Hello once again, I made it through Arkham City, except this time I did most of the side shit : D, so just like my previous thread - We'll talk Buttman as I proceed to show the English language zero respect as it pertains to grammar. Might even say the word 'irregardless'.
Okey dokey, first things first lets talk mechanical improvements. When I played the game in 2011 I made it my mission to avoid side missions like the plague, so I didn't get a lot of the upgrades Batman has, and holy shit was I missing out. Beyond the basic take downs, the free flow bonus is clutch. Once you get to 8 or so hits Batman goes into super duper dickhead justice mode and starts flying around every which where wrecking faces. It's great. There is a stun move with the bats that can be great for crowd control, you can use the gadgets in clever ways like the explosive gel, or batclaw for clotheslines, or the electric shock thing to get one of the thugs to hit his boys. But the game changers in tight spots are the ability to break weapons and the multi ground takedown for me. X+Y at the right time meant I got to disarm fire arms, throw knives and electric batons away (for good, they can't pick them back up), and best of all those shield guys? Batman breaks through them with his Batman Fist. It's great.
It not only makes the combat itself more of a joy to play on Hard, but also made the combat challenges actually good this time. In Asylum I feel like it's way too ground pound or bust, in City it feels like actual variation is rewarded. Plus you feel like such a badass and they can justify throwing so many enemies at you.
Predator stuff are still the highlight of the game, not major changes to the formula as much as new gadgets to fuck with people. I will say while they are satisfying in campaign, they don't really come off all that special until you do predator challenges themselves. Because those ask you to get creative and experiment, the campaign situations in Asylum and City are usually very straight forward, a little too directed in my opinion. I feel like they set you up fairly easy to do the easiest thing to take care of certain groups of enemies, and more or less none of the situations ask you to think outside the box.
Either way mechanically Asylum was a strong base, but City adds layers and all these exciting challenge modes that make it more enjoyable in a gamey sort of way, and then there is the actual campaign itself. My gripes with plot aside, I still think the main quest is mostly paced very well for an open world game because Arkham City is to me the right kind of open world game. If Asylum is more Metroid, than City is Zelda, with the city being the overworld, and places like the Museum, the Sewers, GCPD being Dungeons. So you still get this tightly paced sequences of encounters in environments built for the mechanics. Where as other open world games they use their hub world for their action so much, that you get really dull level design from a gameplay perspective.
I also think while boss fights have never been a strong aspect of Rocksteady's games, there was a better effort here. Having sucked royally at those in Asylum, I think City was a better effort, but a lot of bad bosses. Spoilers for bosses ahead
Okay first of all whoever decided to put the grapnel boost to the AR challenges is a first class asshole. For starters that whole series of missions is lame as shit. One part because you are flying through hoops like this is Superman 64, and another part because contextually Batman takes time away from being Batman to go play a stupid ass minigame. The grapnel boost should have just been a standard basic mechanic, not a fucking unlock. It is an ordeal to get around that city without the grapnel boost.
Catwoman is straight filler and unnecessary. She's basically Rachel in Ninja Gaiden Sigma, where the game would be better without her sequences in it. She's not as interesting to play gameplay wise, she shares upgrade points with Batman (and im not wasting points on her), and getting around the city as Catwoman sucks. On the plus side I like that fake ending during her storyline.
Side quest spoilers
Riddler's stuff is a great addition, although I think they have way too many riddler trophies and riddles themselves are more of a pain in the ass to find in a city vs finding them in the dungeon like areas. The puzzles are clever as they start really simple, and then ask you to take a basic thing you learned and do something more complex with it. Technically all games try to do this, but not all puzzle games do this with the grace of Arkham City. For instance there is one part that teaches you to dive bomb off gargoyles to beat a trap door to get a trophy. Said gargoyle was riddler marked out the ass so you knew ahead of time. There is another sequence with multiple pressure plates you can't get to, but with a gargoyle (that isn't marked) you dive bomb and do the shock wave attack and it gets all of them. And that's on the basic side, some of those puzzles get straight fiendish with what they want with your gadgets.
