and rightly so, as they were certainly missing from the first game in the series.
Gameplay is very similar to what you’d expect from the original Injustice title, but more refined due to it being more accessible to newcomers of the series. Just like with its predecessor, each character has his own special ability that can be used during a fight, but has to be used sparingly as it recharges over the course of a fight. One big change this year is to each characters super power abilities that were in the original title, but seem more fluid and dramatic in Injustice 2. While they looked good in the first game, from the off, you could see the amount of improvements in Injustice 2 due to the visual improvements with better lighting and more dynamic actions coming from the super power ability sequences, Superman punching a character into orbit and back down again looked incredible, while seeing another crashing through a train and then into a wall looked equally impressive due to the graphical enhancements made in this area of the game.
Overall, Injustice 2 is looking very promising and for those that enjoyed what NetherRealm Studios did with its predecessor, then you’ll be extremely happy with whats on offer here. While its by no means groundbreaking in any way, its quite clear from the small slice of the game that we managed to see is that the development team behind Injustice 2 took the first title, added the improvements that players wanted and run with it. Apart from the slight worry with the balancing within the upgrade system (which hopefully won’t be a huge issue come launch), this is shaping up to be a fighting title that will tick all the right boxes.
