Injustice: Gods Among Us can be explained as Mortal Kombat v. DC without the Mortal Kombat part. The game features only DC superhero characters, who battle it out in 1v1 2.5D matches. Of course, there are a whole lot of special moves and neat arenas, but most of the core gameplay will be pretty familiar for fans of the genre. The interesting thing about this game is the canon-bending plot. Often such games don’t even bother with a plot, but this one goes out of its way to construct a narrative that provides a reason for all of the most powerful beings of the DC universe to rethink their allegiances.
That’s not where it got a reaction, however—fans of the comics had a strong reaction to the Injustice comic books, which were published alongside DCs staples a few months ago, and told the alternate world story of Injustice, which was this: The Joker tricked Superman into killing a pregnant Lois Lane, and while Superman was off doing that, the Clown Prince of Crime leveled the city of Metropolis. While Batman looked on disapprovingly, Superman killed the Joker. Then, through a series of increasingly crazy-face events, he took over the world, installing himself as dictator. Batman is now leading the insurgency against this new government. Former allies are at odds, and former arch-nemeses are standing side-by-side.
If you’re not aware, the vocal portion of the comics community is a prickly bunch, and have been burned many, many times by crazy continuity changes and ret-cons. Fans and reviewers tore the comics apart as wholly non-verisimilar and generally not worth reading. A lot of DC fans are decrying the game entirely for its mish-mashed plot. It’s an excellent example of a cross-media tie-in gone wrong. Just how badly it will affect sales of the game will be seen shortly.
Witch and Hero is a fast-paced area defense game. The player takes on the role of a knight who has set out to help his witch friend overcome a deadly petrification curse. In each level the witch stands in the center, petrified, while the knight runs around shunting off the bad guys and blocking the witch from taking too much damage. While he fights (which consists solely of bumping into the monsters) he collects ‘blood’, which he can bring back to the witch for a temporary softening. While un-petrified, the witch slings magic around the level, dealing great damage to the monsters on the screen. After a few moments, however, the knight is again left alone. Each level is a step closer to the cure for the witch’s curse, and along the way both characters become more powerful through experience and purchases in town.
Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a strategy game played on three layers. Diplomacy and broad decision-making take place on the Astral layer, which shows all of the ‘shards’ of a cataclysmically shattered world. When the player chooses a shard to conquer, the shard layer shows all of the provinces of that land, which could number in the dozens. When the player attacks from one province to the next, the battlefield layer is where the real tactical combat takes place. As the campaign progresses, each element of the player’s faction can be upgraded, from the technology level of the society to the abilities of individual military units. With this much detail, and so many possible directions of play, it’s hard to see if the game is going to be fun or convoluted, though every fan of strategy games draws that line in a different place. If you are such a fan, I’d suggest at least giving it a look, especially if you are also a fan of mythology or fantasy settings.
Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- Darkfall Unholy Wars
- Sacred Citadel
- Eador: Masters of the Broken World
- God Mode
WiiU
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
3DS
- Witch & Hero
- Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Xbox 360
- Forza Horizon – 1000 Club
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- X-Men: The Official Game
- Sacred Citadel
- God Mode
PS3
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- Sacred Citadel
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