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[Joei]

I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I honestly liked the final boss fight. I also didn't mind the Croc section, although I can see how some people may not have liked it. I think it was a neat way to add variety to the game, which I thought paced pretty well with the way the general "battles" got harder as you went along. If anything, I'll say the Croc sectoin was a smidge too long.

One thing I thought could have been handled better was the way they battle system was developed and exposed to the player. Once you get into the challenge mode combat challenges it really helps the combat system out and I had an absolute blast with it. The problem was I didn't really go and do them all till way late in the game. If those could have been revealed earlier in the game and played, it might have made the combat in the actual game a little more worthwhile and fun, at least for me.

 

[HawksWinStanley]

I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I honestly liked the final boss fight. I also didn't mind the Croc section, although I can see how some people may not have liked it. I think it was a neat way to add variety to the game, which I thought paced pretty well with the way the general "battles" got harder as you went along. If anything, I'll say the Croc sectoin was a smidge too long.

I'm with you there. I actually enjoyed the variety of gameplay for all the boss battles. There was definitely room for improvement but I still like that they gave us something different.

What worries me about AC is that they don't keep the creepy factor. AA had a lot of genuinely creepy moments. The lunatics that jumped out at you, the Scarecrow sequences, finding all of the cells from the villains, etc. It just kept you on your toes and it added a lot to the atmosphere.

I'm just afraid that Rocksteady is going to concentrate on the 'bigger is better' strategy instead of giving us more of what made AA so successful, and that's a lot of really claustrophobic and intense moments that really made you think. As long as we're still sneaking around buildings, and there's still a lot of tight quarters indoor environments then this will be one of the best games ever made.

 

[nns3d]

I played the demo on XBL and I was completely blown away with it. Though I went to my Gamestop the next day and they said that they were out of copies

 

[mf.luder]

I really enjoyed it. Beat it on PS3. On Boxing Day picked it up for 360 and went through it again, was great the second time around. Can't wait for City.

The tapes were sweet to listen to. Loved the Scarecrow battles.

 

[Ephemeris]

I still can't believe toys r us paid me $20 to buy the game.

 

[_RT_]

One of my favs. Amazing game.

 

[Ghost23]

This is a semi-recent thread, so I'm just going to ask this here. I just

Spoiler

put Harley Quinn in the jail cell. I'm going to the Botanical Gardens.

How far am I in the game?

 

[BeautifulMemory]

This is a semi-recent thread, so I'm just going to ask this here. I just

Spoiler

put Harley Quinn in the jail cell. I'm going to the Botanical Gardens.

How far am I in the game?

Kinda far...Id say you're about 2/3 of the way through...I could be wrong tho

 

[Matt2thefuture]

On my third play-through. I usually never re-beat games 3 times but AA is damn good.

 

[professor_t]

I was completely unimpressed by the demo and sat on the sidelines for about a year. Then Steam ran some kind of crazy sale and I bought the game for the price of a lunch at Chile's (not that I would eat there, of course) and I quickly realized that I happily would have paid full price for it (or more).

I wish more developers could make comic book/superhero games that hit on all cylinders like this. If it's in your backlog, just wipe your slate clean and get started right away. You owe it to yourself.

 

[JRW]

One of my all time favs I even had fun looking for all 240 riddles, It also had decent PhysX effects (PC ver).

 

[bigboss370]

i liked the game, i really did, i just thought that it was overrated..going by user comments and etc. The scarecrow stuff didn't really surprise/amaze me, i guess in part cuz

Spoiler

Kojima already got to me with MGS games with things like that so it didn't really feel original? and i totally saw the joker pulling off the tv from his head thing coming from a mile away.

i would put the game in the 80s review wise not in the 90s, but i do await the next one. i hope they add vehicles in the games, driving the batmobile in the batman begins game was awesome. and a better story/narrative would be welcome also.

 

[hanzo]

This game makes me really feel like I am batman. Lots of atmosphere like the comics.

 

[ProtomanNeo]

Finally have a little bit of down time and I'm playing this and then Arkam City back to back. This is by far the most fun I've had playing a game in some time. Although the designers are drawing from an established mythos, nevertheless, the game world is truly an amazing one. I'm 2/3 through the game and I can see why this was on the top of many peoples lists.

 

[The Anti-Monitor]

Finally have a little bit of down time and I'm playing this and then Arkam City back to back. This is by far the most fun I've had playing a game in some time. Although the designers are drawing from an established mythos, nevertheless, the game world is truly an amazing one. I'm 2/3 through the game and I can see why this was on the top of many peoples lists.

As much as I loved the story, it didn't become my GOTY until I played the challenge rooms and replayed it.

