DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos PS5 Review: It hasn’t been an easy road for the DC Comics Universe. The video game industry is one form of media where the DC Universe has thrived recently.
In recent times DC has seen great success with the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham franchise, successful LEGO titles based on their characters and now a brand new Justice League title that took me by surprise. Cosmic Chaos looks like a children’s game but delivers for all age groups.
DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos (PS5) Review
An Entertaining Story With Good Presentation
Cosmic Chaos sees the Justice League enjoying a barbecue in Harber Town when Mister Mxyzptlk and Starro confront them and informs the League that he is now the new mayor of Harber Town. At the same time, Starro is just a tool being used by Mxy to stop the League from interfering in his plans.
The two begin to wreak havoc at the barbecue, and most of the League comes under the control of Starro. The Trinity consisting of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, escape the grasp of Starro and set out to stop Mxy and Starro while saving their friends and the citizens of Harber Town.
The opening of Cosmic Chaos is presented in an incredibly well-animated cutscene that I could swear was taken right out of a theatrical animated movie.
Fantastic Writing Plays To The Strengths Of All Characters
It sets the tone for the story and the game’s fantastic writing and visual design. The writing is top-notch, and each character is written perfectly to highlight the most exaggerated aspects of The Trinity’s personalities.
As you would expect, Batman is always brooding while constantly telling everyone how rich he is by telling them how he built various pieces of technology found in Harber Town.
Superman plays to his strengths and weakness, believing he can fix everything simply by punching it while also feeling his god-like abilities take him away from enjoying the finer things in life, like driving a car.
Cosmic Chaos features many DC characters, some more known than others, such as Booster Gold and Aries, with plenty of other surprises.
There are plenty of references and Easter eggs scattered throughout Harber Town for you to find and encounter, but ill leave a lot of it for players to discover.
An Open World That’s Just As Fun To Explore And Interact With As A LEGO Game
Cosmic Chaos is an open-world action-adventure game. Harber Town isn’t huge, but it’s still fun exploring. There are plenty of hidden comic books to find that you can use to unlock new costumes based on various comic book appearances.
The world is full of hidden locations to visit and side-quests to conquer, some of which will send you to different locations, like Wonder Woman’s home island of Themyscira.
It’s a fun place to explore, and as you progress throughout the story, more mini-games become available for you as well.
Each of The Trinity can be swapped in and out of combat whenever you choose with the tap of a button. Suspend disbelief in the world of DC Comics.
Fun Combat That Can Be Enjoyed By Anyone
Superman takes damage just as easily as Batman does. The game is meant to be fun; you can’t have fun if you can’t get hurt. Unfortunately, combat can get repetitive after a few hours; thankfully, the game provides plenty of enemy variety with different abilities and attacks to test your grit.
Though you can play with all three characters, there isn’t much that separates them. You can potentially get through the entire game without switching between them. It just comes down to whose skills you like the most.
Batman can throw his Batarangs around to hit multiple enemies that bounce off walls and ricochet around a room, while Superman can use his Heat Vision to apply fire damage to enemies. These skills are what set the characters apart.
After using your skill, you must wait for the cooldown timer to expire before using them again. Each character gets two skills and an Ultimate attack.
Skills And Abilities Are Unique For Each Character And Utilize Their Potential
As you play, you’ll level up and unlock new abilities. If you wish to use your unique abilities, you must substitute the one you already have equipped. It’s easy to do from the menu, and I found myself changing abilities a few times to fit the situation I found myself in.
Wonder Woman has the ability where she slams her bracelets together, creating a shock wave. It’s great for crowd control and AOE damage, which is excellent in indoor environments. Still, another ability you can substitute it for is her Shield Throw which may work better in more prominent open locations.
The Shield Throw sees her throw her amazonian shield and have it bounce off an enemy and lock on to another enemy hitting multiple foes before returning to her. You can also call on other League members you’ve liberated from Starro’s control to help briefly.
Upgrading Skills Takes A While And Can Slow Your Progress
Enemies drop materials that you can use to level up your skills and abilities. Unfortunately, they don’t drop very many, and the requirements to upgrade abilities are steep.
I went for hours at a time, unable to upgrade any of my skills, and I had to choose between three characters which ability I wanted to level up, leaving the others behind underpowered.
Another aspect of customization comes in the form of Artifacts. You can find or buy artifacts that heroes and villains in the DC Comics Universe have lost or were confiscated.
These Artifacts boost your characters with increased damage, while others have better benefits, such as embedding their attacks with elemental damage like fire or ice. Anyone can equip these artefacts as they see fit. Batman can equip Wonder Woman’s Tieara, and Superman can equip Joker’s fake Bang pistol.
Amazing Voice Work And Excellent Cartoon Visual Feel Like You’re Playing A Saturday Morning Cartoon
Visually Cosmic Chaos is solid for what it’s trying to achieve. The Saturday morning children’s animated look works great here and with each character.
My only issue with the visuals is that everything, including the buildings, has a dark outline around them that can sometimes look annoying on screen.
The game doesn’t try to go over the top with its visuals, and quite honestly, it’s pleasing to the eyes.
The voice work here is exceptional, thanks to the excellent writing with Mxy taking the spotlight. You’ll recognize many of the actors here, with Nolan North taking the role of Superman and Dana Snyder voicing Mxy.
Sadly the musical score isn’t anything to write home about, and it’s what you’d expect from a top-down action game.
DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos took me by surprise. It’s a fun game with excellent writing that sometimes had me laughing. It may not change the genre, but it executes what it’s trying to achieve on all fronts.
DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos is now available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
Review Code kindly provided by PR.