I also like that Riddler gets hostages, shout out to Spring-Loaded for saying go for those, because he's right they are straight up cool. In the 2nd hostage sequence there is a like hostage in a cup situation, where you have to follow the cup as he's moving all 3 around. Except Riddler cheats and cons you and he had a trap door underneath and moved the guy to the wrong cup, so I picked the wrong cup. Shit was clever, and then the game out right tells me he's cheating after I get it wrong once -_-...but that could be my fault for playing on hard, but still leaving hints on, so my bad.
So yeah Riddler, Madhatter, and Deadhshot? Good. The other side shit? They were lame. Okay I actually liked saving Mrs. Freeze and finding Crime Alley was an awesome touch.
Oh another thing, this wild notion that the Arkham Games do a great job of selling Batman the detective, bull fucking shit. The riddles do a great job of making the player feel clever like Batman, but the investigating shit? You never piece anything together, Batman himself does it. You the player just go into Superman's X-ray vision, scan some shit, and then batman cross references bicycle stores and toy stores and realizes he has to go to FAO Schwarz. And there are one too many segments in City that just waste your fucking time.
Like going to destroy those 3 jamming towers, scanning robots, that ice ball platform thing you gotta do on steel mill trip #2.
It's kind of why I absolutely agree with the notion Asylum is a better paced and more cohesive experience. The simplicity of being in a singular space makes Asylum way more memorable both visually (City itself is straight up bland until you get into dungeons) and from an atmosphere standpoint. And while the plot in Asylum isn't anything to write home about, there is a sense of clarity to it in Asylum. The one night thing for instance actually works for Asylum.
City? With all the things going on? Nah. And the main quest storyline? He comes to the city to find out whats going on, gets Joker herpes, needs to find the cure for Joker herpes, then needs to find Ra's Al Gul who just happens to be underneath the city because YOLO (oh and Rocksteady is #TeamRaysh...what hoes, it's Ras Al Gul), then randomly its about hugo strange again who was funded by Ra's because whateverthefuck, and then its fight clayface who was subbing in for Joker because he wanted the Academy Award or something.
It was completely stupid, and not in an audacious sort of way. So for clarity, pacing, and atmosphere I absolutely would go to bat for Asylum, but yeah City clowns it as a game. Plus you can break shields with Batman's fists, that's so badass.
Oh oh oh oh...and you fucking punch a shark.
Okey dokey, first things first lets talk mechanical improvements. When I played the game in 2011 I made it my mission to avoid side missions like the plague, so I didn't get a lot of the upgrades Batman has, and holy shit was I missing out. Beyond the basic take downs, the free flow bonus is clutch. Once you get to 8 or so hits Batman goes into super duper dickhead justice mode and starts flying around every which where wrecking faces. It's great. There is a stun move with the bats that can be great for crowd control, you can use the gadgets in clever ways like the explosive gel, or batclaw for clotheslines, or the electric shock thing to get one of the thugs to hit his boys. But the game changers in tight spots are the ability to break weapons and the multi ground takedown for me. X+Y at the right time meant I got to disarm fire arms, throw knives and electric batons away (for good, they can't pick them back up), and best of all those shield guys? Batman breaks through them with his Batman Fist. It's great.
It not only makes the combat itself more of a joy to play on Hard, but also made the combat challenges actually good this time. In Asylum I feel like it's way too ground pound or bust, in City it feels like actual variation is rewarded. Plus you feel like such a badass and they can justify throwing so many enemies at you.
Predator stuff are still the highlight of the game, not major changes to the formula as much as new gadgets to fuck with people. I will say while they are satisfying in campaign, they don't really come off all that special until you do predator challenges themselves. Because those ask you to get creative and experiment, the campaign situations in Asylum and City are usually very straight forward, a little too directed in my opinion. I feel like they set you up fairly easy to do the easiest thing to take care of certain groups of enemies, and more or less none of the situations ask you to think outside the box.
