Once again, this game improves on its predecessor in ways that will likely keep me from going back to past games in the series. The predator gameplay saw the most improvement imo. General traversal obviously is great (the sliding input is awkward though — preferred it in City). I love how feat takedowns are earned and stuff like turrets demand more planning and disabling of enemy equipment in advance. Fear takedowns just expedite what the player would be doing normally if they popped out into the open. Helps to make stealth more aggressive in a very appropriate way. A lot more I could say here.
There are changes to combat that make it more fun, yet there's some added jank, though this may be due to me being so used to the way things worked before. I still need to get used to the "hold" commands for gadgets as I tend to forget about them and use them out of a strange feeling of obligation. Batmobile takedowns and combat in general can bug out a bit depending on placement in the world. I can forgive some animation jank considering the game has to calculate the position of the 'mobile, random criminals' cars passing by (which you can do those on-foot counters on), and fights in almost any location. Picking up enemies and the new ground takedown are my favorite additions so far.
It's been a while since a vehicle has been this satisfying to use in so many different ways. Managing to drive with finesse and smashing through everything/everyone are equally fun. The sound design for it is godly, something I haven't mentioned, but should have. I still hit the wrong button to brake sometimes, but since I use the default controls, switching to the tank mode actually helps a lot. Speaking of, tank battles can be satisfying, but mostly with the upgrades — fundamentally solid mechanics, but to be the equivalent of the hand-to-hand, you to be able to "knock down" enemies in one hit, something upgrades allow. There also needed to be more freedom for different tactics in the tank fights, like making it more feasible to zip around some buildings then ram into enemies from a different direction — with that upgrade, you can drive straight through them and immediately blow them up by boosting. I'd like to do that more often as it mixes things up enough to keep those fights fresh. I actually like the cobra fights more because of the inherently exciting "hit and flee" dynamic you see in the regular predator gameplay.
The story was great in this one compared to oast games. The one notable misstep for me was the main villain reveal. Merely the way the reveal itself was done, not the identity, which was fine. There weren't enough candidates for who it could be to keep people guessing.
I just need to fight Riddler for 100 percent. I want to go back through it to evaluate the gameplay further. It's a step up over past games in a lot of ways,especially being able to land on enemy cars while they're moving. That alone encapsulates Rocksteady's understanding of Batman in a single gameplay mechanic. They are true Batman fans.
