Hardcore fans of fighting games love playing it against someone else, either locally or online. But there are gamers out there that would love to play the game at their own pace alone. Hence, why Arcade mode is such an important feature to have aside from a story mode, a practice mode to train and the regular versus mode against the AI. Injustice 2 gets this right with the introduction of the Multiverse mode.
Playing off the DC lore of multiple universes, the Multiverse offers various events that you can partake in a limited time. These worlds only appear either for a few hours or a few days and completing them all will net you a ton of loot. Imagine an Arcade mode with various modifiers or mutators being thrown just for fun and you’ll get it. These events can take a few fights, all labeled in length, difficulty and character level. Some of the modifiers can be silly, like playing at twice the speed, or sometimes annoying, like having random ice projectiles coming from above and a hit will freeze you at place. But still, it makes the tedium of fighting AI over and over again more meaningful.
It doesn’t work as similar to the first Injustice’s S.T.A.R. Lab mode. Think of the events to something similar offered with Mortal Kombat X’s Test Your Luck mode, but all the enemies and modifiers are given upfront.
If you are seeking for a more traditional experience, there is one world in the Multiverse that does not change in time. The Battle Simulator world houses an event similar to a Survival mode, an Endless mode, and three different lengths of a regular Arcade mode with no modifiers in place. And it really is an Arcade Mode but name, with Braniac being the last boss with more unfair moves, a character-specific ending and a credits roll once you’ve completed it.
All of these are rewarded in the same way as the rest of the Multiverse, a three-star scoring threshold that will give you loot boxes for reaching each one, but not repeatable. You do get various currencies if you complete the same event again, and sometimes an extra optional objective (like land a sweep move five times) in certain fights will net some credits if it’s completed. There’s also another Multiverse tied to the Guilds system where a small pool of players can band together and participate on harder events, with big rewards.
So if you’re the sort of gamer who rarely goes online in fighting games but wants to keep playing after you’ve done with the Story mode, Injustice 2 will keep you busy for a long while.
Stay tuned for more impressions as we work on the full review for Injustice 2.