This is a new segment where we look at cinematic video game story lines.
Release: 2013, retail
System: Sony Playstation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360
Starring: Kevin Conroy, Richard Epcar, Adam Baldwin
Directed by: Dominic Cianciolo
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: Metropolis is lost, The Joker has hypnotized Superman with Scarecrows fear toxin to beat Lois Lane to death, her heart set up to an atomic bomb. Furious, Superman takes the life of The Joker, declaring a zero tolerance policy on crime
Hans' thoughts:
This is quite the achievement, a licensed game that's good and a fighter with a decent storyline in one package. Decent is a very fitting word for this story. While it is certainly entertaining the stakes doesn't feel very high because it's an elseworlds story, meaning it doesn't take place in the main DC universe. This could have been just fine except the characters from the original universe is transported into this one, taking away suspense. At least the voice acting is very good, so good in fact that Batman veteran Kevin Conroy is outstaged by the lesser known names.Most likely inspired by the Flashpoint event in the comics, Injustice: Gods Among Us takes place in an universe where Superman has killed the well-known Batman villain The Joker after the latter had tricked him into killing his beloved Lois Lane. Now the planet Earth is ruled by Superman and those who follows him, declaring martial law on supervillains and taking in any who would support his cause, even former villains. In the main universe, The Justice League are just about to stop The Joker from detonating a bomb in the middle of Metropolis when they're instead transported to Superman's new One Earth Empire. Meeting up with this worlds Batman, now the leader of a small resistance force, our heroes must stop the corrupted godlike Superman and bring order back to a world that seems far beyond helping.
As far as comic book storylines goes, this is pretty good. Our heroes face a larger than life threat and are constantly going through twists and turns to save a world, because that's what heroes do. Unfortunately, like most modern DC products, far too much emphasis is put on Batman and his surrounding characters. While definitely a character with great potential for drama, the absence of more non-Gotham based DC superheroes and villains saddens me. If you play the game, you'll quickly notice that the roster (DLC included) features a lot of Batman characters. You'll also notice that Batman has a lot more stages dedicated to him as well (The Batcave, Gotham downtown, Two versions of Arkham Asylum AND Wayne Manor) while not even Superman, the game's main villain, has more than two. This is not a critique of Batman as a character, he's my personal favorite and I always love to see him around but the DC comic book universe has such a rich amount of characters and locations that emphasising this much on a single character seems unnecessary.
For a fighter, this one definitely breaks the stereotype and the game may be worth renting for the storyline alone
