About a year ago, I wrote an article about my favorite superhero fighting games. No surprise two of the items that made the list were the latest generation superhero offerings of the time, Injustice: Gods Among Us and Marvel vs Capcom 3. Between the two, I had stated that MvC3 was a far better game due to its fast pace, large selection of characters, and the fact that it was fun. Whereas Injustice was too dark and gritty for its own good and had a convoluted story that sucked all the fun out of the game.
Here we are a year later, and the sequels to both games are now out. So which is the better game? Injustice 2, or Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite ? I waited a while after these games have come out so I can also compare DLCs, new characters, and any other additional game elements that have been released since the initial release of both games. Here's my take:
The Premise:
In this, the fourth installment, of the popular franchise the robots Ultron and Sigma have teamed up and used the Infinity Stones to merge their universes together where they rule as the powerful Ultron Sigma. Now living a merged world the heroes of the Marvel and Capcom universes have banned together to stop Ultron Sigma and restore their respective universes.
Characters:
Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Gamora, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Nova, Rocket Raccoon, Spider-Man, Thanos, Thor, Ultron, Venom, Winter Soldier (Marvel), Arthur, Chris Redfield, Chun-Li, Dante, Firebrand, Frank West, Jedah Dohman, Mike Haggar, Monster Hunter, Morrigan Aensland, Nathan Spencer, Nemesis, Ryu, Sigma, Strider Hiryu, Megaman X, and Zero (Capcom)
DLCs:
Six downloadable characters and various costume packs.
The Good:
As expected from a Capcom game, the attention to detail is phenomenal. The character models are ridiculously detailed, to the level of detail that you'd see in one of Konami Metal Gear game. The levels are also equally detailed with a lot of action going on in the back. The game breaks the fighting game monotony with beautiful cinematics. You also don't just end up fighting title characters, but various generic grunts and foes (who are sadly not playable, at least at this time).
The gameplay is insane, fast-paced, with plenty of super-movies that makes for stunning visual combat. The game follows previous Capcom/Marvel games including two against two battles, and the return of the Infinity Gems (not seen since Capcom's Marvel Super Heroes game) giving the characters additional abilities and combat variations.
The Bad:
A disappointing variety of characters, for two reasons. While I can understand that this brought a lot more time and energy for the detail put in characters, this really limits the variety available in this fighter, especially when you compare it to the number of fighters that were presented in the previous installment.
On the Marvel side of things, the focus on characters that are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is obvious (and expected) however there is a distinct lack of villains on the Marvel side, with a pathetically low count of 4 bad guys to 15 heroes. The central focus on Avengers character makes the addition of cosmic and mystic characters (such as Doctor Strange and Rocket Raccoon) an afterthought. The game would have been more accurately called Avengers vs Capcom, since this feels more like an Avengers game than anything else. The absence of characters from the X-Men franchise is noted (but also expected given the push on the Avengers these days).
On the other side of the coin, they seem to focus more on the horror-themed characters in Capcom's repertoire, with characters from Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Darkstalkers. This is combined with a smattering of characters from other franchises particularly Street Fighter and Megaman. However, this roster suffers from a lack of bad guys as well.
Speaking of lack of variety there are very few levels to play in just adds to the problem. Also, as far as storyline goes: The whole "merged universe" thing is old hat. Especially where they end up going with it, which is kind of uninspiring unless they're going to add more to this game in the future.
Then there are the additional skins. These are DLC's that are going for about $5 a pop. Do they have any benefits? Nope. Just different costumes.
The Premise:
Following years after the events of Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman has spent his time rebuilding both Metropolis and Gotham City following the incarceration of Superman. However, the world is under threat from a new menace, the alien known as Braniac, who has devastated entire planets to keep them in a digital collection. With the discovery of Supergirl, Batman is forced to make an uneasy alliance with Superman and his incarcerated minions to stop this brand new threat.
Characters:
Aquaman, Atom, Atrocious, Bane, Batman, Black Adam, Black Canary, Black Manta, Blue Beetle, Braniac, Captain Cold, Catwoman, Cheetah, Cyborg, Darkseid, Deadshot, Doctor Fate, Enchantress, Firestorm, Flash, Gorilla Grodd, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, Joker, Poison Ivy, Red Hood, Robin, Robin, Scarecrow, Starfire, Supergirl, Superman, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, Bizarro, Hellboy, Raiden, Sub Zero, and the Ninja Turtles.
There are also alternate skins to turn characters in Grid, Reverse Flash, Bizarro, Black Lightning, the original Flash, the John Stewart Green Lantern, Mr. Freeze, Power Girl, and Vixen.
DLCs:
12 downloadable characters, additional skins and add-ons.
The Good:
Made by Nether Realm Studios, of Mortal Kombat fame, and they have taken all the elements that made Mortal Kombat X and put it into this game. Highly interactive levels, the ability to knock characters to other parts of the game, highly detailed and entertaining power moves. The story mode does away with the hacky "Good Universe vs Bad Universe" story that was the central plot of the first game.
The whole multiversal element is not entirely gone, you can play a bunch of different multiversal side missions to level up your characters and win other awards.
Speaking of leveling up: You can customize your character's outfit with different armor pieces which augment your character in addition to leveling them up. This adds an extra level of challenge as you increase your characters strength to compete in multiplayer modes. The addition of other comic book characters from other companies (notably Dark Horse Comic's Hellboy, and the Ninja Turtles) is an interesting twist.
The Bad:
Injustice 2 tries to break new ground by tieing into the world of mobile games. Should you choose, you can also download the Injustice 2 mobile game. Which is a stripped down, clunkier version of the console version of the game with more focus on pay-to-play features than any sort of quality.
Playing the mobile version of the game is akin to playing a Game Boy version of a game that was released on the Super Nintendo. Which is to say it is like playing a sport with one eye poked out, one arm tied behind your back, and a dog humping your leg. It's awkward, and trying to jam in all the features of the console version just doesn't translate well to a mobile platform.
The Comparison:
If I were to choose which is the better of two games, I'm going to have to say Injustice 2 is the clear winner here. It's about time they got around to making a decent DC Comics fighting game. Ignoring the ridiculous mobile game addition, it's a solid game. Unlike Marvel vs. Capcom, it has a better variety of characters, a lot more interactivity, and takes the fighting game genre into a different direction by creating benefits to winning match after match -- leveling up.
Likewise the variations of costumes and armor, and different skins in Injustice, actually do something. This is something that Infinity misses the boats on. Their costume packs don't do anything. If I wanted to play dress-up, I'd stick to paper dolls, not video games.
As pretty as Infinity looks, it greatly lacks in repeat playability. The addition of new characters comes too little too late, especially when there isn't much you can do with these additional characters except do generic player vs player modes.