Info about Injustice™ 2:

Official game description:
Injustice™ 2 - Legendary Edition
================================
Power up and build the ultimate version of your favorite DC legends in INJUSTICE 2 – winner of IGN's best fighting game of 2017.
•ALL DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT CHARACTERS: Includes 10 additional characters and 5 Premiere Skins – including Hellboy and TMNT.
•EVERY BATTLE DEFINES YOU: With every match you'll earn gear to equip, customize and evolve your roster.
•A NEW THREAT RISES: Picking up where Injustice left off, Batman struggles against Superman's regime, as a new threat appears that will put Earth's very existence at risk.
•THE BEST OF DC: Choose from the biggest DC Universe roster ever and battle across iconic locations in epic scale battles.
•BUILT BY NETHERREALM: Developers of the best-selling and critically acclaimed MORTAL KOMBAT franchise.
About the Game
==============
Power up and build the ultimate version of your favourite DC legends in INJUSTICE 2.  
•EVERY BATTLE DEFINES YOU: With every match you'll earn gear to equip, customise and evolve your roster.  
•A NEW THREAT RISES: Picking up where Injustice left off, Batman struggles against Superman's regime, as a new threat appears that will put Earth's very existence at risk.  
•THE BEST OF DC: Choose from the biggest DC Universe roster ever and battle across iconic locations in epic-scale battles.  
•BUILT BY NETHERREALM: Developers of the best-selling and critically acclaimed MORTAL KOMBAT franchise.

Release date: Nov 30, 2017

Categories: Fighting Game, Character Customization, Equipment Customization, Single-player Story, Competitive Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 85; verdict: Predatory Monetization with Pay-to-Win and Lootboxes; summary: The game is a full-price title that additionally implements pay-to-win gear mechanics, real-money lootboxes (Mother Boxes), premium currency obfuscation, and aggressive DLC marketing. Multiple reviews confirm that spending real money provides direct gameplay advantages, placing it in the predatory monetization category.
- Wiki: score 10; verdict: The Tourist; summary: The primary user complaints are about technical bugs and crashes, which align with TIER 4 (The Tourist) – Spatial Data Dependency. Users need external data to fix game-breaking issues like crashes on alt-tab, audio failures, and graphics card recognition problems. No evidence of farming, inventory, or learning-related dependencies was found.
- Proton/Linux: score 30; verdict: Minor Tweaks; summary: The game appears to work well on Steam Deck for at least one user, but another user encountered issues requiring Proton version switching and file verification. This suggests minor tweaks may be needed for some Linux/Proton setups, but the game is generally playable.
- Steam Deck: score 75; verdict: Broken - Frequent crashes and stability issues; summary: Injustice 2 on Steam Deck suffers from frequent crashes, black screen issues (especially at high resolutions), and Denuvo-related performance problems. Sound may be missing, and users often need to try different Proton versions. While some report it runs well, the prevalence of stability bugs pushes the experience into the 'Broken' category.

- Hardware Profile:
  - Summary: Lower VRAM hardware reports severe optimization issues, while higher VRAM hardware experiences only minor lag in specific scenes.
  - Sample size: 61 (3% coverage)
  - Audience skew: Review sample is mostly Windows-based.
  - Windows <8GB VRAM (negative, 37 reports): Users report very poor optimization despite recommending the game.
  - Windows 12-15GB VRAM (positive, 9 reports): Users report minor lag in cutscenes and super moves, but overall performance is good.
  - Caveats: 61 of 2177 reviews expose hardware metadata.; Review sample is mostly Windows-based.
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $5.00 - $15.00
  - Reasoning: Multiple reviews indicate the base game is not worth its full price and should be purchased on sale. Specific price mentions range from $1.99 (extreme low) to $10-$15 (common sale prices). The majority of positive recommendations come at sale prices around $5-$10, with $15 being the upper bound for a fair deal considering the game's age and content. The evidence supports a fair base-game price range of $5 to $15 USD.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: N/A
  - Story completion: 5.5h
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: Multiple reviews consistently report story/campaign completion times between 3.5 and 8 hours, with the most common estimates around 5–6 hours. The median of the reported values (3.5, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 14.5) is approximately 5.5 hours, excluding the outlier 14.5 which may include side activities. Evidence for game completion, session length, and endgame is too vague or contradictory to extract a typical value.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: Injustice 2 offers immediate fun through its story mode and casual play with friends, but many players experience initial friction from its complex mechanics and gear grind, after which the game becomes highly addictive and enjoyable.
  - Stance: Clicks after
  - Anchor: After learning the game's mechanics and getting past the initial daunting complexity
  - Time to anchor: N/A
  - Friction: daunting number of mechanics and learning curve; gear grind and loot box system that feels tedious; AI cheating on higher difficulties; multiplayer connectivity issues and dead player base on PC; lack of local multiplayer functionality (bugged)
  - Unlock drivers: completing the in-depth tutorial; practicing and learning character moves; playing with friends in local or casual matches; engaging with the story mode
  - Conditions: playing with friends in local or casual matches; being a DC fan who enjoys the story and presentation; using the in-depth tutorial to understand mechanics; focusing on single-player story mode for immediate engagement
- Player Archetypes:
  - Story-Driven DC Enthusiast (sale)
    - Motivation: Experiencing the narrative and DC universe.
    - Playstyle: Plays through story mode, may dabble in single-player multiverse, avoids competitive multiplayer.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: DC fan; story player; casual
    - Reference games: Mortal Kombat; Injustice 1
  - Competitive Purist (no buy)
    - Motivation: Mastering mechanics and competing on equal footing.
    - Playstyle: Practices combos, plays ranked, seeks balanced matches, avoids gear-dependent modes.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: no buy
    - Labels: competitive player; fighting game veteran; skill-based
    - Reference games: Mortal Kombat; Street Fighter; Tekken
  - Casual Customizer / Grinder (sale)
    - Motivation: Progression, customization, and completion.
    - Playstyle: Grinds multiverse mode, farms gear, levels characters, may use AI farming to reduce grind.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: completionist; grinder; collector
    - Reference games: Mortal Kombat 11; Destiny
  - Local Multiplayer Party Player (no buy)
    - Motivation: Social fun and casual play with friends.
    - Playstyle: Plays local versus with friends, button-mashing, casual matches, not competitive.
    - Experience: newcomer
    - Purchase stance: no buy
    - Labels: casual player; party gamer; friend group
    - Reference games: Mortal Kombat; Super Smash Bros.


