Obly
Ambiguous world creator
I'm curious to hear the thoughts and opinions of the community on this one.
I've just started trying to pick up Injustice 2, so I've done a lot of general reading to see what people think of the game, and also watched several tournament streams to get a sense of what high-level competitive play is like. And I couldn't help but notice the glaring gap between the two.
One of the biggest complaints among general players is that I2 is nothing but a zoning game: The gameplay heavily encourages and rewards spamming projectiles, only the super-zoner characters are any good, and thus the whole game is a boring spamfest...yada yada yada.
But for the most part, this isn't at all what pro players do. I just finished watching SCR for example, and it was dominated by rushdown characters like Black Canary, Robin, Flash, and Catwoman. Even when someone picked a potential zoner (Blue Beetle, Black Adam, Cyborg), you saw balanced gameplay between use of projectiles and combo strings. Tweedy's Starfire was the only true zoner and he got mowed down pretty hard. Yeah, I know he took Combo Breaker with his zoning SF, but clearly the other pros learned the MU and adapted pretty easily.
So what's behind this common myth that I2 is nothing but a zoner's paradise...?
I mean, I get that there is a huge skill difference between casual and pro players that comes from training and experience. But that doesn't explain everything. There is also a huge skill difference between Little League and Major League baseball players, but it's still easy to recognize that LL players are practicing and using the same skills that ML players use; it's mostly just the execution that needs to improve (and the strength and coordination that comes with age, of course).
Here, it seems to be the case instead that most casual I2 players gave up on practicing pro skills (or never started in the first place) and just settled for spamming projectiles and playing keep-away. And it became so widespread, it gave rise to a myth that were no pro skills and zoning was all there is.
What's behind this? Overly complicated controls? Poor tutorial modes? A player community unsupportive of newbies? And more importantly, how does it get fixed going forward so NRS games stay alive and well?
I've just started trying to pick up Injustice 2, so I've done a lot of general reading to see what people think of the game, and also watched several tournament streams to get a sense of what high-level competitive play is like. And I couldn't help but notice the glaring gap between the two.
One of the biggest complaints among general players is that I2 is nothing but a zoning game: The gameplay heavily encourages and rewards spamming projectiles, only the super-zoner characters are any good, and thus the whole game is a boring spamfest...yada yada yada.
But for the most part, this isn't at all what pro players do. I just finished watching SCR for example, and it was dominated by rushdown characters like Black Canary, Robin, Flash, and Catwoman. Even when someone picked a potential zoner (Blue Beetle, Black Adam, Cyborg), you saw balanced gameplay between use of projectiles and combo strings. Tweedy's Starfire was the only true zoner and he got mowed down pretty hard. Yeah, I know he took Combo Breaker with his zoning SF, but clearly the other pros learned the MU and adapted pretty easily.
So what's behind this common myth that I2 is nothing but a zoner's paradise...?
I mean, I get that there is a huge skill difference between casual and pro players that comes from training and experience. But that doesn't explain everything. There is also a huge skill difference between Little League and Major League baseball players, but it's still easy to recognize that LL players are practicing and using the same skills that ML players use; it's mostly just the execution that needs to improve (and the strength and coordination that comes with age, of course).
Here, it seems to be the case instead that most casual I2 players gave up on practicing pro skills (or never started in the first place) and just settled for spamming projectiles and playing keep-away. And it became so widespread, it gave rise to a myth that were no pro skills and zoning was all there is.
What's behind this? Overly complicated controls? Poor tutorial modes? A player community unsupportive of newbies? And more importantly, how does it get fixed going forward so NRS games stay alive and well?