Batman: Arkham City

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I got a chance to play some more Arkham City today. Geez are Catwoman's missions really short. I mean, you could technically just run wild and explore with her while you have the chance to play with her, or as I have heard you can switch between her and Batman freely when playing in a new game + mode, but for a character that you have to buy the game at full-price to get, you sure don't see a lot of her (then again, she could make more appearances later on in the game so it may add up eventually).

So far I've only made a little bit of progress in the main story-line, while I've dabbled in bits and pieces with other side-missions. Right now I just got done taking out the jammers that The Penguin was using to block out all radio signals within the area, and which also prevented me from using my decryption device, so I'm looking forward to a good ol' fashioned boss rumble with Mr. Cobblepot himself.

So far, the combat hasn't really changed much as far as I can tell, but the stealth sections are significantly more challenging than before, but mostly in a good way. While in Arkham Asylum you could basically abuse the fuck out of the gargoyle statues perched upon the walls, in Arkham City you aren't going to find them in every single area you go to. Some sections such as roof-tops or underground sewage facilities may not have such objects present and you'll have to use other resources in your environment to your advantage, so it forces you to get your hands dirty and get up close and personal with the enemies (risking getting shot to death if you get caught, of course) quite a few times if you want to take them out. In addition to that the enemy AI is actually noticeably smarter this time around, so they won't fall for many of the same old tricks that you could get away with in the Asylum. To balance this out, though, most areas are pretty wide and open and give you tons of areas to hide in, and there are plenty of vents to sneak around to make your way through enemies without being spotted. Also, you get a new smoke pellet in your arsenal which allows you to buy yourself some time to escape if you get caught and cornered by enemies with guns (though, that also kind of kills the point of not allowing you to abuse some old tricks, since this is a new trick that you can easily abuse, at least on the normal difficulty setting).

Also, as you could probably guess, Arkham City is HUGE. Much larger than Arkham Asylum, at the very least. While its not anywhere close to one of the biggest game worlds out there (not like GTA4 or RDR or any other big open world games from Rockstar, or even Saints Row for that matter), its certainly one of the most detailed open worlds out there. Although, technically open world isn't correct to describe it either, as it still has more Metroid and Zelda elements to its structure than it does GTA, which to me is for the better, anyways. Either way, though, I think just about anyone would be amazed by the amount of stuff that Rocksteady has crammed into this game. Literally anywhere you look you'll find a shit-ton of eye-candy on screen. There isn't a bland-looking area in the entire game from what I've seen, so far. I mean, literally, you can spot some sort of easter-egg or some sort of reference or nod to something related to just about anything in the Batman universe wherever you look, whether its a cleverly placed poster on a wall or a neon-lighted sign labeled on any one of the numerous buildings scattered throughout the game.

So, even though I'm still probably not that far into the game (though, from what I've heard the main story-line itself is short so it still probably won't be that long), I have played at least 5+ hours of it so far and I can say that its basically more of the same of what you got in Arkham Asylum except its even more refined and grander in scope than before in most aspects, which is of course all you really need for a pretty awesome game. I'm not really sure if it lives up to the full potential of what this series is really capable of, but whatever the case its still a damn fun game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Wow. The boss fight with Ra's Al Ghul was fucking epic. The whole segment involving him is City's equivalent to Asylum's Scarecrow segments, including the boss fight, except this one was done way better. The boss fight itself was just way more satisfying than the one with Scarecrow in the first game, IMO.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The gadget which lets you disable enemy weapons from a distance is definitely one of the most fun new additions to this game. Its just hilarious during stealth segments when they try to shoot you and then freak out and panic when they realize that their gun is jammed. Its also very useful in stealth segments in general without feeling overpowered (since you can only disable 2 weapons at a time, and the device won't recharge until after everyone in the room has been efficiently taken out).

[Foggle]

Damn, dude, I am salivating. I've been replaying Arkham Asylum to get pumped... game is still fucking brilliant. It seems to be a lot shorter than I remember, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

One of my main gripes with Asylum was how short it was. If you excluded any time spent looking for Riddler trophies, then it only took a little over 6 hours to beat the game if you knew what you were doing.

From what I hear, City's main campaign doesn't last too long on its own, but if you combine it with side missions than the game can easily last you 20+ hours, and on top of that there is new game + this time around.

I think that what I like the most about this game is that the enemies are a lot smarter than before, both in combat and in stealth. In combat you they'll crowd around you and this time it won't just be one guy trying to attack you at a time for you to easily counter, but sometimes there will be 2 or 3 guys that you'll have to counter simultaneously and you'll have to get your timing right for that. Also the enemies use some strategy and different enemy types will crowd around you (rather than just a bunch of the weaker thugs), so that you have to apply a variety of tactics to take them down and evade their attacks.