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Combat is satisfying and deep (weight 0.58): Multiple reviews highlight the combat as fun, satisfying, and playable with more content than the first generation. The controls are tight, combos work, and meter burns add depth, making it a solid core fighting experience without team-ups.
- Graphics and presentation are top-tier (weight 0.56): The game is praised for its phenomenal gameplay, story, and graphics. Good effects, animations, sound, music, and voice acting contribute to a top-tier presentation with beautiful graphics and top-tier animations.
- Story is entertaining and good (weight 0.46): The story is consistently praised as quite nice, entertaining, super cool, excellent, and good. It is a standout feature that players enjoy.
- Characters are fun and iconic (weight 0.38): Characters are described as fun, badass, and appealing, with a stacked roster of iconic DC characters. Female characters are also noted as appealing.
- Single player offers good value (weight 0.26): The single-player campaign is considered worth it at the price point or sale price, and is described as fun. This indicates good value for solo players.
- Superhero IP use is interesting (weight 0.24): The use of superhero IPs, DC characters, and the DC universe is highlighted as interesting and a key appeal.
- Music is great (weight 0.09): One review specifically mentions great music, highlighting the audio quality.
- More playable than Injustice 1 (weight 0.09): One review states the game is more playable than Injustice 1, suggesting improvements over the predecessor.
- Tutorial is detailed and helpful (weight 0.09): A good tutorial with detailed operation demonstrations is noted, helping new players learn the game.
- Equipment system is cool initially (weight 0.09): The equipment system seems cool initially, though it may not hold up long-term.
- Controls are tight (weight 0.09): Controls are described as tight, a positive for gameplay responsiveness.
- Online has fair play option (weight 0.09): Online play allows disabling gear bonuses for fair play, a appreciated feature.
- Brainiac is a cool villain (weight 0.09): Brainiac is noted as a cool villain, adding to the story's appeal.
- Abilities and powers are awesome (weight 0.09): Awesome abilities and powers are highlighted, adding to the combat's appeal.

Common complaints:
- Broken multiplayer experience (weight 0.75): Multiplayer is severely broken with constant desync errors, disconnections, and incompatibility with Windows 11. This makes online play nearly impossible.
- Frequent random crashes (weight 0.41): The game crashes frequently and randomly, making it unplayable for many users. This is a high-priority issue due to its frequency and severity.
- Worse than MK11 (weight 0.31): Players compare this game unfavorably to Mortal Kombat 11, saying it is worse. This suggests a decline in quality.
- Intrusive Denuvo DRM (weight 0.26): Denuvo DRM is intrusive, causes performance issues, and is still present after 8 years. This frustrates players who expect it to be removed.
- Security certificate popup (weight 0.25): A persistent security certificate expired popup annoys players. This is a technical issue that needs fixing.
- Spyware in game (weight 0.2): The game contains Red Shell spyware, raising privacy concerns. This is a serious issue for players.
- Terrible input lag (weight 0.19): Input delay and lag make controls feel unresponsive. This affects gameplay quality significantly.
- Excessive microtransactions (weight 0.19): Microtransactions are pervasive, making the game feel like a cash grab. This is a major complaint.
- Mediocre mechanics (weight 0.18): Game mechanics are considered mediocre or bad, affecting core gameplay enjoyment.
- Poor ultrawide support (weight 0.17): Ultrawide support is inconsistent or missing, disappointing players with such monitors.
- Weak story (weight 0.16): The story could be better, but this is a vague and less critical complaint.