Either way mechanically Asylum was a strong base, but City adds layers and all these exciting challenge modes that make it more enjoyable in a gamey sort of way, and then there is the actual campaign itself. My gripes with plot aside, I still think the main quest is mostly paced very well for an open world game because Arkham City is to me the right kind of open world game. If Asylum is more Metroid, than City is Zelda, with the city being the overworld, and places like the Museum, the Sewers, GCPD being Dungeons. So you still get this tightly paced sequences of encounters in environments built for the mechanics. Where as other open world games they use their hub world for their action so much, that you get really dull level design from a gameplay perspective.
I also think while boss fights have never been a strong aspect of Rocksteady's games, there was a better effort here. Having sucked royally at those in Asylum, I think City was a better effort, but a lot of bad bosses. Spoilers for bosses ahead
For instance I don't like Solomon Grundy or the Ra's fight, but I can at least appreciate they tried to do something different with them. Where as the bane fight was just lame dodge, and battarang. And Poison Ivy was literally throw battarangs at her. I also thought Clayface could have been handled in a more interesting manner, but then again it made sense to make it a throw ice bombs at him fight. On the other hand Mr. Freeze is absolutely fantastic as a fight.
He's easy as sin when you know what you are doing, but it still comes off pretty creative and badass. And that's what I want from Batman, badassery. Main quest still delivers. Now about those side quests
He's easy as sin when you know what you are doing, but it still comes off pretty creative and badass. And that's what I want from Batman, badassery. Main quest still delivers. Now about those side quests
Okay first of all whoever decided to put the grapnel boost to the AR challenges is a first class asshole. For starters that whole series of missions is lame as shit. One part because you are flying through hoops like this is Superman 64, and another part because contextually Batman takes time away from being Batman to go play a stupid ass minigame. The grapnel boost should have just been a standard basic mechanic, not a fucking unlock. It is an ordeal to get around that city without the grapnel boost.
Catwoman is straight filler and unnecessary. She's basically Rachel in Ninja Gaiden Sigma, where the game would be better without her sequences in it. She's not as interesting to play gameplay wise, she shares upgrade points with Batman (and im not wasting points on her), and getting around the city as Catwoman sucks. On the plus side I like that fake ending during her storyline.
Side quest spoilers
Other side missions had lousy payoffs and require an absurd kind of OCD to even find them shits. Like the Hush stuff for instance is hunting down dead bodies, when you're gliding over the city, and no amount of detective vision is going to make that stuff stick out. The Deadshot stuff is one thing, since you hear a bullet sound and it gives you a general area to explore. The Hush stuff? You dumb luck into that stuff in my opinion, and I'm not fond of random pixel hunting. Riddles are one thing, I've more or less been told to explore this given area. The Hush stuff is full yolo.
And the payoff? Okay I get the part that Hush is a cool comic story, and he's creepy, but the payoff for all that shit isn't Batman kicking his ass, it's Batman going "meh I'll take care of him in the sequel, Batman too busy right now" bitch what the fuck?
Same thing with Azreal, you randomly spot him here and there, match coordinates, find him, and he basically tells you Batman 3 is gonna be a thing.
Other stuff that was super lame was the Szazz stuff, narrative wise it's kind of cool to hear him tell his story and the parallel between him and Bats. Both losing their parents, and Szazz becoming a sane member of society and Batman becoming a freak. But the going from telephone to telephone thing? no thank you.
Deadshot was cool, simple, but effective. Find bodies, Batman matches clues, and then you sneak up on him and deliver Batman justice.
The madhatter mission is fantastic, it's a one off, but it's appropriately creepy narrative wise and unique from a gameplay perspective. IT kind of reminds me of the falling clock tower segment in Bayonetta, and good things remind me of Bayonetta.
And the payoff? Okay I get the part that Hush is a cool comic story, and he's creepy, but the payoff for all that shit isn't Batman kicking his ass, it's Batman going "meh I'll take care of him in the sequel, Batman too busy right now" bitch what the fuck?
