Support NeoGAF

[Nirolak]

I've been really impressed with Injustice 2's production values based on what's coming out with the final product, both on the console and mobile front, and though some other people might be interested too.

We'll start with the console version since presumably that's what most people here would be interested in.

So first, let's check out some screenshots Tyaren has been posting over in the roster thread. These are from I believe the PS4 Pro version of the game, but not 100% sure.

Character models:

Gameplay:

They even seem to have made significant improvements since the beta that didn't happen all that long ago:

And even the little things like the interactions with heroes in the character selection menu are very high effort:

And they're doing all this while:
- Making zillions of costume items you can unlock just by playing, and tons of recolors for those costume items.
- This gear also lets you customize the abilities of your characters.
- Having an extensive campaign with lots of cutscenes.
- Putting in all sorts of multiplayer modes and metagame mechanics, including modes with constant new gameplay modifiers and challenges to work with for variety. This also has a guild system where you all earn rewards to help people engage together socially.
- Edit: I'm adding a video link here since someone got confused by the mobile story video, but it covers a lot of the content in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhS1U0Yusg

I feel this is all a really good base by which fighting games can be broadly appealing and still impress in the modern era of gaming.

And this is before we even get to the mobile game, which I feel ups the ante there as well.

To start here, some screenshots from the mobile game (I apologize about the quality, there aren't a lot of good sources for mobile game screenshots from people with high end devices):

And feature wise it has:
- All of the same characters from the console game.
- All of the gear from the console game.
- It even has the console game's story mode, including the cutscenes, from the console game. They're releasing this over time to note, so you can currently only play the first chapter or two, though they seem to be intent on releasing it all over time.
- In the event you don't believe me, you can see the story mode here: https://youtu.be/tnzpNxZd2gA?t=123
- The fighting system is obviously simplified, though I had a better experience with it than I did trying out any of the other mobile fighting titles.
- They also seem to take inspiration from the console game in having all sorts of arenas and challenge modes and etc for you to partake in to unlock various things.

What do you think? Impressive? A good direction forward? Unimpressive? An abomination to humanity?

 

[strafer]

I dig it.

 

[Hero]

Looks good in stills but my issue with NR games have been their animations.

 

[tribal24]

Looks good in stills but my issue with NR games have been their animations.

/thread I'm there day one but the animations could be a bit better. I do wish capcom surprises us for mvci when that's ready because the presentation is awesome in I2

 

[CountBlack]

Yea this game has been really impressing me. game looks crazy good

 

[QuantumSquid]

the animations are wack tho

 

[DriftingSpirit]

I've been impressed with the visuals as well.

First time seeing those character interactions in the character select. Nice touch.

 

[jett]

The production values for the game are indeed quite high, clearly this is a very expensive, AAA-tier release. Not sure about calling this a "good direction forward for the genre" since I doubt any FG publisher but WB can afford to do something like this. There's a crazy amount of assets in the game, there seems to be an endless supply of customizable shit for each character.

 

[BiggNife]

It looks good from a technical perspective but the art style is just so ugly and it bothers me every time I see footage of it

 

[Ahasverus]

They're kicking everybody else's fighting games from all fronts it's insane. The story mode alone is lots of added value.

Good for DC. The very wide and varied roster will make wonders for brand awareness.

 

[TheBowen]

Say what you want about mortal kombat as an in-depth fighting game, but the replay value for casual players and graphical quality has always been really top notch from Netherrealm.

My only slight issue is internet connectivity, but that's prevalent in all fighting games.

 

[Mory Dunz]

um, sure, looks good I guess.

 

[RedAssedApe]

+1 on these games not looking good in motion.

Character models are a big improvement though.

 

[Eolz]

I think that they've found a great workflow (for them at least), and the production values are definitely impressive.
I really don't like their character designs, even if the 2D art is great and their 3D design is improving game over game.

I've heard that the mobile game is definitely less impressive in movement though. If it's like their previous mobile games, the gameplay is pretty simplistic too...

That said, Netherrealms definitely knows what will attract a mainstream crowd, and does a lot of great single player content to keep them here too!

 

[Cardon]

Yeah I2 looks great and I'm most excited to see how these new graphical elements will carry over to the next MK game. MKX looked nice, yet it was very uneven graphically.

