Its that time again and this TIME (Sorry for the Late Post, Busy With Life) WE have a very special…analysis of a very special awaited game. Sequel to GAME OF THE YEAR AWARDS and BAFTA I may add, BATMAN: Arkham City. What a game Arkham Asylum. It was the first time a SUPERHERO GAME could actually be good, not just good, downright amazing full of sheer brilliance and detail. A true expression to the meaning of GAMING REVOLUTION, it exceeded all hype and promise. It was regarded by some a real masterpiece. NOT TO US!!!
A Masterpiece it was not. A damn fine brilliant game yes but not the stepping-stone of what it means to make a game. It had flaws. Mild ones but flaws nonetheless but it made for one hell of a memorable playing experience that sadly Arkham City fails to capture. If Asylum was the prototype for a bigger game then Arkham City it is not.
BUT…let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To call it a bad game would be an understatement. Now to call it a disappointing, overrated piece of shit are the RIGHT WORDS to describe this bundle of excuse for a game. Okay, maybe I’m going to far. Calling it shit and unplayable are strong and hurtful words…OH WHO’RE WE KIDDING
THIS GAME WAS TERRIBLE. IF THE DEVELOPERS ARE PROUD OF THIS THEY SHOULDN’T BE BECAUSE IT ISN’T GOOD. IT ISN’T GOOD AT ALL. IT’S A DISASTER. WHO THE HELL PLAYS THE FINAL PRODUCT AND DOESN’T QUESTION THE FLAWS THE GAME HAS? BECAUSE THIS GAME HAS FLAWS. BIG ONES. But what are the flaws this time around you may ask?
Well let’s start at the basics…
Based ONE YEAR or was it 6 Months? They never really make it clear, Hey funny that, that was also the same problem The Dark Knight had with Batman Begins. Was it based one year or 6 Months after the last one?
I think it was SIX MONTHS, the Joker says so…then again the Joker is dying so who cares right? EITHER WAY, the game takes place after the events of Arkham Asylum.
After all that horrible shit went down along with some more shit that happened off-screen in the Arkham City Prologue Comic Book, Warden Quincy Sharp has become Mayor of Gotham and ordered the construction of a new Prison to keep all the local criminals contained behind bars.
EXCEPT ITS NOT BARS KEEPING THEM LOCKED UP. It’s Walls. To be more exact, half of Gotham City has been closed and sealed off with walls that inside contain the various villains and criminal henchmen and gangs and it has become a all out war between them. Joker, Penguin, Two-Face all fighting it out and keeping watch is the new appointed Warden of Arkham City, DR. HUGO STRANGE.
Not following the DC Universe of events, this game officially sets out to expand what it created with Asylum and officially becomes its own world and universe separate from the comics and cartoons.
ACTUALLY, IT’D BE INTERESTING TO KNOW whether the games can be called TIE-INS to the old ANIMATED SERIES considering some of the Voice-Actors are in this including the GREAT LUKE SKYWALKER…I mean Mark Hamill aka Voice of the Joker and Kevin Conroy aka THE BATMAN.
The game begins with Bruce Wayne holding a Press conference at the gates of Arkham City, protesting against it but the conference is interrupted and Wayne is captured by Strange’s Armed Security Forces called TYGER.
Hold on a second here, how the hell do you interrupt a press conference and proceed to arrest Wayne, the richest bastard of Gotham City known by people worldwide and throw him into a prison full of madmen? How the hell does Strange do this and not get a call from governments demanding he resign or ask what the hell his doing?
Wayne is arrested and comes face to face with Hugo Strange (Voiced by Clone Wars COUNT DOOKU) who tells him he knows that he is the and only Batman.
OHHHHH, this is going to be good. A Villain who knows who he is and is running a giant ass prison filled with the heroes Rogue Gallery, things can only get interesting right? Well…not really. Bruce is thrown into Arkham City after some quick cameos from Black Mask, Deadshot, and Jack Ryder…
Jack Ryder? The Creeper? WHY THE HELL DOESN’T HE TRANSFORM AND SAVE HIMSELF? It’s stated by Vicki Vale, oh yes, Vicki Vale the Reporter makes an appearance in the intro and later on in the game, that the Creeper doe exist. SO WHY NOT GET BUSY? I’ll tell you why….
When you create a game for the first time that isn’t free-roaming and has a cast of small villains to push the story forward you make a for a compelling experience story and Gameplay wise. HERE THIS GAME STARTS OF BIG. It isn’t free roaming; calling it a Sandbox Game would be…stupid.
A Sandbox Game would allow for said main character to be able to travel anywhere and do anything while using various vehicles and items at his disposal. For one thing, Batman can’t kill, second, HE DOESN’T DRIVE ANY FUCKING VEHICLES. SO MUCH FOR THE FUCKING PILOTING THE BAT-WING, BOAT, CAR, OR FUCKING BAT-POD
I had high hopes because when you hear sequel you expect to have all the things you didn’t get the first time around.