Same thing with Azreal, you randomly spot him here and there, match coordinates, find him, and he basically tells you Batman 3 is gonna be a thing.
Other stuff that was super lame was the Szazz stuff, narrative wise it's kind of cool to hear him tell his story and the parallel between him and Bats. Both losing their parents, and Szazz becoming a sane member of society and Batman becoming a freak. But the going from telephone to telephone thing? no thank you.
Deadshot was cool, simple, but effective. Find bodies, Batman matches clues, and then you sneak up on him and deliver Batman justice.
The madhatter mission is fantastic, it's a one off, but it's appropriately creepy narrative wise and unique from a gameplay perspective. IT kind of reminds me of the falling clock tower segment in Bayonetta, and good things remind me of Bayonetta.
Riddler's stuff is a great addition, although I think they have way too many riddler trophies and riddles themselves are more of a pain in the ass to find in a city vs finding them in the dungeon like areas. The puzzles are clever as they start really simple, and then ask you to take a basic thing you learned and do something more complex with it. Technically all games try to do this, but not all puzzle games do this with the grace of Arkham City. For instance there is one part that teaches you to dive bomb off gargoyles to beat a trap door to get a trophy. Said gargoyle was riddler marked out the ass so you knew ahead of time. There is another sequence with multiple pressure plates you can't get to, but with a gargoyle (that isn't marked) you dive bomb and do the shock wave attack and it gets all of them. And that's on the basic side, some of those puzzles get straight fiendish with what they want with your gadgets.
I also like that Riddler gets hostages, shout out to Spring-Loaded for saying go for those, because he's right they are straight up cool. In the 2nd hostage sequence there is a like hostage in a cup situation, where you have to follow the cup as he's moving all 3 around. Except Riddler cheats and cons you and he had a trap door underneath and moved the guy to the wrong cup, so I picked the wrong cup. Shit was clever, and then the game out right tells me he's cheating after I get it wrong once -_-...but that could be my fault for playing on hard, but still leaving hints on, so my bad.
So yeah Riddler, Madhatter, and Deadhshot? Good. The other side shit? They were lame. Okay I actually liked saving Mrs. Freeze and finding Crime Alley was an awesome touch.
Oh another thing, this wild notion that the Arkham Games do a great job of selling Batman the detective, bull fucking shit. The riddles do a great job of making the player feel clever like Batman, but the investigating shit? You never piece anything together, Batman himself does it. You the player just go into Superman's X-ray vision, scan some shit, and then batman cross references bicycle stores and toy stores and realizes he has to go to FAO Schwarz. And there are one too many segments in City that just waste your fucking time.
Like going to destroy those 3 jamming towers, scanning robots, that ice ball platform thing you gotta do on steel mill trip #2.
It's kind of why I absolutely agree with the notion Asylum is a better paced and more cohesive experience. The simplicity of being in a singular space makes Asylum way more memorable both visually (City itself is straight up bland until you get into dungeons) and from an atmosphere standpoint. And while the plot in Asylum isn't anything to write home about, there is a sense of clarity to it in Asylum. The one night thing for instance actually works for Asylum.
City? With all the things going on? Nah. And the main quest storyline? He comes to the city to find out whats going on, gets Joker herpes, needs to find the cure for Joker herpes, then needs to find Ra's Al Gul who just happens to be underneath the city because YOLO (oh and Rocksteady is #TeamRaysh...what hoes, it's Ras Al Gul), then randomly its about hugo strange again who was funded by Ra's because whateverthefuck, and then its fight clayface who was subbing in for Joker because he wanted the Academy Award or something.
It was completely stupid, and not in an audacious sort of way. So for clarity, pacing, and atmosphere I absolutely would go to bat for Asylum, but yeah City clowns it as a game. Plus you can break shields with Batman's fists, that's so badass.
Oh oh oh oh...and you fucking punch a shark.