As for the stealth segments, you can't abuse the crap out of the gargoyles statues anymore, as tougher enemies have thermal heat sensors to detect you up there (and in some cases the enemies are smart enough to shoot some of the gargoyles down once they realize that you can use that to hide. In addition to that, some enemies will try to cluster into groups to make it harder for you to get the drop on them (of course since you can do a double take-down it kind of kills the point of that, but then again at least they are acting more sensible this time around).

BTW, I just finished up the Mr. Freeze boss battle. It was a REALLY cleverly designed battle and pretty awesome, but I feel that it cheapens things for the player by giving away all of his weaknesses after the battle goes on for a few minutes. I think it would have been better to have the player figure out different tactics to damage him by themselves, as the boss fight plays out very much like a puzzle where you have to think on your feet and catch Freeze off-guard, rather than fight him head-on. I think its a waste of a really good idea, since you can't use the same tactic on Freeze twice and always have to think of something different.

Oh, speaking of Freeze, I LOVE how they matched his BTAS "synthesized" sounding voice when he had his suit on. That sent "chills" down my spine when I heard it (no pun intended....well OK, maybe I did do that on purpose ).

[Foggle]

One of my main gripes with Asylum was how short it was. If you excluded any time spent looking for Riddler trophies, then it only took a little over 6 hours to beat the game if you knew what you were doing.

I remember the game clock said that I'd played it for 12 hours when I beat my first run-through. But now that I think about it, I probably left the Xbox on with the game running while I went out for awhile.

From what I hear, City's main campaign doesn't last too long on its own, but if you combine it with side missions than the game can easily last you 20+ hours, and on top of that there is new game + this time around.

And apparently the side missions are every bit as good as the main story stuff. I've read multiple reviews that said they were "like mini-campaigns."

The Mr. Freeze trailer was so awesome. I can't wait to play that fight.

I'm glad the stealth sections are harder this time around. Stealth action might be my favorite video game genre overall.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, gameplay-wise the side missions generally have you doing the same sort of stuff you'd do in the main missions; as in taking out bad guys through combat or stealth, and flying around the city heading towards your next destination, so it makes sense that they play just as well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just beat the main story-line. Honestly, if you play only the main missions by themselves without exploring the city or going for any side missions, then the game is really short, maybe even shorter than Asylum (you could probably finish it in 5 hours flat). That said I got 12 hours on my first play-through because I dabbled in some side-missions, but only some, as there are a lot that I never finished, so I'll be aiming to complete all of the side missions on a new game + run (I have yet to even fully upgrade my entire arsenal).

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the ending was really good, and this being Mark Hamil's last performance as The Joker, he really delivers a brilliant performance that is on par with any of the best interpretations of the character. The last boss fight is also fucking awesome. The best one in the game by far (unless you fight some bosses at the end of some side-missions, in which case I wouldn't have fought them all yet; I'm not sure if there are any side-mission bosses, though).

So, overall the game is really good. Definitely better than Arkham Asylum which itself was a solid game. I'm not sure if I'd agree with the hype that its one of the best games ever, because I don't think that it is, but as far as licensed games of any kind go (comic books, movies, or otherwise) its certainly the best that I've ever played, and I'd recommend the game to anyone who likes a good action game, whether you're a fan of Batman or not.

As for my review, I still have to start playing through the missions and play on new game + to do all of the side-missions, or at least most of them, so it'll still be a while before I can write-up something for the game.

[Foggle]

The last boss fight is also fucking awesome. The best one in the game by far

Thank god they didn't pull another Titan Joker. That was such a freakin' letdown, though the way Batman finished him off in the cutscene was badass.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the Titan Joker fight was so anticlimactic. It was really frustrating not in terms of being difficult (if anything it was almost too easy), but in the fact that it wasn't even a real boss fight. You didn't really even fight The Joker. All you did was fight normal thugs for the whole battle, then The Joker would stupidly get himself stuck allowing you to get a free combo on him, and basically it was just rinse and repeat of that process until you triggered the cut-scene.

The final fight in Arkham City is just SO bad-ass, and while I don't want to spoil anything, you get a special item to use in that battle that I REALLY wish you could use through the rest of the game in a new game + mode. For obvious reasons, though, it would only make sense for Batman to use it on the final boss in particular. If you knew who he/she/it was, then it'd make sense in the context of that battle, but admittedly wouldn't technically fit the rest of the game, so I can understand why you can't carry it with you outside of that battle. Still, it a really nice treat for a grand finale of a show-down.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Is there anything like the Killer Croc fight? I didn't really like that one either. That and the Joker final boss were my two biggest letdowns with the original game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As far as the main story-line goes, no, there is no such fight. The game just sticks with what its best at, which is beat-em-up action, stealth segments, and puzzle solving. None of the parts I encountered when I played the main missions were comprised of tedious fetch quests.

