Injustice: Gods Among Us for iPhone

DC heroes and villians

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a collectible card game mixed with a fighting game. The core of the game is a three-versus-three touch-based brawler with the collectible cards used to expand your roster of heroes and villains.

Enter the DC universe

The best aspect of Injustice: Gods Among Us is that you can play as many of the heroes and villains that exist in the DC comic book universe. You create three person teams that can be a combination of heroes and villains.

Characters are unlocked by earning or purchasing their individual card which can be switched out to create your custom team. There are other cards that can be used as boosters to aid you in battle. The leveling system in Injustice: Gods Among Us is basic with characters gaining experience after battles.

As you work through the different fights, your team will need to rest to gain their strength back or you can use a card to replenish their health. It also costs power to fight each match so you may quickly find yourself waiting to fight again.

Touch and swipe

Injustice: Gods Among Us borrows the controls that Batman Arkham City Lockdown previously used. You swipe or tap the screen for various attacks and press and hold to block. Combat is not very difficult and is more of an attack-and-wait type of game.

The graphics in Injustice: Gods Among Us are not the same quality as the console versions, but it works well for mobile devices. Smaller screens are a little more difficult to play on as your fingers will cover the screen a lot of the time.

You can also purchase characters and booster packs with in-app purchases if you really want the main DC characters that are locked from the beginning of the game.

Repetitive combat combined with a waiting game

There is not much to experience after playing Injustice: Gods Among Us for a couple rounds. The combat is repetitive and it never feels fulfilling. Another problem is that the roster of characters you are originally given does not consist of the more recognizable DC characters.

Even though characters have different move sets, the controls are all the same so you end up attacking and blocking repeatedly.

The card system sounds interesting, but it does not provide a lot of depth. You can unlock items for the console version of the game and unlock items for the mobile version, but it never feels like there is a reason why Injustice: Gods Among Us exists.

This mobile version feels more like a tie-in with recycled controls and new character skins.

Pass unless you love DC Comics

Injustice: Gods Among Us is another example of how in-app purchases make a game less fun and more frustrating. It would have been better if Injustice: Gods Among Us was a paid game and you got all the characters at once.

Having to either unlock or purchase character cards is annoying and does not add to the gameplay. Even combat costs energy to play so you end up waiting to continue playing.

Injustice: Gods Among Us could have been a good mobile version of the fighting game, but it comes across as a quick free-to-play cash grab.