I was 12 years old when Injustice 2 came out, and it was the first time I'd ever been truly hyped for a game. I'd rush home from school every Thursday so that I could see the new character reveals, I'd watch in-depth analyses of each new trailer, and it was the first time I'd ever preordered a game, both so I could get Darkseid but also so I could play it as soon as possible. So this review is going to be tinged by a lot of nostalgia. Starting this game up for the first time since 2019 was legitimately one of the biggest waves of nostalgia I've ever been hit with. That being said, I'm a lot more critical of the games I play now than I was back then, and I've also read a lot more comics, so this review won't be one of blind adoration.

To get the biggest problem out of the way, I don't like the story of the Injustice games. Superman is my favourite superhero, and just saying that feels like an understatement. I genuinely don't know if I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't read All-Star Superman when I did. Above all else, Superman represents hope. The belief that people are good at their core and that tomorrow will be a better place than it is today. The whole "Evil Superman" trope one of my most hated elements of any fiction. It's boring. It's lazy. It's shallow. And when it's the Man of Tomorrow himself that's turned evil, it actively harms the way that casual fans see the character, making people think that Lois is the only thing keeping him human (don't even get me started on talking about how often Lois is fridged for these kinds of stories). And if we're being honest, I imagine that the billionaire with enough surveillance to make Big Brother jealous is far, far more likely to become a dictator than the embodiment of kindness himself.

The most frustrating thing, though, is that if you removed the "Injustice" stuff, I actually quite liked the story! The basic premise of "Grodd and the Society are up to some villainous chicanery, but it turns out that Grodd is working for Brainiac" is simple but it's pretty fun, and I enjoyed the character interactions between various Justice Leaguers. There's a part towards where Batman and Superman are working together and their interactions are more in line with the characters I actually like that made me feel like I was playing a Justice League fighting game, and the story already has enough Brainiac mind control/Poison Ivy pheromones/Scarecrow toxin to justify superheroes fighting each other! The character assassination of not just Superman but a dozen other characters, and the other edgelord bullshit that comes with the story is ultimately needless. Whenever the Injustice (derogatory) isn't showing up, the character interactions between the Leaguers are great (especially Green Arrow and Black Canary), and this has some of my favourite adaptations of both Supergirl and Brainiac, to the point where I imagine I will be picturing Laura Bailey and Jeffrey Combs' voices next time I read a comic with either character.

The gear system could be good if it wasn't tied to lootboxes. I have more gear for characters I've never played than I do for characters who I main because every time I open a lootbox and hope I'll get to customise the characters I like, it's always a gamble. I haven't seen a recent release with lootboxes and I'm so fucking glad they're gone.

So why am I giving Injustice 2 an 8/10 when I still have these problems? It's because, above all else, this is just a damn good fighting game. I'm not that big a fighting game fan and I had a ton of fun playing this. I'm not a professional games journalist so I can't really explain it well, but the controls are really good, it's really satisfying to string together combos or to use environmental interactions. The graphics look really good for a game from over five years ago and the voice acting is pretty good too. I've been playing this on my own the past few days, but I can't wait until I have some friends over so that I can play as Supergirl or Black Canary and obliterate them.

The feminist part of my brain acknowledges that the designs of women in this game are objectifying and oversexualised, but unfortunately the lesbian part sees the characters and goes hfibsibfeisbfwbfibnnmm.