 

[Alienous]

From the videos I've watched I find the faces to be particularly impressive. It's some of the most convincing real-time emoting I've seen from a game. It's especially interesting as it persists through all of the dialogue I've seen, down to eye tracking, for characters who don't seem to look all that much like their voice actors.

 

[Nirolak]

The production values for the game are indeed quite high, clearly this is a very expensive, AAA-tier release. Not sure about calling this a "good direction forward for the genre" since I doubt any FG publisher but WB can afford to do something like this. There's a crazy amount of assets in the game, there seems to be an endless supply of customizable shit for each character.

I guess I was more thinking if someone with actual money entered, since I get that companies like Capcom can't afford this anymore.

Like Square Enix is working on a console version of Dissidia for some point in the future, and what kind of feature set that has versus the console game I think is an open question.

There's also companies like Ubisoft and Microsoft that have been flirting with the genre.

Then there are people like Riot who bought a fighting game studio recently, and have endless piles of money.

 

[MrCarter]

Looks good in stills but my issue with NR games have been their animations.

the animations are wack tho

It looks good from a technical perspective but the art style is just so ugly and it bothers me every time I see footage of it

This. It looks good in stills but I don't like it in motion.

 

[Red Rudolph]

Looks good in stills but my issue with NR games have been their animations.

Yeah, this right here. Ever since seeing that video explaining everything wrong with NR animation, I haven't been able to watch gameplay.

 

[Spy]

I preordered the Ultimate Edition but haven't really been following the game at all. Knowing it's coming out tomorrow is starting to get me excited.

 

[oneida]

can't wait to play through story mode.

 

[Q8D3vil]

I finished the game 3 days ago and i can confirm that the game have one of the best face tech i have ever seen in a video game. Im quite fond of the the characters eyes tech and its very distinguishable and not your typical generic copy pasta .
I thought the gear will be some poor looking trash, but man its freaking sweet unlocking some epic gear.

 

[CryptiK]

Too bad gear doesnt change your appearance in the mobile game and its stuttery as fuck(S8)

 

[Ryce]

Injustice 2 is by far the most technically impressive and modern-feeling fighting game I've ever played.

 

[icecold1983]

some of the models are just horrible design wise. superman, batman, aqua man

 

[Maximo]

Can't wait for the Game Of The Year edition.

 

[Khezu]

From the videos I've watched I find the faces to be particularly impressive. It's some of the most convincing real-time emoting I've seen from a game. It's especially interesting as it persists through all of the dialogue I've seen, down to eye tracking, for characters who don't seem to look all that much like their voice actors.

The facial animation and emoting in the story mode is so weirdly good.

It's just funny coming from Mass Effect Andromeda to this.
And MEA is a game that really should be on top of stuff like that considering its a story based WRPG, but oh well.

 

[What did he mean by this?]

The budgetfor this game must be tremendous. Really cant expect anyone else to put up the dosh for a AAA fighting game.


Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad or terrible.

 

[KelpPlankton]

Too bad gear doesnt change your appearance in the mobile game and its stuttery as fuck(S8)

It does, but only when you have a full set of it.

As for the game being stuttery, that depends on your device. It's not stuttery at all for me, but I've got a Google Pixel XL

 

[lupinko]

The character animations are still laughably bad though,

Like MK can keep that bad animation since it's an homage to digitized actors, but the DC cast can do without it.

And it's not an American dev thing, both Skullgirls and KI have great animation.

 

[jdstorm]

Injustice 1 was hugely successful on mobile. (I know i personally must have played 500+ hours) There is a reason that it recieved so much effort and its purely financial

 

[David___]

I wish they could move some of that budget into actually making the animations look and feel good.

 

[bigboss370]

Yes, the level of effort and polish gone into this is very appreciated.

 

[Allonym]

Hopefully Capcom learns from their example. The sheer amount of effort being invested into this game and how chock full of stuff it's being shipped with should be much appreciated by gamers. That character select gif is amazing, I love how Deadshot is steal reeling from the hit while the Flash does his gesturing, it's truly awesome. I hope that Capcom takes notes and ships their next SF game with the passion and commitment that's being given Injustice.

