Forget for a moment the mediocrity of Gotham Knights and the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (which seems to be headed in the same direction). In the end, while DC has been erratic when it comes to movies, the truth is that it’s done quite well when it comes to video games, with Batman being possibly the best-titled comic book hero of them all.
Then there’s the Injustice games, the Lego franchise, and even DC Universe Online, which was hugely successful and remains hugely popular to this day. With that in mind, and the first impressions of our UK colleagues, it’s no surprise that when DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos came my way I was quick to grab the test code. In a way it was similar to Minecraft Dungeons and considering all the hours of fun I put into it I was excited to get started.
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And the intro didn’t put me off. The Justice League has been shown enjoying itself in the idyllic port town of Happy Harbour, aptly named, when they are suddenly faced with a series of fifth dimensional problems in the form of Mxyzptlk and his minions. Starro also accompanies her and together they gain control of almost the entire Justice League. And I say “almost” because Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman manage to escape in an incredibly wonderful and beautifully animated intro.
This colorful trio makes up the options you get to choose in the game, which is surprisingly well designed to appeal to both longtime DC fans and younger ones, which I think are its core audience. My early guess that the game would be similar to Minecraft Dungeons turned out to be pretty accurate, but we can also compare it to Lego games. Ultimately, DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos is sort of a mix of both.
There is a lot to discover in Happy Harbor and as it should be full of secrets to discover, such as hidden comics that also give you cosmetic bonuses but also fast travel points and much more. Exploration is fun, especially since you can do it with other players in co-op, but the world serves as the basic RPG premise (there are even sidequests). As such, you may visit places you are not prepared for and get a good scare. Thanks to this aspect, the colorful adventure is more or less challenging even for me as an experienced player, although the younger ones will also have fun. Of course, there are also difficulty levels to further even out the difficulty and make sure nobody gets bored.
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The graphics are very appealing and made in a nice style reminiscent of the cartoons popular in the 80’s and the first half of the 90’s.Thanks to the surprisingly well-written story, the presentation of this game is on another level. If we add to this a great dubbing and a good one fan service
Combat is of course a very important part of DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite live up to the game at any level. The problem is that the system lacks any real depth, making things a bit monotonous. Of course, we can also criticize the lack of variety in the fights when we compare them to the Knock her down Classics, but these were usually only an hour or two long and had an exceptional level of difficulty for those wanting to go further. The variety in this game is mostly about different characters with unique traits, which boils down to certain characters being automatically better against certain enemies.
Gradually, however, the superhero trio will gain more abilities and you can choose which ones to activate. I personally think Wonder Woman is my favorite because she can cause shockwaves that hit enemies around her and makes sure there aren’t too many enemies around her. Each character has a super attack that has a time limit so you can’t abuse it. Also, the Justice League members that freed you from Mxyzptlk and Starro can come to your aid as if it were some sort of bonus attack.
As I said before, I had high hopes for DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos, although it didn’t strike me as a game of the year contender. It turned out exactly as I expected. A fun co-operative superhero adventure, a very well written screenplay and lots of love from DC for all ages. Of course it would have been nice to have a deeper combat system and a bigger game world, and in fact I can’t think of a song from the game’s soundtrack. However, if you like Lego, Minecraft Dungeons, and DC games in general, I highly recommend it. Without a doubt, my grade (a 7) is much closer to an 8 than a 6.
