Injustice 2: Raiden Character (DLC) Review

The Injustice 2 Ultimate Pack grants access to the first and second of the fighter packs for DLC characters as well as all other fighter packs. The fighter packs contain an additional three characters that are added to the roster for Injustice 2 and the fighter packs can be bought separately or the fighters inside of them can be bought one at a time. The second set of three characters are Black Manta, Raiden and Hellboy. Raiden is the second character of the fighters released for the second Fighter Pack.

Raiden really needs no introduction if you have played just about any Mortal Kombat. He is the god of thunder and protector of Earth. Along with his handpicked warriors from Earth he defends the Earth against otherworldy invaders such as those from Outworld that seek to take over the Earth realm. With the exception of the original MK3 and its upgrade (UMK3), he has appeared in every other MK game in the main series.

Raiden's overall look in Injustice 2 is similar to his MKX appearance. He has more metal attachments on his outfit and his outfit shows more skin this time. One of the most noticeable changes to his outfit is the inclusion of facial armor. The facial armor doesn't seem to match Raiden too well for me, but the rest of the overall look is fine. Along with the new look, he also wears a blue cape. He still has most of the moves that he has in MKX. Raiden has his lighting bolt projectile, electrocution grab, vicinity blast, torpedo (electric fly) and teleport (sparkport). All of his moves can be meter burned for extra attacks or to speed them up (sparkport). His projectile can be meter burned in order to make it super slow. Just like in MKX, he is a fantastic character for carrying your opponent to a corner mainly because of his electric fly. He also has a combo that is good for knocking an opponent into the corner once they work you there.

His character power is basically a damage booster, but it also gives some extra attack extensions to some of his combos. The character power is designed to give his attacks more electrical power, so therefore just about any of his attacks take off extra damage. By activating his character power some combos can be extended by holding the last button in order to make Raiden shock his opponent a few more times. All of this is pretty similar to the standard Raiden in MKX, but in Injustice 2, he must use his character power to get the extra lightning power at the end of his combos. Raiden also has a very flashy super move involving the MK dragon (an electric version).

If you liked Raiden in MKX, you're pretty much a shoe-in to enjoy him in Injustice 2. He has been watered down a bit from his MKX appearance, but not as bad as Sub-Zero and he nearly stays about the same compared to Sub-Zero when you compare him to his MKX persona. Raiden doesn't amuse me as much as Sub-Zero, mainly just because I have never been a Raiden fan and I also can't get used to seeing him with facial armor.

Final Rating: 75%