Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Played through the single player last night and some of the side stuff. The blocking system is basically the SF one with MK popup attacks tossed in to the rock paper scissors system. Some characters are well designed and play very smoothly (Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow) and others just feel clunky and hard to use (Hawk Girl, Raven, Lex). Some of the modernized hero costumes and effects are a step back from MKvDC, in particular the Flash and Captain Marvel were a lot better designed (and played more fluidly) in that game than this one. The cast is enormous and the single player campaign was really well done (though you play way too much fucking batman for my liking), plus the voice acting was really well done with many of the classic voice actors reprising roles (no Hamill or Grey Delise unfortunately) from the various WB cartoons.
As for the mechanics, bear in mind that I am a casual fighting game fan (played shit tons of MK9 and some SF4 before it required Super Asian 3 levels of skill to get anywhere) so my take may be skewed, but here are my observations. The limited buttons and directionals on the control scheme kind of narrow the arsenal of many of the characters (but make playing a new character less frustrating) to about roughly half the variety of what MK9 had. This is not really a problem, in itself, as it made the balance a lot better between characters. The Clash system was a neat idea, but ultimately you are almost always going to bet max if you have the meter lead or nothing if you don't, so the whole wager idea kind of falls on its face. Environmental damage sources (area transitions and stage based attacks) seem to be fairly high in damage for how relatively easy they are to pull off, but they are fun and add some flavor to the stages. The most damaging attacks in the game are generally three hit spam combos capped off with a special move, which is where the imbalances start to creep in.
The major balance problems with this game right now are threefold:
The major one is that characters with a three attack one button combo that can be capped with a special using the same attack button are massively more easy to play than other characters with more complicated inputs. Batman, for example, has a three hit into grapple special that does 20% damage that is both easy as hell to get off and has good reach and speed. Doing something similar on, say, Superman or the Flash requires vastly more complicated inputs and timing and neither of those characters have descent reach, meaning the positioning is a lot harder to set up for it. This imbalance would not be as a big deal if it were not for the next issue.
Cross ups in this game are VERY powerful. This is one SF element that I kind of wish they had not adopted so heavily. There are certain characters with vertical normal and specials (Green Arrow and Cyborg the best examples) that can defend them very well, but the vast majority cast really do not have any sort of go to move to move to break out of someone crossing them up repeatedly. The crossup patterns seem to have priority over most wakeup moves, as well or are at least a 50/50. To further aggravate this issue, many of the characters with the best combo chains can go right into them from the same attack button on their crossups. Batman, the Joker, and Deathstroke in particular can chain a five hit crossover combo capped with a special for 20%+ damage with ludicrous ease all mashing the same button. Meanwhile you have characters with odd reach or complex inputs for combos like Hawk Girl, Lex, or Superman who cannot execute anything like that with even nearly the same degree of reliability. To make matters even worse, many of the characters lacking these easy crossups tend to have large hitboxes making them more vulnerable to crossups themselves. This issue is going to mean that casuals are going to get frustrated really easily and experts are going to basically use only a very limited handful of characters.
The Third issue is the imbalance between hero super moves. Lex and Cyborg's supers are basically useless against an opponent who is even remotely awake at their controller, while Batman and Green Arrow get repeatable projectiles to add to their already superior arsenals. The stance change supers are by far the worst. Either they are like Wonder Woman, where you change entire move sets and one is clearly superior and the other never used (Lasso vs Sword), or they are like Raven with limited duration and no real benefit to damage output. This would not be as big of a deal except that it seems like they gave the stronger supers to characters who were already really good to begin with (Superman's power being the notable exception), which seems to aggravate some of the other balance issues.
Overall, I like the game and will play it at least long enough to unlock everything, but it needs some balance tuning between the characters. Some characters just play clunky and I am not sure they can be fixed at all, particularly Raven, Hawk Girl, and Lex. The visuals are very entertaining and the graphics and sound really give it a solid comic book feel. Casual fighting fans who like comic books should give the full game a go for the story and single player modes. Serious fighting fans might want to hold off until they balance certain things.
As for the mechanics, bear in mind that I am a casual fighting game fan (played shit tons of MK9 and some SF4 before it required Super Asian 3 levels of skill to get anywhere) so my take may be skewed, but here are my observations. The limited buttons and directionals on the control scheme kind of narrow the arsenal of many of the characters (but make playing a new character less frustrating) to about roughly half the variety of what MK9 had. This is not really a problem, in itself, as it made the balance a lot better between characters. The Clash system was a neat idea, but ultimately you are almost always going to bet max if you have the meter lead or nothing if you don't, so the whole wager idea kind of falls on its face. Environmental damage sources (area transitions and stage based attacks) seem to be fairly high in damage for how relatively easy they are to pull off, but they are fun and add some flavor to the stages. The most damaging attacks in the game are generally three hit spam combos capped off with a special move, which is where the imbalances start to creep in.
The major balance problems with this game right now are threefold:
The major one is that characters with a three attack one button combo that can be capped with a special using the same attack button are massively more easy to play than other characters with more complicated inputs. Batman, for example, has a three hit into grapple special that does 20% damage that is both easy as hell to get off and has good reach and speed. Doing something similar on, say, Superman or the Flash requires vastly more complicated inputs and timing and neither of those characters have descent reach, meaning the positioning is a lot harder to set up for it. This imbalance would not be as a big deal if it were not for the next issue.
Cross ups in this game are VERY powerful. This is one SF element that I kind of wish they had not adopted so heavily. There are certain characters with vertical normal and specials (Green Arrow and Cyborg the best examples) that can defend them very well, but the vast majority cast really do not have any sort of go to move to move to break out of someone crossing them up repeatedly. The crossup patterns seem to have priority over most wakeup moves, as well or are at least a 50/50. To further aggravate this issue, many of the characters with the best combo chains can go right into them from the same attack button on their crossups. Batman, the Joker, and Deathstroke in particular can chain a five hit crossover combo capped with a special for 20%+ damage with ludicrous ease all mashing the same button. Meanwhile you have characters with odd reach or complex inputs for combos like Hawk Girl, Lex, or Superman who cannot execute anything like that with even nearly the same degree of reliability. To make matters even worse, many of the characters lacking these easy crossups tend to have large hitboxes making them more vulnerable to crossups themselves. This issue is going to mean that casuals are going to get frustrated really easily and experts are going to basically use only a very limited handful of characters.
The Third issue is the imbalance between hero super moves. Lex and Cyborg's supers are basically useless against an opponent who is even remotely awake at their controller, while Batman and Green Arrow get repeatable projectiles to add to their already superior arsenals. The stance change supers are by far the worst. Either they are like Wonder Woman, where you change entire move sets and one is clearly superior and the other never used (Lasso vs Sword), or they are like Raven with limited duration and no real benefit to damage output. This would not be as big of a deal except that it seems like they gave the stronger supers to characters who were already really good to begin with (Superman's power being the notable exception), which seems to aggravate some of the other balance issues.
Overall, I like the game and will play it at least long enough to unlock everything, but it needs some balance tuning between the characters. Some characters just play clunky and I am not sure they can be fixed at all, particularly Raven, Hawk Girl, and Lex. The visuals are very entertaining and the graphics and sound really give it a solid comic book feel. Casual fighting fans who like comic books should give the full game a go for the story and single player modes. Serious fighting fans might want to hold off until they balance certain things.
