Injustice Gods Among Us Essay

Injustice Gods Among Us Essay Injustice: Gods Among Us Essay Video gamers and comic book fans alike, two of the biggest factions in this nerdy world, rejoiced at the dawn of a new kind of arcade-style fighting game. Injustice: Gods Among Us is an innovative arcade fighter based on the fictional universes of DC Comics. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment published the game in 2013 after a long and wildly successful marketing campaign. The unique storyline and iconic characters were written by DC Comics. NetherRealm Studios, a video game developer made rich and famous for rebooting the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, developed the gameplay and graphics. Three of the most well respected names in their respective genres worked closely together to produce this game, all contributing some of their best work to make this game arguably the best in its genre. The success of almost every product, especially in the category of video games, is somewhat dependent on the promotional hype leading up to its release and the ability to maintain a strong fan base after its release. In the case of Injustice, the marketing campaign was very impressive. Warner Bros. is a massive entertainment company made one of the major names in show business through over a century of ingenious marketing, and they did an excellent job with this one. Prior to its release, the company launched a web-based promotional series featuring weekly matchups between characters, showcasing the uniqueness of multiple characters, interactive fighting arenas, smooth gameplay and beautiful graphics. Through another intuitive marketing ploy, fans could vote on their favorite characters to participate in the next tournament style showdown. This event, coupled with the extensive use of TV commercials and website ads, led to an extremely successful release. A major selling point in any game is the plotline. Injustice: Gods Among Us offers the most interesting story of any other fighting game available, hands down. DC Comics has already spent decades establishing iconic super heroes and villains, with hundreds of unique story arcs and various team ups- and the story arc they wrote for Injustice is just as rewarding as anything you might find in a comic book, perhaps even more so. It is the ultimate script, showing comic book fans what happens when Superman finally snaps and decides that mortals need to be ruled by his near limitless power. It gives an outlet for all our musings over who would win in a fight, with Batman leading the Insurgency against Superman’s Regime. It blurs the line between hero and villain, transitioning between multiple universes to recruit Insurgents- including Superman’s counterpart- to fight side by side with what were once his greatest enemies. The story is told by short cutscenes before and after each playable battle. In total, there is about two hours’ worth of animated movie material telling this epic tale. These cutscenes provide the only source of material to those perpetually negative critics. It has been said that the near-perfect game tries for too much when it comes to graphics. These critics are referring to the background images in scenes with large clashing armies, mountainous landscapes or a distant metropolis, claiming that the art has â€Å"bland textures and shoddily modeled buildings† (Ingenito). However, every critic I’ve found also praises the in-game art and graphics, admiring the smooth and realistic gameplay. In my opinion, it is only the outstanding level of detail on the superhero close-up shots that dull the background textures in comparison. Besides the impressive computer generated graphics, what makes this game so appealing visually is the smooth gameplay. It has become the standard for modern video games to strive for perfect flow with minimal lag. Nowadays most video games use a level of technology unimaginable twenty five years ago, yet receive the harshest criticism for even the slightest lag. Despite the public’s increasingly demanding taste, NetherRealm Studios has drawn only