Gameplay feedback:
- Fighting mechanics and comparisons (weight 0.76): The game is described as a fighting game similar to Mortal Kombat, Tekken, KOF, and Street Fighter, with mechanics like blocking, pre-input combos, and fast-paced combat. However, it lacks hit-confirm and requires frame-perfect blocks, making it feel like a button masher.
- AI difficulty and balance issues (weight 0.58): The AI is aggressive and spams attacks, with difficulty balancing issues even on normal difficulty. Bosses, including the final boss, are particularly challenging, and there are character balance disparities and power scaling problems.
- Gear and loot box system (weight 0.54): The game features a gear system with cosmetic loadouts and loot boxes for gear attributes and costumes. Premium skins are available, but the Legendary Edition does not include all skins, leading to a grind for equipment.
- Story and multiverse modes (weight 0.24): There is a story mode and a Legendary Multiverse mode, allowing players to replay chapters with different characters.
- Online multiplayer with rollback (weight 0.18): The game includes an online multiplayer mode with rollback netcode, which is a positive feature for competitive play.
- Local multiplayer limitations (weight 0.1): In local multiplayer, the second player cannot use loadouts, which limits customization and fairness.

Performance notes:
- Severe performance and stuttering (weight 0.74): Multiple players report severe performance issues including lag, stuttering, and low FPS, making the game unplayable even on high-end hardware like Ryzen 5600 and RTX 4060.
- Frequent and random crashes (weight 0.74): The game crashes frequently during startup, level selection, randomly, and even during AI matches, rendering it unplayable for many users.
- Online and server issues (weight 0.45): Online features suffer from server connectivity issues, desync, hit-or-miss netcode, login problems, and security certificate errors.
- Alt-tab and resolution problems (weight 0.26): Alt-tabbing causes crashes or system freezes, and resolution issues force players to use borderless windowed mode.
- Audio issues and sync problems (weight 0.25): Audio issues include sound driver problems on launch, audio sync issues, and general audio being broken.
- 30 FPS lock in cutscenes (weight 0.19): The game is locked to 30 FPS in cutscenes and super moves, and some players report a general 30 FPS lock.
- Denuvo causes performance issues (weight 0.11): Denuvo DRM is blamed for causing performance issues in the game.
- Controller input mapping broken (weight 0.11): Controller input mapping is broken, affecting gameplay for controller users.

Recommendations:
- Strongly not recommended (weight 0.93): Many players strongly advise against purchasing the game, citing it as a waste of money and time. They express regret and recommend avoiding it entirely.
- Technical issues abound (weight 0.61): The game has various technical problems including desync on Windows 11, certificate issues, inconsistent ultrawide support, and general optimization issues. Players recommend testing immediately for refund.
- For fighting game fans only (weight 0.52): The game is primarily recommended for fighting game enthusiasts or those who enjoy a challenge. Casual players or non-fighting game fans may not enjoy it.
- Only worth on sale (weight 0.38): Some players suggest the game is only worth buying at a heavy discount or in a bundle. They feel the full price is not justified.
- Story and graphics praised (weight 0.35): A minority of players recommend the game for its story, graphics, or single-player content, especially at a discount. It may appeal to fans of the first game.
- Wait for next installment (weight 0.24): Some players suggest waiting for a future installment (Injustice 3) rather than buying this game. They feel the previous game is better.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.4): Players are experiencing frequent crashes, stun locks, and server issues that prevent gameplay. The game also suffers from poor optimization, a grindy gear system with RNG, and unfair AI difficulty, leading to a frustrating experience.
- Disappointment (weight 0.2): Players feel the game is let down by poor PC optimization, shallow story mode, and intrusive microtransactions. Issues like desync errors on Windows 11 and lack of gore further diminish the experience.
- Anger (weight 0.2): High cost combined with non-functional servers, constant disconnects, and bugs like login issues and bad keybindings anger players. The grind, lootboxes, and broken characters compared to Mortal Kombat also fuel this emotion.
- Dislike (weight 0.03): The gear system is specifically disliked for its impact on gameplay and progression.
- Excitement (weight 0.03): Players are excited by the excellent story, fun combat, and great music, which stand out as positive aspects.
- Joylessness (weight 0.03): The game feels soulless and like going through the motions, lacking emotional engagement.
- Regret (weight 0.03): Players regret the purchase, feeling it was not worth the cost due to various issues.
- Annoyance (weight 0.03): A certificate popup is a minor but persistent annoyance for players.
- Resignation (weight 0.03): With the online community dead, some players resign to suggesting pirating as an alternative.
- Warning (weight 0.03): Players warn others about misleading bundle pricing that can trap buyers.}