Instead Batman uses his new Grapple Boost (Which you’ll need to do the A.R. Training Missions to obtain.) and his new updated Cape to glide down and up and using the grapple BOOST to boost yourself up into the air to continue…NOT FLYING but gilding towards your locations.
This sounds fun at first but gets tiring and repetitive real quick, real fast, REAL ANNOYING because all you do is go UP AND DOWN, UP AND DOWN, UP AND FUCKING DOWN AND BOOST AND GRAPPLE!!! FUCK!!!
Sure its not a big deal but having to go back and forth in the map which looks like a sandwich with a bite taken out of it and thrown into a mess of an environment with things going one way and another gets frustrating. I want a faster way of transport.
Hell, the city itself is basically a world map and the locations where the majority of the action takes place are the Hubs. Add in a few RPG elements into this and it would make it official. And right there is another major complaint I have with this game.
There are points where something happens or occurs where Batman should be making a comment or reaction to something he has already done or taken notice of it.
Example, there is a twist near the end and if you activate your Detective Mode when fighting Joker and his gang you’ll notice something. However, instead of the ending or game playing differently from this obvious important discovery the game continues as if Batman never used his detective mode and never saw the important thing that would’ve greatly made him realize all that was going on. STUPID!!! BULLSHIT!!!
This is one of those games that ask to have a form of multiple choices designed into it but it doesn’t. Maybe not a huge problem in the overall game and something not really needed but it still stands that by doing the whole Detective Mode during that segment in the game, not only does it ruin the twist but still continues to make Batman look like a fucking moron.
ANOTHER PROBLEM I had with this game. It holds your hand throughout the entire thing. Not only that, when I was going after Freeze I knew from a conversation I overheard by some thugs that Penguin was holding Freeze at his museum. Okay, lets go there then. But nope, you can’t enter because the game won’t let you. You (The Player) know Freeze is here but instead I have to go all the way to the Gotham Police Station for the narrative to pick up only for Batman to find out his not there. WELL HELL, I ALREADY KNEW HE WASN’T THERE!!!
One of the things I liked about Asylum was the moment when you had to go after Killer Croc. I didn’t head all the way back to where Aaron Cash was. Instead I just headed straight to where Crocs lair obviously was and nothing stopped me from going down that path.
In Arkham City I am been led from one place to another when I already know I don’t have to go there but the plot demands I follow this liner path. Again, this adds more to the thing I said about open choices and such. Batman overheard the conversation so therefore he himself should know that Freeze is there or at least come up with a fucking excuse why he still has to go the GCPD.
It should be moments like that where you do something or not and take notice of it that it should affect the narrative in some ways. Instead it just over-looked like nothing has changed.
GREATEST DECTIVE MY ASS!!! FOR SOMEONE WHOSE MEANT TO BE ONE OF THE WORLD’S SMARTEST MAN THEY REALLY DOWNPLAYED HIS INTELLENGENCE HERE IN THE FAVOUR OF MAKING HIM SOUND AND ACT LIKE A THREATING ASSHORE!!! And not Dark and Scary…
…AND SMART!!!
What else is terrible?
IN MY OPINION OF COURSE!!!
The repetitive COMBAT SYSTEM. Oh sure it was fun at first but now its just bloody annoying. There is nothing new to it. It’s the same boring crap from the first game except now you can counter more than one enemy. Not a big improvement really. That and the camera gets in the way and sometimes you press a button and it doesn’t respond thus causing you to screw up your combo or get hit or not do anything at all.
What’s worse is the GROUND TAKEDOWN. You’ll still get hit when you attempt it. Why the hell haven’t the Developers fixed that so I can counter the on-coming attack or jump out of the way? People will say it makes the game easier and not challenging enough. BULLSHIT. IM PLAYING THE GODDAMN BATMAN. I should be able to stop and beat anything coming my way. Otherwise what’s the point of been Batman AKA the master expert at all art forms of fighting and ass kicking?
What else sucks major ass besides the gliding, shitty ass city and combat?
Well the plot sucks major donkey balls. Before I get into that let me explain about what that means when comparing it to Arkham Asylum.
It was a very simple game that combined combat and stealth together with deep themes of Horror and Fear that played throughout the games atmosphere and actual Gameplay and had a distant taste of psychological aspect to it.
Everything in that game served a slight purpose and it had a THEME. Arkham City’s plot is all over the place, trying to do one thing and then completely going off and doing another. It throws in too many elements of plot and characters that get no development whatsoever.
When you make something like Batman the first thing you do, have to do no matter what format is delve in the psychology of that character and create a environment with atmosphere.
In Batman’s case Arkham Asylum delved into his mental state through the use of the Scarecrow Nightmares, they taught us who he was, his origins and the fact that Batman himself might be really truly crazy as the villains he fights.
With Arkham City we don’t get that at all. There is no real theme, no real development with Batman’s character. He just goes from one place to the next, nothing been learned, nothing been said and Batman is just an ass from start to finish.
