The Injustice franchise offers fans of DC Comics the opportunity to answer the age old question, who would win in a fight between two of Comics headline heroes or villains, whether it be Doctor Fate vs. Swamp Thing or Harley Quinn vs. Captain Cold, the roster in Injustice 2 is impressively expansive, and the gameplay is as tight and as polished as any I have seen in the Fighting Game Genre in recent years. Happily from the standpoint of accessibility, most players with physical disabilities should be able to get something out of this game.
Historically, arcade style fighters have been difficult for most players with fine motor disabilities, due to their reliance on combos and their highly competitive online modes. Injustice 2 gets around these barriers by including a diverse enough roster that most players will be able to find someone that they can handle with little difficulty. Additionally, even if you never go online with Injustice 2, the game is still worth the $60 price tag, since in addition to a well written story mode, players can also dive into a series of mini-campaigns that ask players to complete a succession of matches with unique rules or move sets. In addition to the standard accessibility features that were present in the original Injustice such as fully remappable controller customization, Injustice 2 also gives players the opportunity to customize their characters in offline modes through unlocking loot and redeeming in game currency. This makes the offline experience much more customizable, ensuring that players with fine motor disabilities will be able to tailor the experience around their physical limitations.
Players with auditory disabilities should have no problem with the game, because apart from the story mode cut scenes, which are subtitled, nothing relies on the ability to hear or distinguish sounds. Injustice 2 even asks players whether they want subtitles on before the game launches. If there was one flaw in this games auditory accessibility, it would be that the subtitles do not feature dialogue tags, so in some cases it may be hard to figure out who’s talking, although context and visual cues make these issues rare, and they do not detract from the overall accessibility of Injustice 2.
In 2013, NetherRealm made waves among visually impaired gamers by including sound cues in the environment for when a player is close to an interactable object. This allows blind gamers such as Brandon Cole and Sightless Kombat to excel at these kind of games, despite being totally blind. In addition, nothing in Injustice seems to rely on color or fine detail, with the exception of the occasional mirror match, but these too are rare occurrences that may only affect two specific fights in the campaign.
Due to some staffing problems, we have been unable to review games this Spring, but now that things are getting back to normal, it was nice to start off our summer reviews with Injustice 2; a game that is completely barrier free.
Overall Rating: Barrier Free
Visual Rating: Barrier Free
Fine-Motor Rating: Barrier Free
Auditory Rating: Barrier Free
Released For: PS4, Xbox One
ESRB Rating: T
GameInformer Score: 9
This article has been transferred from DAGERSystem (now AbilityPoints). Scores, formatting, and writing style may differ from original CIPT content.
