I seriously have to ask if Rocksteady farmed out the combat to Montreal studio, because its just simply not as good this time around.
The combat is mostly fine, but it has some very (and I do mean very) frustrating things present that were not present in AA or AC, but were present in Arkham Origins and they are really starting to annoy me.
None of it is reaching MAJOR levels of frustration, but it just upsets me that after having such a perfect system in Arkham City that it would take a step back.
Here are some things I have noticed and I know a few others have noticed.
1. The camera. It seems to have a mind of its own and often gets far too close to Batman. Nothing is more frustrating than getting hit by an enemy you couldn't see in time to counter. This was a BIG problem in story mode of Arkham Origins (not so much in the combat challenges though). Yes, I am VERY much aware that you can adjust the camera during fights but because it was erratic at times I was often forced to do instant takedowns so I could adjust the camera during the i-frames.
2. Frequent inexplicable whiffing. This was another annoying issue that happened quite a bit. In that Batman would inexplicably break out of a combo despite having an enemy targeted to attack. I would go for a strike or a stun on an enemy, but occasionally Batman wouldn't strike the enemy, but would just attack the air and ruin the flow of a good combo.
3. Enemy strike targeting was off. What I am referring to that when you are in freeflow you have to point your control stick in the direction you want to strike and it will target that enemy (sometimes from very far away). Often though you have a group of enemies and you are at the mercy of whatever enemy the game decides to target. Unfortunately, Batman had a bad habit of targeting a brute and/or electrocuted enemy which would break the combo, despite the fact that the enemy you intended to target would have been vulnerable to a strike. This was VERY big issue during the Batman/Catwoman fights, where each person can only attack enemies of one color. I mean seriously, why the fuck did Batman target the ONE red enemy when there were 3 blue enemies in one area.
4. This is more of a personal thing, but IMO there is simply too much in those encounters. Between, the brutes, shielded brutes, electrocuted enemies, medics, and ninjas. It was a tad too much at times. The most common killer of combos was the charging thug. Yes, it was easy to avoid and really truly not a big, deal but the camera autotargeting onto them frequently confused me and I couldn't react quick enough. I have ADD and it certainly hurts those parts.
5. Again, I know I will probably be in the minority here, but I felt the enemies werent visually distinct enough and blended with the environment a tad too easily making it difficult to see who you were attacking.
6. The biggest thing was the removal of the batswarm. I don't need to say how helpful that was whenever you needed to readjust yourself and catch a breather. They replaced it with the useless weapon grab and attack.
With all that in mind, these weren't gamebreaking and I was still able to get through most encounters without too much difficulty, but did dampen my enthusiasm for enemy encounters.
However, one thing I didn't figure out until way later is that the game expects you to utilize far more of your gadgets. I didn't upgrade those until the story was almost over.
In AC, the gadgets had awesome powers once in freeflow focus mode (activated after 12X), but breaking freeflow focus mode was rarely worth it.
However in this game, you can use them after 5X, which made them far far far more useful. I suspect that was Rocksteadys justification for removing Batswarm and maybe in time I will appreciate them more.
However, I do feel that adjusting the camera so that it doesn't move so close to Batman would alleviate most (if not all of my frustration).
