Injustice: Gods Among Us Smartphone App Review

About

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a 3 on 3 beat-em-up game, where players can create and customise their dream team of DC superheroes and face off against AI and online players. Players tap and swipe at their opponents to cause damage to them. Winning a battle progresses the player to the next round and earns them credit points that can be spent on more characters, upgrades, booster packs, and a plethora of other in-game items.

The game was released in 2013 in anticipation for a console release under the same name. Since then, NeatherRealm have continually updated the game to incorporate new features, gameplay types, challenges, and characters to continually deliver an enjoyable experience.

Gameplay

Players select 3 heroes to make up their team, and can pair them with up to 3 'gear' items that enhance certain attributes or provide additional features to the character. After this team is formed, the team faces off against a computer team of varying difficulty based on how far the player has progressed throughout the game. Once the fight begins, the player swipes and taps to deliver different attacks to the opponent. Attacking and absorbing hits generates power for the player, which can be used to deliver special attacks. Once the health bar for each opposing player reaches zero, the player has won the battle and is able to collect their reward and return to the menu.

Multiplayer

Injustice has also introduced a multiplayer mode since its launch, which allows players to fight against other players' teams. Notably, this is not in real time, and the opposing team is merely another player's characters which are controlled by the computer. Another disappointing feature about the multiplayer mode is the long loading times. Progressing through each screen before a battle can take almost 30 seconds each worth of loading while the rest of the app manages with loading times of around 5 seconds between the menus and battles.

Store

Injustice has several different playable characters from the DC universe, which can be purchased using in-game credits or real money via in-app purchases. Players can also purchase upgrades for each characters' abilities, as well as 'gear' to improve certain skills additionally. Support cards can also be bought to increase health and strength of each character. The store also sells booster packs, which give the player a random character from a certain tier of characters.

Challenges

To keep the game interesting, special challenge characters can be earned by completing a set of battles in challenge mode. Challenge mode characters are updated almost every week or two, so there's always another reason to open the game up and play. Challenges introduce new characters based on which DC movies are also being released at the time, which is a nice touch. For example, the recent Suicide Squad movie prompted the introduction of a challenge phase to earn each of the main characters featured in the movie.

Download Links

Injustice: Gods Among Us is available for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store for iOS and Android respectively.

The Verdict

Injustice is an intricately created game that has been well supported by its developers for years since its launch to become one of the most popular smartphone games on the market. Even if you are like myself and don't care much for comic books and superheroes, you will not be disappointed by the vast customisation options and engaging gameplay in Injustice that has kept users playing the game for several years.

Regardless of the continual addition of new features to the game, Injustice can get a little repetitive. It's a shame that the multiplayer mode couldn't be realtime and allow players to play against their friends, and instead only pairs players with randomly selected opponents who are computer controlled anyway, making this feature very similar to the rest of the game.

Score

★★★★☆

Reviewed by Juzan