INJUSTICE 2

DC Kombat, round two

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Reviewed on Ps4

Publisher Warner Bros

It doesn’t matter where he pops up, Batman never fails to raise an eyebrow in his videogame appearances. This is a rich dude in a bat-mask who glides around his home city punching people in the face, yet sees himself as morally righteous because he doesn’t kill. A little brain damage is all right, though! Injustice 2’s story focuses on Batman’s moral superiority, with DC’s superhero roster forming two political sides: those who think the bad guys should be killed, and those who stand with the Batman.

The game’s the work of Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm, and is basically MK with its pants pulled on top of its trousers, from over-the-top stage transitions when you punch someone out of bounds, to interactions with environmental hazards – in one stage you can even toss an innocent bystander at The Joker.

The excellent “Supermoves” feel like less murderous “Fatalties”, triggering unskippable cinematics where Superman punches you through the clouds or Joker straps you to a torture chair. Unlike Mortal Kombat’s showboating finishing moves, Supermoves are used mid-bout, hacking off a chunk of your opponent’s life bar in exchange for your charged meter.

There’s no shortage of modes for solo players to get stuck into. The main event is the lengthy Story mode, which contextualises each fight with some gorgeously rendered cutscenes – it’s worth playing for them alone, but you’ll also unlock a bunch of gear for your trouble.

Speaking of which, the addition of a gear and levelling system to a one-on-one fighting game is strange, especially as gear is switched on by default in online scraps – while it’s nice to change the look of your favourite villains, it feels like a misfire. That said, the system shines in the “Multiverse”, where the many worlds interpretation of the DC universe allows players to experience ever-changing scenarios – for example, fighting through a world dominated by the Joker. It’s a clever addition, adding some much-needed variety to a game genre that generally struggles to have enough. Kirk McKeand

at one point Catwoman uses the security code LK-4D4, which is also the unit code of Mortal Kombat android Cyrax.