Batman Arkham Choices

Epic games recently has an offer to get a bunch of free Batman PC games:

Celebrating 80 Years of Batman with Free Games!
9.19.2019
Holy free games, Batman!
80 years ago the Caped Crusader appeared to fight for justice and stole our hearts with his mystery and valor. To celebrate, we’re offering six Batman titles for free this week in the Epic Games store. (Yes, you read that right - six free games!) Grab these titles for free until September 26 (10:59 AM EDT)!

Lego Batman Trilogy
LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame
LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes
LEGO® Batman™ 3: Beyond Gotham

Batman Arkham Collection
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Knight

Quick! To the Batcave! I mean... the Epic Games store!

Now I already have Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight, but I had misplaced my DVD copy of Arkham City and I was super stoked to be able to pick it up for free since I already had a Epic Games Launcher on my PC for the kids playing Fortnight. So click and click and I started the download of my favourite Batman Arkham game.

Don't get me wrong: Batman Arkham Asylum was ground breaking and amazing in 2010 and still holds up today, but Arkham City is my favourite of the three I played extensively. It was a bigger and more wide open environment than its predecessor and appeared more fleshed out then the successor Arkham Origins, which despite being in an actual city felt like an empty stage upon which a few set piece amusement park rides were staged upon.

However, Arkham City is full of life and activity and things to explore and a great storyline and well implemented environment. I love it. This is my third time playing through.

Someday I'll give Arkham Knight a try again. Last time I tried it my computer lagged badly enough for me to quit after less than an hour.

Review: Batman: Arkham Origins

I got Batman: Arkham Origins for Christmas but only loaded it up and started playing last month. I'm about halfway through and I feel I'm mostly ready to give a review.

Too long; didn't read: Pretty good if you are a Batman fan but not as good as the first two.

Now, on to the details.

If you had never played Batman: Arkham Asylum or Batman: Arkham City (hereon in known as AA and AC, view my reviews here) then Arkham Origins (aka AO) is a very passable game. It captures the feel of being Batman and patrolling a city beating up thugs, investigating crimes, and defeating the occasional supervillian.

But in the context of the previous two games it comes away lacking. The environment is bigger in that you have all of Gotham city to explore, but it feels weirdly emptier than the smaller environs of the first two. Combat-wise it brings very little new besides fighting martial arts goons and mini-Banes hopped up on venom drugs.

The storyline looked promising at first but not even halfway through the game and its revealed that the big bad guy is ... wait for it... SURPRISE! Its not the Black Mask after all, its really the Joker!!

*groan* Again?

At least AC had an interesting dynamic of Dr Hugo Strange and Ras A'Ghul competing with the Joker-poisoned-Batman storyline, but AO appears to be simply Joker posing as Black Mask hiring a bunch of super villians to kill Batman. Yawn. To be fair, I'm only halfway in and there is room for something more but I'm not holding out hope. Like the strangely barren metropolis that is Gotham, the story feels like all facade and no depth.

As for the actual gameplay, there are a lot more glitches and lack of polish. The predator levels are unimaginative and the environmental puzzles simplistic. So far you play as no one but Batman which is actually a retrograde from AC where you got to try out Catwoman in a few places. So AA seems to bring nothing new or interesting to the franchise.

Well, one thing so far... the shock gloves I got earlier this week are tons of fun. There are many times in AC I would have loved having these things.

Overall its a passable game but nothing to write home about. Hopefully when the original studio that did AA and AC take back over the reigns with 2015s Batman: Arkham Knights that the series gets back on track.

Re-Review: Batman Arkham City

I got Batman Arkham City for Christmas in 2011 and played it in the following month. With news reports and gameplay video about Batman Arkham Origins coming out I got the urge to break it open again and give it another try.

**SPOILER WARNINGS**

Last time I got to near the end of the main storyline and couldn't complete it. I got to the big fight with Clayface but couldn't defeat him after several tries. Burnt out a little at playing the game hard for a month I quit and intended to go back but never did until this month. Being away so long I of course just started a new game.

Last time I wrote:

The one downside to AC however has to be the sheer multitude of distractions they have thrown in via the form of side missions. These are optional short missions that Batman can accept or stumble on but don't really need to be accomplished in order to move the main story line forward. The problem is that its hard to buy into the main story line plot's urgency if Batman is running around doing minor superhero work all over the place. Some side missions can be accomplished "along the way" but the ones that require you to go way out of your way to work on are just plain distractions.
I realize the developers put them in there to increase playability and there is some value in gaining more experience for more upgrades by completing them, but they are very distracting and I wish the main story line had organic pauses in it to allow me to feel like I have the latitude to investigate the sniper bullet trajectory. Instead since I'm DYING OF POISON JOKER BLOOD I NEED CURE NOW it feels a little silly to not go as quickly as possible to the next part. You know, I'm dying and all that.
Still, the game is good and the side missions are well constructed, I just need to allow myself to investigate them more and not get so hung up on the pretend urgency.

I decided this time to take my own advice and not rush from storyline point to storyline point. Instead I took the challenge of the side missions to heart and ran down every lead and crime in progress I came across.

