DC Justice League Cosmic Chaos is a fun change of pace when it comes to the superhero genre, with a more cartoony and silly approach compared to some of the more serious superhero games we have seen over recent years. The main villain isn’t trying to destroy or take over the world, his only goal is to annoy Superman. However, the way he does this upends the lives of the residents of Happy Harbor.
DC Justice League Cosmic Chaos focuses on lesser known villain Mister Mxyzptlk (Mxy for short), a being from the Fifth Dimension, who arrives in Happy Harbor to declare himself Mayor. He has an ally with him in Starro The Conqueror, though it’s a very small Starro. Of course, the Justice League is not going to just let Mxy stroll in and take control, but the battle is quickly over, with some of the League brought under Starro’s control. That leaves Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman to clear up Mxy’s mess.
Happy Harbor is an open world environment to explore, but it is not too big. Each area of the world has different levelled enemies, keeping some areas off limits until your heroes are suitably levelled up. There are plenty of ways to traverse the world with Wonder Woman using her Lasso of Truth to swing around the world, Batman’s cape to glide glide, and Superman just outright flying. You can also use vehicles like cars and boats, but Superman’s flying is the best way to get around Happy Harbor.
You can switch between the three characters instantly at any time you want. The missions mainly consist of fighting enemies in various dungeons to collect items, before facing off against the villain that is linked to those dungeons like, for example, Blue Snowman. Each dungeon type has its own hazards to deal with, such as Blue Snow being so cold it affects all heroes.
The combat itself is pretty basic to start, but with the use of different powers and artifacts to equip, each hero’s abilities can be altered. For example, an artifact can give a hero the ability to burn enemies or shock them. Mixing these up later on helps as enemies will have elemental shields, and the relevant element can break them faster.
Characters have access to powerful attacks including ultimates, each having different cooldowns – Batman can summon bats while Wonder Woman has a shield throw. In addition, when you rescue the other heroes you can call them in to you aid in a fight as an NPC. Some will ask how can a grunt go toe-to-toe with Superman, but Cosmic Chaos doesn’tt focus on that kind of logic. The enemies are as strong as they need to be to provide a fun challenge, and it is all the better for it.
What really stands out with Cosmic Chaos is the writing and how the characters are portrayed. Batman is typically broody and sulky a lot of the time, Wonder Woman is the smart one, while Superman is portrayed as bit of a lovable buffoon. They bounce off each other well, having each other’s back but bickering sometimes too. Mxy is also a fun villain who teases the Justice League with his schemes while acting as the mayor. The theme kind of delves into how a populist can sway people to their side, with Mxy using various ideas to win the residents of the town to his side. The world itself looks really good too full of colour and pop, accentuating that cartoon feel that the developers seemed to have aimed for.
While Cosmic Chaos is fun there were a couple of bugs that we encountered. Whether it was loading into a blank screen or a corridor with locked doors and no way out, reloading the game resolved the problems and the most recent checkpoint wasn’t too far away. There were also a couple of moments where the music stopped playing too.
