Finally gotten around to playing Injustice 2, i know you suckers were all waiting to hear what i have to say, so i'll cut the intro short.
Many improvements have been made to the gameplay mechanics to make things more balanced and fun.
Throwable objects can now be blocked, they don't inflict as much damage and aren't as spammable as they used to be; Supermoves have been made easier to dodge and look a lot cooler in general; Clashes take up less time and have more unique character-specific dialogue; many character actions have been tweaked to be more unique. All good stuff.
I have no idea how characters fare against each others in a more competitive setting, as i'm very much still a scrub, so i won't comment on that. Only real criticism i can offer, the single life-bar system is still here and i still don't like it, otherwise this is a super fun game to play.
Like in the case of Injustice 1, try toying with the release check toggle both on or off to decide which one fits you best, as to avoid any possible frustration.
The Training mode has been greatly expanded from the prequel, offering lessons about not just the basic commands, but also for all sorts of scenarios and opportunities, adding TAS demonstrations to help make things clearer; they even made character-specific tutorials in case you wanna focus on your main. Lots of effort went into giving new players all the tools they need to git gud and it's very appreciated as someone who's always had a hard time mastering the genre, despite the love i have for it.
Ignoring the inevitable improvements on the realism that you'd expect in the generational gap between Injustice 1 and 2, the sequel moves away from the needlessly gritty and minimalist aesthetics that were in vogue by the time 1 came out, adding a lot more color to both arenas and costumes, making the UI more elaborate and offering a more intense soundtrack, even if this one is still not particularly memorable. The dialogue intros from Mortal Kombat have been implemented here as well, and while a few more lines are repeated from character to character than i'd like, this is still leagues above any other fighter that tries to have pre or post fight character interactions.
Like everything i just described, the Story mode has been considerably improved compared to its past iteration, having better written dialogues, better actors and better direction. Unfortunately the chapter system hinders what could have otherwise been a genuinely great story by filling it with jobber fights that feel out of nowhere and usually also lead nowhere, just for the sake of having 4 fights per chapter. The lame minigames have been replaced with being able to pick between 2 characters for certain fights, which i'd consider a mild upgrade, and doing all possible combinations allows you to see both endings. Gameplay-wise this is the classic NRS Story mode, offering little that makes it unique compared to regular CPU fights, unfortunately.
I listed so many things that Injustice 2 does better than the original, but there's one fatal flaw that drags the whole game down with it, rendering it in my opinion "only" as good as Injustice 1 overall, meaning that i found it to be still more than respectably rad. That fatal flaw is the Multiverse modes.
Simply put, these randomly generated events that get reset every few hours don't hold a candle to the S.T.A.R. Labs and all the variety and charm that mode offered.
Secondary objectives only appear once in a while and only one per fight, there's no special victory conditions, the modifiers have been heavily stripped down, no obstacle courses, no mini-games, no illustrations nor unique pre-fight dialogues, NOTHING. It's just ladder after ladder with the absolute barest story premise, with no connection whatsoever between the characters you have to fight or the one you have to use to get extra rewards. I HATE this mode.
And i don't just hate it because it's lame and uncreative, i hate it because everything about it makes the rest of the game worse. Instead of regular costumes, Injustice 2 introduces individual body parts that can be combined however you please; this should be cool as fuck, except to even get to wear them you need to grind Multiverse mode for each character you wanna dress up because all body parts have stats and level requirements. Not only that, while in some cases the rewards are fixed depending on what part of the game you're playing, the majority of equipment you unlock is through fucking lootboxes, adding an unnecessary element of randomness. NOT ONLY THAT, but color changes are prohibitely expensive and you will have to spend real life money to get the currency necessary to unlock more than a tiny handful of them.
There's actually a harder version of the Multiverse that does have static ladders, and apparently that's where you get to see the endings, but the requirements to even get to play any of them are straight up ridicoulus. You gotta grind your character to the max level, spend a certain amount of currency and some other arbitrary bullshit that does nothing but artificially inflate the length of the single player gameplay. This could have been a simple arcade ladder with no thrills and no gimmicks, but they had to overcomplicate it for the sake of it. [CORRECTION: you can access endings in the Battle Simulator, but it still works with the gear system, which is lame.]
Do you wanna know how little confidence the developers had in Multiverse being actually fun to play? They put the option to just let the AI play for you. I can't believe this isn't discussed more. They are so aware that the mode is shit that they will let it play itself. That is unbelievable to me.
I try my best to not throw the word enshittification around like i've seen some other people do, but Injustice 2 is the quintessential example of a good game being ruined because of it. It's not a game that strives to be an entertaining finite experience that values your time and your enjoyment, with carefully placed rewards, well thought out challenges and a difficulty that entirely depends on your skill. It's a phone game. And it's so much worse because i like the gameplay, i like the characters, i like the story, i like the graphics, i like everything about this game except how much contempt it has for you.