Batman: Arkham

[Michael*]

A pre-Oracle Barbara Gordon confirmed to appear in this mix-up of new screenshots.

 

[Michael*]

Also, Deathstroke gameplay trailer.

 

[Michael*]

New gameplay/walkthrough videos for 'Origins' and 'Blackgate'. The notion of 'Origins' being as big a step up as 'Arkham City' was from the original is almost certainly going to be a non-starter, but it's looking pretty great so far. Combat looks slightly flimsy in 'Blackgate', though I do like the 'Metroidvania'-style presentation.

 

"Must you be so brutal, sir? Those men are city employees"

[Michael*]

Rather snazzy new TV spot.

 

[Michael*]

'Personal Mission' trailer. One more day to wait.

 

[donbot]

It just unlocked on Steam

[Michael*]

It just unlocked on Steam

 

I picked it up yesterday and I’m having a blast so far, although perhaps inevitably, it does feel a bit like the video game equivalent of watching a tribute band playing the hits. Everything is enjoyable, it touches all the same bases, but at the same time, you know it falls slightly short of the real deal.

 

The combat is essentially more of the same with a little added variety, no bad thing for fans of the series. I'm liking the boss fights too, particularly the awesome confrontation with Deathstroke. I've dipped into a couple of his challenge maps as well, the fighting ones are excellent fun, he's super agile and has some brutal looking moves.

[SympathysSilhouette]

Is this worth picking up? I'm all Total War-ed out for now.

[Michael*]

It's not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, and there's really no getting away from the fact that it doesn't offer anything genuinely new, but it's a lot of fun and very likeable. Well worth checking out if you're a fan.

 

The boss battles are handled really well (always seemingly a criticism of 'Asylum' and 'City'), and each one brings a dash of cautious innovation that mixes up the rhythm of the fights. Throw in a couple of extra enemy types and you have a combat system that still feels great. The theme of mobsters being superceded by supervillains is excellent too, as is much of the voice acting. Whisper it, but Troy Baker’s Joker may be better than Mark Hamill’s.

[SympathysSilhouette]

I did enjoy the first two games in the series.

Is it obvious that Rocksteady is no longer the studio in charge of the project?

[Michael*]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's blatantly obvious, but it's definitely rougher around the edges. There are graphical glitches and frame rate problems that I wouldn’t have expected, and also a distinct absence of regular citizens knocking about the cityspace. Which, given that it was billed as being set in a vibrant and lived-in Gotham, feels a little off.
 
Luckily, as the storyline begins to gather pace, I'm finding that the minor irritations are bothering me less and less. Rocksteady's fantastic foundations are intact and broadly speaking, it delivers on everything that made the previous games so great. Running around just being Batman is as much fun as ever.

[donbot]

^+1

I just finished it last night. It was a very solid title, but I agree with the 'rough around the edges' remark. There were more than a few bugs and glitches, some of which were game-breaking. At least some of them have since been patched. The jump from City to Origins was much less pronounced than the jump from Asylum to City. Pretty much everything was a re-hash, if not a direct copy of City. The only real significant additions to the combat were the shock gloves and the 'martial artist' enemy type. But I don't particularly have a problem with that - I guess if it ain't broke...

I actually really like what they did with the detective mode. The crime scene reconstruction with the rewind mechanic was very cool. I feel like they missed a trick there though - they could/should have had more of an element of exploration and puzzle solving in those sections, to make you feel like you're actually being a bit of a detective, rather than just a 'follow the dots' kinda deal.

[SympathysSilhouette]

So I've owned the game for four days but yet to play a single minute. How and when did I get so busy?

[Michael*]

^I know what you mean. There was a time when I'd have been able to finish a game like this in a day or two.
 

I actually really like what they did with the detective mode. The crime scene reconstruction with the rewind mechanic was very cool. I feel like they missed a trick there though - they could/should have had more of an element of exploration and puzzle solving in those sections, to make you feel like you're actually being a bit of a detective, rather than just a 'follow the dots' kinda deal.

That would have been great, actually. It’s difficult to ring the changes too much in a prequel, I guess, but they could have really gone to town on that, perhaps had the Joker or Enigma plant objects at the crime scene designed to throw you off the scent, or included pieces of evidence that you could collect and then discard if they were of no use.

[SympathysSilhouette]

I finally started playing it.

I like it, but it feels different from the first two. I can't really pinpoint what it is though.

[SympathysSilhouette]

So I got as far as the Electrocutioner fight.

At first I thought it was a bug, but then I realized it was probably meant as a conscious nod to this moment in Raiders?

 

[Michael*]

The Electrocutioner bit gave me a flashback to the Mysterio boss fight in 'Spider-Man 2', which I actually thought was a glitch at the time. He had several health bars, but you could take him out with one punch (2:50).
 

[SympathysSilhouette]

Played a bit more now. I'm up to the fight with Bane in the hotel Penthouse/outside.

After finishing that, I moved on to finishing the remaining Comm towers (I had to update to do one of them which was bugged).

I stopped playing after destroying the final relay, so today the Riddler is going down!

[Michael*]

^Do let me know how it goes. I invested quite a bit of time in the Riddler challenges while playing 'Asylum' and 'City' and was mildly underwhelmed by the pay-offs, so I'm still somewhat undecided about taking them on this time around.

[Michael*]

New Arkham DLC has just appeared, entitled 'Initiation'. Apparently, it allows the player to take on the role of a young Bruce Wayne in a series of challenge maps. There's a bamboo forest to negotiate and a mountain top monastery rather like the one in 'Batman Begins'.