 

[WhateverItTakes]

I appreciate the work, but despite my love for DC I've accepted by now I don't like how Neverrealm fighters play. Which is a damn shame because if I did I'd probably find this excellent.

 

[VariantX]

Kind of makes me really wish MS would have put the same money into KI that WB did into their fighting games, considering they actually have them. Besides Namco, other software companies that make fighters can only dream at what WB does with theirs.

 

[Gurish]

Mobile visuals are especially impressive, they reached PS3 level there, pretty incredible considering how small those devices are.

Obviously consoles version also look awesome and significantly better but mobile version is pretty impressive considering.

 

[JoeInky]

I don't know, I think it looks awful, I didn't like the graphics of the first Injustice either.

It looks Ok in stills, terrible in motion.

I think all of their recent games have looked just plain ugly honestly, I feel like it was downhill from MK9, which didn't look amazing but was still slightly better than what followed.


I appreciate the effort NRS puts into the story modes for their games which I enjoy playing through, but it stops about there.

 

[NeoRaider]

Not impressed. But it looks ok.

 

[Melkezadek]

The budgetfor this game must be tremendous. Really cant expect anyone else to put up the dosh for a AAA fighting game.


Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad

Yup. Already getting old.

Looking forward to this game. Honestly didn't like IJ1 all that much, but from what I've seen so far this looks improved in every way.

Plus it has Darkseid, so I can't not play it.

 

[jett]

I guess I was more thinking if someone with actual money entered, since I get that companies like Capcom can't afford this anymore.

Like Square Enix is working on a console version of Dissidia for some point in the future, and what kind of feature set that has versus the console game I think is an open question.

There's also companies like Ubisoft and Microsoft that have been flirting with the genre.

Then there are people like Riot who bought a fighting game studio recently, and have endless piles of money.

It'll be interesting to see what Riot does.

 

[nailbombxx]

Yeah NetherRealm is getting better at modeling characters, and technical graphic fidelity, thank god.

But the subpar animation in that context is even more striking.

The character animations are still laughably bad though,

Like MK can keep that bad animation since it's an homage to digitized actors, but the DC cast can do without it.

And it's not an American dev thing, both Skullgirls and KI have great animation.

Mortal Kombat's terrible animation is not an homage to anything. Its just bad. Even if they did try to spin it off that way it would make no sense.

The budgetfor this game must be tremendous. Really cant expect anyone else to put up the dosh for a AAA fighting game.


Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad or terrible.

People criticizing Mortal Kombat's (and Injustice's) animation has been a thing ever since Mortal Kombat ('09) came out, myself included. The video just elaborated on why it does look worse than other fighting games.

 

[DR2K]

It's definitely a pioneer for the genre in a lot of aspects. The fact that there's a good mobile version is a fantastic way to advertise the game to millions of people.

 

[Zackat]

I just downloaded the mobile game and it is blowing my mind a little

 

[VariantX]

The budgetfor this game must be tremendous. Really cant expect anyone else to put up the dosh for a AAA fighting game.


Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad or terrible.

People's complaints about the animations have fuck all to do with the video. They existed well back even before MK9. The video only put an clear explanation as to WHY people thought the animations were janky.

 

[TotalMackerel]

The mobile game crashes on me a lot. I'm on android.

 

[bryanee]

I feel like it was downhill from MK9, which didn't look amazing but was still slightly better than what followed.

Now thats an odd opinion. MK9 is easily the worst of the bunch when it comes to visuals and all round art direction.

 

[dlauv]

Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad or terrible.

Already getting old.

+1

Yeah, the presentation value is kind of frightening. I can't see any competitors catching up at all.

Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of how these games play. I liked UMK3; MK9 was ok, but MKX and Injustice felt weird. I'm willing to give this one a shot too tho. I'd be more into them if the online play weren't horrible, especially on PC.

 

[RedAssedApe]

The budgetfor this game must be tremendous. Really cant expect anyone else to put up the dosh for a AAA fighting game.


Some of yall are taking that animation critique video a little too seriously. It is not bad

Nope. People have been complaining about this for years. Has nothing to do with that video.

 

[SpiceMelange]

Im a Capcom fanboy all the way and really don't like how NRS games play, but goddamn I'm jelly of their productions values. Each time I see Injustice 2 I can't help but wish Capcom would put as more money and effort into their projects.