DC Injustice: Gods Among Us Demo Now Available + Character List

I wasn't tremendously excited for this game, but I'm very excited for the toyline (more on that here), and the comic leading up to it is great so far.  I like fighting games, but I never can really get into them.  I play for a round or two, and then I do something else.  Well today, the demo for Injustice: Gods Among Us was released!

It plays like you would expect, it's a DC heroes and villains based fighting game.  It's one on one just like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.  It plays a lot like Mortal Kombat VS DCU, which is no surprise.  It is on a two dimensional playing field like the most recent Mortal Kombat was though, which in my opinion is nice.

The demo features three playable characters and one non-playable character.  It includes Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday as a boss.  I tried what I would call "classic" mode.  Here is it called Battle, but you just fight everyone until you reach the top, being the boss.

Gameplay mechanics are what you would expect, but they still feel fresh.  It's game has rounds like any other fighting game, but they are done a little differently.  Each character has two health bars, kind of like one made of armor and one made of health.  After your armor is depleted, the game kind of takes few second pause while the enemy gets up, then the battle continues.  There isn't any text that says round two or anything like that, it is seamless.  Furthermore, health doesn't respawn between rounds.  For example, when I was playing at Batman, Wonder Woman drained half my armor, then I finished off her armor.  When she stood back up with just her health bar left, I still had half my armor left.  It makes it seem like one big battle instead of multiple rounds, which is nice.

There are also some environmental things involved in battles.  These can be turned off, but I think they are fun.  For example, when fighting Doomsday on a Gotham rooftop, Batman was thrown into the Bat signal, then I kicked Doomsday into a helicopter.  The environmental effects didn't seem to do huge damage, so I don't think they are overpowered necessarily.  Should be interesting since we won't have multiple area battlefields like MK VS DCU or Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

Overall, this is looking like a great game.  It played very well, and is very polished.  Definitely give it a download and at least try it, it isn't going to cost you anything!

Here is the playable character list so far:

1. Aquaman: King of Atlantis.  Joke all you want, but he is cool now.
2. Ares: Greek god or war, adversary to Wonder Woman.
3. Bane: Venom induced rage monster.  Hopefully he gets a figure in the toyline!
4. Batman: He is the God damn Batman.  Voiced Kevin Conroy or Batman TAS and Arkham games series fame!
5. Black Adam: Shazam, Captain Marvel, Black Adam, whatever.  
6. Catwoman: Batman's famous feline villain/ally.
7. Cyborg: Half human half robot, genius IQ, super strength, and very durable.
8. Deathstroke: World's deadliest assassin.  Think Deadpool without the comedy and less crazy.
9. Doomsday: Very powerful super villain.  Defeated Superman once...
10. The Flash: The lightning fast Justice Leaguer himself.
11. Green Arrow: DC's Hawkeye, or maybe Hawkeye is Marvel's Green Arrow.  Either way, crime fighter with a bow an arrow.  Voiced by TV's Stephen Amell from the show Arrow.
12. Green Lantern: The first silver age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.  Voiced by Ryan Reynolds.  Ha, just kidding.
13. Harley Quinn: Joker's squeeze and right hand woman.  Tara Strong will be reprising her role from the Arkham series, as well as doing the voice of Raven.
14. Hawkgirl: I'm not sure which Hawkgirl this is, so I'll just say it is Hawkgirl.
15. The Joker: Batman's number one adversary.  Not Mark Hamill apparently.
16. Killer Frost: Not sure how she is going to fit in, but I would assume she will be working for Lex Luthor at some point.
17. Lex Luthor: Superman's number one villain.  While a normal human, he is extremely intelligent and as equal threat as anyone else.
18. Nightwing: The original Robin.  Not a fan of his design, but as one of my favorite characters, I can't wait.
19. Raven: Of Teen Titans fame.
20. Shazam: Given powers of flight, super strength, and speed at a young age, this magic based hero can go toe to toe with Superman.
21. Sinestro: Green Lantern archenemy.  Can be seen fighting Superman in one of the trailers.
22. Solomon Grundy: Based on the old English nursery rhyme, Grundy was featured as a boss in the museum in Arkham City.  Should fit in quite well here.
23. Superman: A man that is super.
24. Wonder Woman: Equipped with the lasso of truth as well as her bracelets and tiaras to stop incoming attacks, she can fly and is very capable of holding off Superman for some time.

Hopefully, we will gets more characters, but even if we don't, 24 is plenty for me!