NetherRealm Studios showcased some of the new features that are being put into the upcoming sequel for Injustice: Gods Among Us. Injustice 2 looks to be a sequel that is actually building upon elements that people enjoyed from the first game and adding enough new features to make this sequel feel fresh and legitimately like a new game.
The first fight featured in the Injustice 2 presentation was between Batman and Gorilla Grodd. Gorilla Grodd’s playstyle was interesting, as he fought like a tank, able to absorb a lot of damage as well as deal a lot of damage but moved more quickly than one would expect for this sort of character. Grodd also had mid ranged and anti-air attacks that were designed around the character’s telekinetic abilities. Overall for both characters their movements were smoother and less clunky than in the original Injustice, or at least they appeared so in the demonstration.
The second fight featured the red lantern, Atrocitus going against Superman. Atrocitus plays like a brawler character but he does have his share of mid-range attacks. An interesting element added into his playstyle is his cat Dex-Starr, working as a support character with long ranged attacks, that can be brought in and out of play for some interesting combos.
One of the main elements that NetherRealm introduced in this presentation was the addition of gear and leveling for the characters. After every match the player will earn XP for whatever character they are using, as well as gear which will effect that character’s stats. The idea behind this is for the players to be able to customize their main. Certain pieces of gear will increase strength or have certain attributes attached to them, like a chest piece for Grodd which lowers damage taken in stage transitions by 3.75%. As the player levels up a character, better gear will appear as well as increases in the character’s default abilities. New abilities will also appear for the player to equip as they level up their characters. These upgrades will allow players to eventually build their mains up to match the way they play, whether defensive, ranged, brawler, etc. During both fights they showed buffed up version of every character, level 20 each, and the kinds of effects the armor would have. One thing I noticed was the armor on most characters while either limiting the damage they took or increasing the damage they could dish out, effected their movement. Most noticeably I saw this with Grodd who became slower while fully decked out in armor.
In both fights they also presented the features that would stay in the game, these included: the wager system, over the top specials, and stage transitions. The player will be able to go back and forth from 2 versions of every stage, with each transition having its own cut scene attached to it. The specials appear like they will be taken to the extreme in this sequel, most notably with Batman parachuting his opponent up to be run over by the Batplane, then shot by both machine guns and a missile. The wager system appears to be integrated in the same way it was in this first game.
Injustice 2 is set for 2017 release for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.