Firestorm Injustice 2 Battle Simulator

Media type: Video Game
Title: Injustice 2 (Legendary Edition)
Released: May 11, 2017
Format: PS4
Played before?: Yes

Hey peeps and welcome to a written playthrough of Injustice 2, specifically the Battle Simulator. I mean, other visual mediums use written reviews. Sure, they focus more on the content as a whole and are better written, but...I’m not really selling reading this playthrough, am I?

Today’s focus is on Firestorm’s advanced battle simulator. As always, it’s played on very easy and Firestorm started out at level 4.

As I’ve admitted many times over on various characters in these simulator playthroughs, I don’t know anything about DC characters. Therefore, I don’t really understand Firestorm as a character. So, from what I’ve gathered, it’s two separate people who merge together to create Firestorm. It’s one person’s body and another’s brain but they seemingly both coexist at the same time. Like, that they can communicate with each other. Yeah, I should probably get on with watching and/or reading more DC to understand this character.

Fight 1: Gorilla Grodd

I mean, the other levels that have a stage transition can start in either place. Can’t this one start in the Armory stage a few times? I don’t understand the need, besides the fact that it (most likely) makes it easier to program the battle simulators if they start and end in the same place.

Firestorm is not a character I play well with. I feel I say that with most characters on the simulator, but I don’t get his attacks. Mostly, I feel that I can only do the minimal basic attacks with the character. That stems from getting the nuclear reaction symbol that does nothing. I feel that if there is an attack that’s not going to help me, it will be the only attack I will find consistently. I’m sure it does actually do something, but as stated numerous times before, I’m not smart enough for that.

I used a super move and ended the fight.

Fight 2: Green Lantern

The fight took place in Gorilla City, another favorite stage of the simulator.

This one was significantly harder. As usual, the AI really loves the environmental interactions in the stage. I mean, I do too, but I feel I’m hit with them more than I hit the AI with them. For some stupid reason, I decided to check out what Firestorm’s character power is. I don’t know what it is. It just made his fire blue instead of red. Again, I’m sure it’s actually helpful. I’m just an idiot when it comes to video games. I’ve accepted this fact and am now torturing you with my idiocy.

Green Lantern did get a super move hit on me because I always forget that his move comes from above, rather than an actual hit from the character. It was here where I realized that somehow, fighting with Firestorm was going downhill quicker than I thought.

I used my super move and ended the match.

Fight 3: Atom

The fight took place at Slaughter Swamp. Honestly, the battle simulator really seems to prefer the stages with no level transition over the levels with a transition.

The fight had a challenge attached to use 9 light attacks. That was a challenge actually completed. I like it when they are simple challenges over the complicated ones that I know I can’t perform.

So, for the last two fights, I’ve been bitching about how I can’t fight with Firestorm. For this fight, I absolutely swear that it was a perfect match. I didn’t get hit once. I swear it. My health bar didn’t move. According to the game, it wasn’t. The only thing I can think of that might have minimally affected my health was that Atom blew up one of the interactables right when I knocked him down a health bar. I would’ve been far enough away that it didn’t affect me that much, but still. It’s at this point that I kind of miss the point style of the first Injustice game, namely that I would see exactly what earned me points each fight rather than waiting for a tally at the end.

I used my super move and ended the match.

Fight 4: Harley Quinn

The fight started at the Front Gates of Arkham Asylum before transitioning to the Cell Block. The Front Gates are another rarity stage to start on, so it was nice to see.

Harley knocked me back down from my high of having an almost perfect fight. It’s not that she was extremely hard, she was just harder than Atom who put up no fight. It reaffirmed for me that the previous fight was a fluke and that I still have no clue how to play with Firestorm.

I used my super move to end the match. Firestorm leveled up to level 5.

Fight 5: Donatello

This fight took place in the Power Core stage of Red Sun Prison.

I feel like TMNT is always the weirdest to fight. Half the time, I forget that they are a legitimate part of the game. They almost seem too light-hearted for this serious of a game. I’m not saying that humor can’t be injected into the game, just that TMNT doesn’t have the right humor for the setting.

Since the Turtles appear so rarely, I never really noticed that each Turtle has their own character power. At least, Donatello has a different one. It wasn’t calling on the other Turtles to attack, like I know Leonardo’s is. His power was setting some sort of bomb down that usually did nothing anyway. I like that they would have different powers because they are actually four different turtles.

I, unfortunately, missed my super move and had to finish the fight normally.

Fight 6: Raiden

This fight took place in Joker’s Playground. Yet another stage with no transition.

This had a challenge attached to use 3 heavy attacks. Again, a challenge I could understand and complete. I appreciate those because I know those meter burn challenges are always looming.

Raiden kept lightning dashing me across the stage. That’s really annoying because I feel blocking didn’t actually help. Between that and the interactables, Raiden damaged me pretty good.

Something worth mentioning is that Raiden initiated a clash. Now, clashes get initiated all of the time during the battle simulator. I don’t ever mention them because I always throw them in order to preserve the meter so that I can use my super move later. This clash was different. Despite having a full meter, Raiden wagered nothing in the clash. I have never seen the AI do that before. I don’t know if it’s because the AI knew that it was performing their super move next (which missed) or what, but it was truly bizarre.

I used my super move and finished the fight.

Fight 7: Enchantress

The fight started in Black Adam’s Palace and moved to the Rock of Eternity. Again, with starting at a different stage transition than usual. It’s like they’re taunting me that I’m never going to see the Armory in the Bat Cave.

This wasn’t a terrible fight. The AI relied on the demons to fight for her, which is what should happen. I learned that when I played her simulator. For once, I don’t have a lot to say about this fight except that it happened and I won with a super move.

Fight 8: Brainiac

The past few simulators, Brainiac had been an easier fight than normal. Here is where he returned to form, much to my delight. I say it was a delight because he should be that bitch I don’t want to fight. He used his tentacles. He summoned his purple lasers. He did everything that I expected from fighting him. He even almost knocked me down a health bar. That hasn’t happened in a bit. I never expect Brainiac to be an easy fight because he has too many variables that he uses to his advantage. I’m always just happy to know that I’m still not really that good against him.

The Ending

Here’s where not understanding how exactly Firestorm works comes into play. As stated above, I understand that Firestorm exists when two people are fused together, somehow. How those two people exist as one entity in Firestorm is a different story. Firestorm uses the nuclear option and destroys Brainiac’s ship along with his collection. Because of the backlash, Professor Stein and Jason choose to go their separate ways in order to not use that option again. I guess I just don’t understand the fusion aspect. Not that they can fuse together, but why it’s the two of them and how it works? I’m sure if I understood the character a little more, the ending would make way more sense to me than it does.

Overall Score: 1,004,555

I was feeling kind of good that Firestorm might actually break into the top 5. Missing a super move and not actually getting the perfect match dampened the feeling.

Top Five Ranking of Characters:

1. Catwoman (1,063,054)
2. Green Arrow (1,057,829)
3. Doctor Fate (1,040,263)
4. Cyborg (1,030,601)
5. Swamp Thing (1,027,787)

Until the next battle, where the above list will never change.