Similarly, I simply liked Arkham City at first, it's when I replayed it and played the challenge rooms that it became my favorite game this generation.

Nothing beats mastering the combat and predator modes. That's when you truly feel like Batman.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

great game but imo AC beats it in every single way.

 

[SkyandSun]

great game but imo AC beats it in every single way.

Disagree, I felt pretty much the opposite. That cool exploration/levels opening up thing was gone and that was what I loved about AA. Also the plot in AC tried to pack far too much in and it all lacked focus.

 

[Hindle]

One of my best games of this gen, the way they based all the side missions around Batman lore was genius. I found AC to be ok but I didnt like how open it was. It got boring having to fly to each place all the time.

 

[The Anti-Monitor]

great game but imo AC beats it in every single way.

My best friend and I tend to just chill while playing the game, often talking about it, and the opinion is something like, Arkham Asylum was so good, and Arkham City just makes it seem lacking in everything.

One of my best games of this gen, the way they based all the side missions around Batman lore was genius. I found AC to be ok but I didnt like how open it was. It got boring having to fly to each place all the time.

Once you got that boost thingie you can fly the whole city in less than two minutes.

 

[Melchiah]

I wasn't impressed by the demo, but decided to buy the game later on eitherway, and was pleasantly surprised. One of my favorite games of this gen, and I prefer it above the sequel. The boss fights could have been better, especially the last one which drove me nuts. I really hope we get to see Croc and Scarecrow again in the third installment, and hopefully a lot less of the extremely annoying Harley Quinn, who isn't even that interesting character to begin with.

The sequel had far better boss fights, but the atmosphere and story were better in the first one, as were the Riddler's trophies. There were just too much of them in AC, and I hated those that involved running against a timer. I don't really like open world games that much, so that was one of the things that rubbed me the wrong way. Too much pointless back and forth travelling. I liked the way the world opened up in small chunks in AA.

 

[Zekes!]

Honestly, Batman: AA was probably about average to me. Around the middle of the game I was really enjoying it, but as it went on I found it became repetitive and my interest in it started to wane. I managed to get to the final boss which was a joke and didn't help improve my opinion.

I didn't really like the level design all that much and I found a couple of illogical layouts that took me out of the game at a couple points. The combat was fun, though I wouldn't say it was my favourite ever.

 

[Qurupeke]

Great game. I really liked seeing

Spoiler

Killer Croc

and this was probably one of the most unexpected characters for me. Unfortunately, I haven't played AC yet...

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Playing inFamous 2 makes me want a Batman: Gotham City game. While there's a lot of jank to be found in I2, it's just awesome swooping in to save people being mugged then zipping away.

Arkham City only has 10 instances of this and I want more. It's also awesome in inFamous when meeting up with the other super-powered characters and, after completing a mission, seeing them fly away using their power as you use your own to leave in a different direction. I want a massive Gotham City to traverse and have missions where you team up with another crimefighter, then see them grapple/leap/fly away during gameplay.

Even with all the room for improvement, AA and AC are true Batman simulators, AC being the best at the moment.

 

[vasametropolis]

I would make the argument that AA is actually better than AC. I like them both quite a bit, and I think the different atmosphere in both games was probably equally good, but I found the Asylum to be immensely satisfying (bat cave discovery was awesome).

The gameplay refinements of AC are really nice though.

 

[JaseMath]

AA is so much better than AC.

AC is a narrative mess compared to AA and tries WAY too hard to provide fan service.

 

[Eideka]

My GOTY 2009. And a superb looking game on PC with Physx !

 

[Bumhead]

The more time goes on the more I realise how both this and Arkham City are two of my favourite games ever (although I definitely do prefer Asylum of the two).

I'll still be talking about and re-playing these two in 15 years time.

 

[eXistor]

AA was a real nice surprise, it was just an unexpected gem in a lot of ways. It may not be among my favorite games or anything, but it is pretty damn solid. AC was a real letdown for me, it was a typical sequel in that it tried to outdo AA is every way (Bigger! More bad guys!) and failed in almost every way.

AA was very dense and neatly packaged, very little felt out of place and had some great level-design to boot.

 

[SmithnCo]

Amazing game. the Scarecrow stuff was easily my favorite part.

 

[Coppertracks]

Brilliant game. Easily the best superhero game ever created.

Would love to see this version of Scarecrow make it into film. He's terrifying, especially with those needles on the end of his fingers.

 

[Slermy]

Disagree, I felt pretty much the opposite. That cool exploration/levels opening up thing was gone and that was what I loved about AA. Also the plot in AC tried to pack far too much in and it all lacked focus.