As far as the side-missions go, the ones involving Deadshot and Bane are kind of lame, since each of them are essentially just fetch-quests disguised as something else (in one you investigate dead bodies of Deadshot's victims and in the other you just hunt down Titan containers throughout the city and destroy them). However, since they are side missions they can either be completely ignored, or if you want to 100% the game you can just do them at your own pace (like, if you just happen to be in the area for some other purpose, you can just quickly go and get an objective accomplished and get back to what you were doing before). Doing that you can make progress in those kinds of missions little by little without it feeling tedious at all.

The Riddler side-missions are the best ones, because they are integrated in with other normal enemy encounters in which you can identify an informant, and it adds extra challenge to them because you have to make sure that you don't take out the informant until you've taken out every other enemy in the group, so that you have the opportunity to interrogate the informant for information. Those are pretty fun and force you to strategize so that you can take out the rest of the enemies while avoiding contact with the informant as much as possible, until he's the last man standing. After that you get a hostage location and go through some other challenge to save them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been plowing through side missions in the regular story mode (just like with Asylum, you can go for Riddler trophies and do optional stuff after you complete the main story missions), and collecting as many Riddler trophies/solving as may riddles as I can find. Currently I'm somewhere just over 50% done with my overall in-game progress (keep in mind that I haven't even touched new game +, yet). I think what I'll do is try and get past at least 75% completion (since it would probably take me too long to get to 100% at the rate which I'm playing at), and then tackle a few of the Riddler challenges and campaigns for both Batman and Catwoman, and with that I'll have enough material to start writing my review of the game. I should be able to get to that point within maybe a week or so.

[ToonFaithful]

Some of the side-missions were kinda lame and anti-climatic, mostly being Deadshot's. I really, really hope they bring us DLC because having a screen say "Further Investigation at Batcave" isn't worth it. Hush's cameo was exciting, I must admit. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I thought it was pretty cool just to get to see him in a cut-scene, as I somehow expected that you wouldn't get to confront him for real, so even getting that much was a nice bonus treat.

I agree about the Deadshot side-mission. That along with Bane's side-mission was really lame and boring. Most of it felt like filler and the "boss" fight with Deadshot (if you can really call it that) was so hilarious easy that it was downright disappointing. I mean, it makes sense that with his particular skills and abilities, you would have to sneak up on him and take him out in 1 surprise attack, but they could have at least made it more challenging and interesting to try and sneak up on him, giving you multiple options in the process to try and be as creative as possible. Taking him out with such ease was so anticlimactic and made him seem like a joke, which was even more frustrating considering how boring it was just trying to find him (having to search all-around for his victims just to get some clues as to where he could be).

Now, as for good side-missions, the shorter ones tend to be the most interesting, IMO. The one for The Mad Hatter was pretty good, even though it was mainly just fighting regular enemies in a warped-mind state in which he was trying to gain control of your mind (it was still fun, though, since there were a ton of enemies on screen making it a big battle with lots of combo-chaining opportunities).

The best side-mission by far (and so far the only interesting long-running side-mission that I've taken part in; and am still trying to complete) is that of The Riddler's. I like how each time you get the location of another hostage of his, you have a new puzzle presented to you and you have to work your way around them by utilizing your various gadgets to solve them. They are pretty easy from the ones that I've done so far, but they are still interesting scenarios and the most entertaining side-mission stuff that I've done so far.

I should mention that the most annoying side-mission so far was the one with Catwoman in which you had to take down Two-Face (I count all of Catwoman's missions as side-missions in and of themselves). Two-Face was such an annoying boss to fight since you basically just had to resort to hit and run tactics to take him out, being that his thugs endlessly respawned no matter how many you took out, so fighting him was really frustrating, IMO. What's kind of funny is that i actually didn't realize that they were respawning the first time that I went through the fight until I took out about a dozen of them or so. Then when I used Catwoman's version of detective mode to scan the room for anymore, I was so puzzled as to why there were still so many guys left walking around and patrolling the area while at the same time I had taken out so many guys. It was hilarious because I could see bodies literally piled around the room in a couple of areas where I picked off a lot of guys, so it almost looked like the scene of a massacre, lol. Needless to say, when I realized that enemies were just respawning and I had to do all of that work taking so many guys out for nothing, I was really pissed off.