I mean, it's the best game ever made! The platonic ideal of a third person shooter with an uncountable amount of mods to keep you invested forever. The hectic action paired with the iconic setpieces and score of the Star Wars franchise makes something that I don't think could be matched.

Not only is the Instant Action fun, but the campaign is able to achieve a genuine emotional resonance at times and humanizes the clones in a way only matched by the Clone Wars animated series. (Although the inhibitor chip retcon in that series would undermine a significant amount of the conflict presented in this game's story, but I digress.)

Regardless of if you've got some buddies over and you want some fun Star Wars chaos, or if you're alone and want a unique experience in the Galaxy Far Far Away, this game has something great for everyone.

I could go on for basically an eternity what makes this game fun on a technical level, the people at Arcsys really are masters of the craft of fighting games and should be commended as such. I don't have the time, or frankly all of the knowledge to do such a comprehensive breakdown so instead I'll praise the rest.

The way the team chose to go about animation was absolutely inspired, never have I seen 2D art done in 3D spaces so we'll outside of this game. Spiderverse can eat it's heart out.

The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, whenever a song like Hit's theme gets going I'm always in that moment ready for a fight and boy do I get it.

Also, on a more personal note, the connections I've been able to make with people through this game are also a significant part of why I like it so much. There's something about the heat of competition that brings people together in a way truly unique to that setting.

Campaign is mid tho, but that's okay I don't think anyone was really getting this campaign for that other than lore completionist types.

I was actually really excited for this game before the PS5's launch. An FPS with a weird magic system and cool Doom-style Glory Kills? absolutely!

This was not that. Unfortunately this game wants to steep itself too much in a realistic style, as well as makes gameplay too slow to allow for it's magic to stand out amongst the sea of first person shooters. The story seems fine? I guess? I don't know, it was surreal but nothing particularly special from what I played.

One day I should probably give this game another shot, but that won't be for a while yet.

Today is the day that I officially give up. Ever since launch I have wanted, neigh have I quested for the Robin item the Staff of Grayson. I really wanted to play as Nightwing in this game and thought that if I just kept playing a little bit more, I could get it. I grinded achievements and lootboxes for over a hundred hours trying to find my white wale. Unfortunately I think it's become clear, It's been over half a decade since I started and if it was going to happen at this point it probably would have already.

So goodbye Injustice, once upon a time I would have called you my favorite fighting game of all time, but now you're just going to be a painful memory.

Fuck you Ed Boon

-NetworkRewind

P.S. Keep Joker out of Injustice 3 and put Nightwing back where he was as a full character or I will riot in the streets.

As a big fan of the series and also a fan of fighting games, this one should have been made for me, but much like another game I played this year, Ghostwire Tokyo, this was kind of underwhelming.

I understand that this isn't the easiest franchise to make into a video game generally, let alone a technical fighting game, but Eyes of Heaven did it really well and I foolishly thought that this game could live up to that. The unfortunate truth is that even though this game is fun in short bursts, at least for me the controls are generally too clunky for me to really start to sink my teeth into. (part of this, I know, is a result of my preference for 2d fighters over 3d fighters, but I still like Tekken and Soul Caliber so it's also not like I'm especially hard to please when it comes to 3d fighting games.)

A biggest blemish for me as it relates to this game's enjoyability are the movement mechanics. In a game tied into a franchise that is so particular about things like spatial awareness it is kind of astounding how inaccessible the movement can feel at times to beginners. I find it much too slow. The run feels like a walk and the walk feels like a tiptoe, and what's more the inputs to move across the z-axis are archaic. Games like Budokai 3 can get away with the hop-approach by keeping the action kinetic and quick, as does Tekken and Soul Caliber, however in ASBR the evasion feels more like it grinds the momentum of the fight to a grinding halt on the end of the person dodging while to the attacker it is little more than a minor inconvenience. (The exception to this being the parry-evasions which actually serve to flip that dynamic on it's head.)

The base-game roster also rubs me the wrong way generally, as what is basically a port of a PS3 game I think that adding characters like Weather Report at launch, or at least as free DLC as to prevent anime spoilers is the right move to make, as it stands right now, especially with C-Moon Pucci and Weather being payed DLC it is yet another example of AAA studios releasing unfinished games and making you pay for the finished product.

The silver lining to all of my negativity is that I actually have had fun with friends playing this game as a party game. Shouts out to my buddy Steven who I have "asked to leave" on multiple occasions and on every one has left.