AA is so much better than AC.

AC is a narrative mess compared to AA and tries WAY too hard to provide fan service.

I'm also in this camp. I felt Arkham Asylum was nearly perfect, while Arkham City was merely enjoyable (really disliked navigating the city, not enough joker, story was all over the place,

Spoiler

killing off Talia al Ghul and subsequent handling of it

, not to mention at one point I fell through the world).

Anyway, Arkham Asylum was so good, I double dipped on the PC version as well.

I was always disappointed that the extra Scarecrow level (pre-order bonus? CE Bonus?) was never released separately.

 

[goodfella]

Fucking good game.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I understand the lack of focus/sense of progression arguments against AC, but it still is superior in my eyes when it comes to making the player feel like Batman for the following reasons:

-Traversing Arkham City was certainly no less tedious for me than running everywhere in Arkham City. I loved being able to glide everywhere, something that was much less frequent in AA. The Metroidvania style progression in AA was great, but didn't lend itself well to what I'd want a Batman game to be.

-Even considering that AC drops the ball in it's story multiple times, I'd say that the side-mission stories and an actually climactic ending make up for those shortcomings. To this day, my good memories of AA are tainted by that awful, awful final fight and ending. It was such a let down. They could've made something memorable and special. The contrivances in AC are forgivable compared to AA's final boss travesty.

-AA became far to repetitive. Just basic goons almost throughout the entire game. I didn't mind when I first played it, but it became apparent on the second time through that the only variation is in the environments, save for the boss battles/encounters.

-If there's never another Batman game, I could run around AC, taking out enemies in the multitude of ways available and be more or less content. The amount of moves and gadgets at your disposal is wonderful.

Like I said, I get the criticisms aimed at AC, but none of those keep it from being more fun than AA and more true to what it's like to be Batman.

I do hope the next time around, they work on making the story more comprehensible. Some of the plot holes in the games could be filled with the info that relegated to bios and character background information. A better ending to AA would've been the reveal behind the Amadeus Arkham glyphs and you only know Catwoman's surrogate daughter is being threatened if you listen to her interrogation tapes. That would've been a much better focus for her missions than her beef with Two-Face.

 

[Riposte]

AA is so much better than AC.

AC is a narrative mess compared to AA and tries WAY too hard to provide fan service.

AC is without the doubt the better videogame. Evolves all of AA's mechanics and encounter design. But maybe that doesn't matter because the story surrounding Joker Hulk and his band of Unreal Engine 3 ugly villains is more important to some people?

 

[SkyMasterson]

This is in my backlog and damn I really need to get to it. I love good comic book games.

Duuuuddeee. Play it now!

I made the same mistake. Somehow it took me until Feb. of last year to finally play it and not only was it everything I wanted it to be, but even exceeded some of those expectations.

I'm even a sucker for mediocre comic book games, but this game really is the pinnacle. Arkham City is a close second and in some ways bests what Arkham Asylum did.

 

[Zizbuka]

I'm LTTP on this too, although I tried to get into it many times but just didn't stick with it. Then I saw my son (who's PC is next to mine) playing it, and I wanted to complete it.

I had to rebuild my PC, and somehow only had an older save to use. I guess Steam could isn't active on this game? And just what exactly does GFWL add?

 

[Hypron]

AC is without the doubt the better videogame. Evolves all of AA's mechanics and encounter design. But maybe that doesn't matter because the story surrounding Joker Hulk and his band of Unreal Engine 3 ugly villains is more important to some people?

Definitely this. The gameplay is much better in Arkham City. I've played the shit out of both games (I even finished all the challenge maps with the maximum rating) because I absolutely loved the gameplay... But it's kinda hard to come back to Arkham Asylum after having played AC... There are just so much less possibilities, less types of enemies...

 

[Melchiah]

AC is without the doubt the better videogame. Evolves all of AA's mechanics and encounter design. But maybe that doesn't matter because the story surrounding Joker Hulk and his band of Unreal Engine 3 ugly villains is more important to some people?

Replace that with

Spoiler

Leper

Joker and his band of ugly UE3 villains and you get AC.

 

[arglebargle]

weird to see this pop up on my subscriptions list since i just bought the game this weekend after apparently posting in this thread a year ago. i assume it will now join my pile of unplayed games for several months until i get around to it.

 

[FStop7]

Started playing this game a few days back and damn is it good. Didn't realize how much fun this game would be. Doesn't feel much like a superhero game at all. Collecting the Riddler stuff is also a great time waster. Do you get anything other than achievements for getting them? So far I'm up to the part where Joker just released the titan formula on Ivey's plants. About how much more of the game do I have?

