Red Hood 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 think I’ve hit the halfway point here. Of course, that’s if anyone actually cares to read about badly played video games.

It’s Red Hood’s turn in the battle simulator. He starts off at level 3 on the very easy difficulty.

Fight 1: Black Canary

We start off at Brother Eye in the Bat Cave. What a new revelation. Not.

This had a challenge attached to use 3 jump attacks. I did not complete this challenge because Red Hood is not a good airborne character. To be fair, he and I are not a good fit as we are going to find out throughout this post.

Right off the bat, I almost got knocked down a full health bar this fight. This is the first goddamn fight. It’s supposed to be relatively easy but Black Canary was not holding anything back. She kept getting me in her version of the Black Widow headlock throw and it was not pretty. I kept doing that gun twirl move which is not helpful because it doesn’t actually do anything. (Spoiler Alert: I do find out that it is a real move. I just don’t know how to use it properly. What’s new?)

I did get to use a super move to end the match.

Fight 2: Bane

This started at the Empire Theatre and moved to the Prop Room. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this stage. I always seem to get the non-transition levels when I play the simulator.

Bane got first hit, probably because I was busy twirling the guns. He proceeded to dive bomb me multiple times in the match. Actually, that was just the theme of most fights. Everyone just really wanted to tackle Red Hood. Not even most of their other moves. Just tackle.

I was still doing terribly here. Red Hood’s gadgets aren’t as intuitive as Batman’s. I couldn’t figure out how to get him to shoot the stupid guns he kept twirling. Ninja stars were thrown at no one in particular. The grenade kept blowing up just beyond my opponent. His normal hits aren’t anything special since he’s not enhanced. I basically had no confidence in myself.

I finished the fight with a super move.

Fight 3: Superman

This took place in the Fortress of Solitude, which did mean I kicked Superman into his stupid statue. I don’t really understand why the Fortress looks so vastly different between Injustice 1 and 2. I honestly prefer the look of Injustice 1’s better. It just fits Superman so much more. I’m to assume that Wonder Woman did some redecorating in Superman’s absence? Which doesn’t fully make sense because she’s supposed to be hiding in Kahndaq with Black Adam and Supergirl in the story until they free Superman.

I started to get a small handle on how to fight with Red Hood. It mainly involved not pressing the square button since I did realize that the twirling gun move happened from a button combination there. It still wasn’t great, but I didn’t feel like I was losing the fight as horribly as the previous two fights. Superman tried to use his super move and failed.

I did use my super move and finished the fight. Red Hood went up to level 4.

Fight 4: Batman

This fight took place in the Command Center in Atlantis. This is another stage I don’t see often, so I was happy to see it now.

Sometimes, the character banter in the beginning seems generic. Obviously, it’s not easy to write multiple conversations between all of these characters in different combinations. I do feel that characters that have a little more history should have a better banter. I’m not saying that this one was horrible between Red Hood and Batman. It hit the correct notes of the fundamental difference between the two. It just felt like the history between the two would have made it a little more meaningful.

Here’s where the game tried to give me some false confidence. It pretended that I knew what I was doing with Red Hood when I knew I did not. I took down Batman relatively easily. That should not have happened like that. I knew that this confidence would be shattered soon, but I rolled with it in the meanwhile.

A super move finished the fight.

Fight 5: Black Manta

This took place at Memorial Station in Metropolis.

All that false confidence from the last fight? Gone. Goddamn Black Manta is a powerhouse. He took me down so many times with his stupid spear gun. He got to use his super move, which knocked me down to one health bar. He was so tough and I don’t understand why. Well, I kind of do. There is a reason I like to fight with Black Manta. I mean, there was a point where I thought I was going to lose the fight.

It would’ve helped if I didn’t find another not useful move in Red Hood’s arsenal. That would be the crouch and gun-tap move. I did not ever find out if the move was actually worth anything, but it was rather annoying on top of the gun twirling move.

I finally got to use a super move and ended the fight.

Fight 6: Aquaman

This one took place in the Cell Block at Arkham Asylum. This simulator was full of stages I never get to play and I was grateful for that.

There was a challenge attached to not use a super move in the fight. I ignored that because I was already not doing well with Red Hood. I needed all the advantages I could get. Especially because Aquaman has his stupid trident to throw all of the time. That took me down a lot. The fight was also marred with the gun tap move again. I really don’t know what it’s supposed to do.

I used a super move and ended the fight. Red Hood moves up to level 5.

Fight 7: Cheetah

This fight took place at Joker’s Playground.

Cheetah is usually an easier fight, so I was happy to see her. I wasn’t happy to see her continuously do her version of the Black Widow headlock takedown on me, multiple times. It was this fight where I learned that the gun twirling move does actually do damage. My opponent just has to be attacking while I do the move for Red Hood to actually shoot them. If there’s anything we’ve learned, I’m not good with timing. Or combat. Or video games. I pretend to persevere anyways.

A super move ended the fight.

Fight 8: Brainiac

I was not looking forward to this one. I hadn’t been performing well with Red Hood. I still barely knew how to attack. I know Brainiac can do some serious damage. Yet, he was easier than a lot of the other fights. I don’t get it. Sure, he damaged me with the stupid floor tentacle and a few other moves. Overall, he really wasn’t the worst fight for the simulator, which is saying something.

I used a super move and ended the fight.

The Ending

I really like Red Hood’s ending. It speaks true to the real issue at hand with Batman vs. Superman. He makes the point that they are both right. Horrible people with no hope of rehabilitation shouldn’t be allowed to be completely free. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be up to a small group of highly biased individuals to make that decision. The biggest point he makes is that the two are ignoring the true people in danger. I imagine there are so many innocent people getting swept up in the fight that are getting hurt and killed because these two are at a severe fundamental disagreement. Neither side is working perfectly and they aren’t seeing the true consequences of their actions. I like that he took the third option against both of them, because so many of the other heroes and villains are against one or the other.

Overall Score: 976,910

He scored higher than I thought, but not even close enough to crack the top 5. I don’t know what kind of magic these five hold on these spots, but they’re still here.

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 I can fail miserably some more and mock myself in written form.