This tactic worked well for me. I leveled a lot more and got fully upgraded batsuit (i.e. more hitpoints) and got more practice at fighting the various goon types (the shield ones are especially annoying). Love the quickfire freeze grenades.

The end result was a lot more satisfying AND I easily defeated Clayface in a couple tries (actually had to do it twice as it froze on his death cutscene the first time). So yay me. Overall, I'd say my enjoyment of the game was greater on a second playthrough.

However, there was one thing that bothered me, both the first time I saw it and this time (beyond the rampant and gratuitous over sexualization and titillation of the main female characters). At one point in the main story the Joker has kidnapped Talia who Batman "has feelings for" and he wants to track them down and save her. Meanwhile the prison is being attacked by numerous helicopters firing machine guns and rockets at the helpless prisoners, killing hundreds. Alfred and Oracle have to block the homing device on Talia to force Batman to stop the helicopters.

What. The. Fuck.

Batman would never, NEVER, allow a selfish motive to prevent him from saving innocent lives. This plot point rung out so untrue to the spirit and character of Batman that is still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That was horrible writing and plotting and not even necessary. I know why they did it: in a game where the player controls Batman how do you take away the choice of stopping the helicopters or following the homing beacon? Especially since the whole game so far has been about choosing what mission to work on at any point in time? But a simple explanation of "oh, Hugo Strange's tower is outputting jamming frequencies to prevent the massacre from getting out too soon" is all you really need. Instead they choose to debase Batman into another male-slaved-to-his-own-loins macho man.

Horrible. Not enough to completely ruin the game for me, but enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I hope none of that nonsense makes it into Arkham Origins.

Review: Batman Arkham City

I'm Batman!

I love Batman, and I absolutely loved Batman Arkham Asylum when I got it two years ago for Christmas. I played it through with terrible graphic performance on my old computer and then a second time on my new computer. It was a game that was fun to play and captured the feeling of being a superhero.

So it was with great expectations that I hoped for Batman Arkham City as a Christmas present and I was finally reward on New Year's Eve and I admit its been the only game in my limited free time since then (except Minecraft Pocket Edition on my tablet but let's not go there).

I'm halfway through the main storyline and I feel I can give an initial response to the question of "is Arkham City any good?". My answer is definitely. I'm having a blast. Is it better than Arkham Asylum? Yes and no.

In Arkham Asylum (aka AA) the areas, especially the external areas, were necessarily cut off by natural obstacles so that Batman would have to go through a tunnel or doorway / gate to pass between them. This didn't bother me, but in Arkham City (aka AC) the exterior areas are seamlessly connected so that there is incredible joy traveling across the mega-prison as Batman by gliding and grappling hook. Its freaking awesome. The interior areas are similarly better connected and more organic than in AA although its not as obvious.

In terms of combat, AC has extended both the opponents you have to face as well as Batman's arsenal. This is an improvement in AC over AA as things in older game did start to get a little repetitive near the end, however my lack of hand coordination can be problematic in the newer game with its increased options.

The "predator" areas where Batman has to take out armed thugs with stealth rather than brute force are still as fun as ever and includes some exterior areas where you can really feel Batman's ability to move around is a powerful advantage in combat. I love sneaking up on bad guys and taking them out right under their associates' noses.

The one downside to AC however has to be the sheer multitude of distractions they have thrown in via the form of side missions. These are optional short missions that Batman can accept or stumble on but don't really need to be accomplished in order to move the main story line forward. The problem is that its hard to buy into the main story line plot's urgency if Batman is running around doing minor superhero work all over the place. Some side missions can be accomplished "along the way" but the ones that require you to go way out of your way to work on are just plain distractions.

I realize the developers put them in there to increase playability and there is some value in gaining more experience for more upgrades by completing them, but they are very distracting and I wish the main story line had organic pauses in it to allow me to feel like I have the latitude to investigate the sniper bullet trajectory. Instead since I'm DYING OF POISON JOKER BLOOD I NEED CURE NOW it feels a little silly to not go as quickly as possible to the next part. You know, I'm dying and all that.

Still, the game is good and the side missions are well constructed, I just need to allow myself to investigate them more and not get so hung up on the pretend urgency.

Is the game groundbreaking? Not really. But it does make me hopeful that someday we'll see a fully realized Gotham city that Batman patrols and the main storyline and side storylines are tightly and seamlessly integrated into it. Here's hoping!

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Last night I decided that I would play Batman: Arkham Asylum as I still want to progress in that game in balance with my Eve game time. Because I love being Batman. Booya.

Last night I got to the Killer Kroc "level". And I have not been so frantic in a game since my days of playing Doom II and getting down in health and ammo and freeing an ambush in the dark room ahead.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone but let's just say that the flight-fight response of adrenaline was pumping through my body and in the game flight was impossible. I was well and truly freaked out by the suspense and I died four times before completing the level (twice when trying to run). I couldn't believe the panic that flowed through me when I knew Kroc was coming but didn't know from where. Intense.

Once I was finally done I had a huge sigh of relief and quit the game for less stressful Wii Super Mario with the wife.