Also I have the regular version. Is there anything in the DLC that expands on the game story or is it just challenges?

Can't wait to beat it and go on to Arkham City. Didn't realize how good the game is.

DLC is just challenges. The challenges are so addictive, though.

 

[SniperHunter]

Honestly, Batman: AA was probably about average to me. Around the middle of the game I was really enjoying it, but as it went on I found it became repetitive and my interest in it started to wane. I managed to get to the final boss which was a joke and didn't help improve my opinion.

I didn't really like the level design all that much and I found a couple of illogical layouts that took me out of the game at a couple points. The combat was fun, though I wouldn't say it was my favourite ever.

yea same here. The formula gets old really fast (travel to x location, beat up 50 guys repeated 20 times). I beat the main story but didn't even bother with any of the side mission stuff.

 

[gioGAF]

I'm with the "Batman: AA >> Batman: AC" camp.

The mechanics are expanded in AC, but it just feels like the game lacks FOCUS.
-The game should probably have started in a more enclosed environment and then have things open up after you get your bearings.

-There are far too many little things that you learn that end up being not very important. I remember getting to an enemy hideout and not being able to get in because I forgot the "slide" move that had been shown once several hours ago (which was mostly useless).

AA is the best Batman game for me. I hope all of you LTTP people enjoy it!

 

[Jake Tower]

-There are far too many little things that you learn that end up being not very important. I remember getting to an enemy hideout and not being able to get in because I forgot the "slide" move that had been shown once several hours ago (which was mostly useless).

"Have you considered sucking less?"

The slide is one of the best moves in the game for knocking down rows of thugs to set them up for ground take downs.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

The slide is one of the best moves in the game for knocking down rows of thugs to set them up for ground take downs.

I was just about to say this.

The problem with AC is that it throws too much at you at once. I know I got my ass kicked for my entire first playthrough because I couldn't keep track of the new weapon-break and bat-swarm inputs.

That wasn't at all a deal-breaker for me, yet I can see how it would bother others. Once you get used to all of your available moves and gadgets, the game is becomes better than AA. Freeze grenades and divebomb takedown alone make the game awesome.

I really hope that the next game takes its time. I do feel like AC rushed through it's scenarios when it was clear Rocksteady could've incorporated the optional side-stories/background info into the main game. Just reading through some of the bios/Arkham stories in the pause menu answers a lot of questions.

Batman 3 could have even more in it that AC without overwhelming the player or rushing through its story.

 

[KenOD]

Arkham City is the better game in my mind (even if the combat feels a bit more lenient toward mistakes), but Arkham Asylum still feels like the better experience and "comic" story for me.

One thing I particularly love about Asylum is outside of the forced trail following and scan moments, I could play the entire game without Detective Mode. It was a great extra challenge to do, especially if it's been a while and you've forgotten all the hidden sections are and need to look for visual clues.
Arkham City I had to constantly turn it on and off and I I can't play the game with it mostly off due to the nature of so many missions, activation effects, and the like.

 

[Currygan]

really great game and I much preferred the claustrophobic environments to the semi-open world AC, which is odd because I love open world games. Maybe it was the tighter pacing, don't know

 

[Barrow Roll]

I'm replaying this game right now on PC and I'm loving it all over again. 1080p+60fps+4xSGSSAA just looks marvelous. I messed around with PhysX for a bit and it's pretty rad, but in the end I turned it off because of the inconsistent framerate it introduced. Most of the time it's perfectly fine, but standing in some thick fog just kills the framerate. I've thought about dropping my AA a little lower and turning PhysX on Normal, but I think I value clean IQ more. I took a few screenshots in the PC screenshot thread, you can see them over here.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=39510377&highlight=#post39510377

Looking forward to tackling AC as soon as I'm finished.

 

[JaseMath]

AC is without the doubt the better videogame. Evolves all of AA's mechanics and encounter design. But maybe that doesn't matter because the story surrounding Joker Hulk and his band of Unreal Engine 3 ugly villains is more important to some people?

I don't have a ton of time to game these days, so when I do play, I try to make it count. For me, it's the story I look for forward to...and AC had a shit story.

 

[BadAss2961]

It's one of those games that I played a bit late, so automatically after beating it I thought that it wasn't as ridiculously god like as people said it would be. But it's a fucking fun game, and a batman one at that. So it wins.

I have the exact same take on it.

I'll probably pick up Arkham City in the Steam summer sale.

 

[ProtomanNeo]

Guessing I'm near the end of the game now, and all I can say is wow! Level design is some of the best I've seen in years, and the secrets instead of tedious, further deepen the game world. Would love to see these guys so the next Legacy of Kain.