That’s not to say Asylum didn’t suffer from flaws too. One of the major flaws in the game was the lack of other villains and the overall Boss Battles which sucked completely with the only ones been any good and logical been the Scarecrow fights and Killer Croc’s was scary as hell on a first playthrough but after a second one it was repetitive and stupid and not as scary considering all you had to do was run and throw a batarang at him.
You know what IS scary? DEAD SPACE. That shit will hunt me to my grave. Nemesis is still scary by today’s standards. Well, okay, maybe not as much but there is that element of fear. Asylum to me was a ONE-TIME experience. But for that ONE EXPERIENCE it was great.
Continuing on about shitty Boss Fights, the final boss fight with the Joker was what ruined the entire experience in an instant. Fighting a roid-monster that looked awfully like the Abomination from The Incredible Hulk I was horrified to see how the ending went. I was expecting after all the encounters with the Joker to finally have an epic fistfight to the death with him.
After all, the challenge maps made him out to be a genius at hand-to-hand combats. But no, the developers wanted a monster boss fight and had to even ask permission from the writers to go down that route.
God knows why they allowed them to do that and I hope they burn in hell for their stupidity. I'm not going to explain why it was stupid for Joker to turn himself into a monster. Hell, the whole actual plot of him wanting to create an army of Titan Monsters was somewhat UNJOKER in his character.
Who the hell knows? The Joker is written by whoever the Writer is and in this case PAUL DINI who co-wrote the Animated Series had that pleasure and I can’t help but think this was a mistake on his part. Of cause this is the same guy who wrote Arkham City and that game is a complete and utter mess.
To call him a great writer is deluding yourself. Just cause he wrote the Animated Series doesn’t make him the master of all there is to know about Batman. There are far better writers, you know, the ones who write the actual novels or those epic famous Graphic Novels?
This guy wouldn’t know how to write a feature movie with in-depth characters and themes if he got hit over the head with a brink. OKAY, MAYBE THAT WAS A LITTLE TOO DEEP BUT… there is no mistaking that this guy is a bad fucking, horrible, piece of shit writer when it comes to these games.
A game IS meant to be long and not a 20 minutes episode and this game’s main campaign just flies right around the corner. Its short as hell even with all the extra side-missions and none of the big villains really get their moment to shine except for the Joker who again hogs all the attention.
We love the Joker, I love the Joker but I want other Bigger MAIN VILLAINS to shine.
HUGO STRANGE is pretty much the big bad of this game and never gets to shine except for the beginning intro and then the towards the very end, never making an appearance again in the middle or throughout the game. So much for him telling Batman he was looking forward to breaking him.
If you know who he is how bout kidnapping his loved ones and allies and keeping them hostage and mentally messing with him? But alas, Hugo never gets to really shine through, even after its revealed there is a REAL HIDDEN MASTERMIND behind Arkham City.
One of the things that WAS done well was tying Hugo to the events of Arkham Asylum as the mastermind behind some of the events involved there and also again been responsible for some of the villains actions in this game but those all happen behind the scenes and off-screen. Besides the Intro and End, Strange does nothing worthwhile to deem himself as a huge threat.
And his whole scheme involving something called Protocol 10 was a joke. Smart at first but when its revealed that he plans to extend his plans beyond Gotham City and do to other countries and places what he did in Arkham City it becomes illogical and impossible because no one in their right mind would go through with those exact plans again because the first time it might work but trying to do it again and again just makes your hidden agendas fucking obvious.
AND DON’T GIVE US THAT BULLSHIT ABOUT MIND CONTROL AND POWERFUL ALLIES!!!
It worked once, going through the same shit wouldn’t work and considering the game is based in a universe where there are other superheroes, it would just take them to come and fuck your shit up properly, with or without Batman in the picture.
Therefore Protocol 10 as an Expanded Worldwide plan is a big fucking flop and right there is another weak ass story element. And did I mention that Hugo Strange and the Real Mastermind both die in the same cutscene right after the Mastermind has revealed himself to Batman? And this is all without a Boss-Fight with Strange or the said-Mastermind. WHY?
DID I MENTION how much of a SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT the Boss Battles are compared to the previous game? No? Well they are and they’re not. There are pretty much 4 BIG BOSS BATTLES in the game. Solomon Grundy, The Dude whose later revealed as the Big Mastermind, OH FUCK IT, ITS RA’S AL GHUL, SPOILERS SHIT-HEADS, Mr. Freeze and the UNEXPECTED TWIST FINAL BOSS, CLAYFACE, Opps, SPOILERS AGAIN!!!
Seriously, if you haven’t beaten the game by now before reading this Review then you only have yourself to blame.
BACK TO TOPIC…the final boss is better than the Joker one from Asylum but overall the Boss Fights, all of them except for Mr. Freeze are piss easy.
Another weak link to them all is that you for each fight have to use one gadget that is somewhat new to the game to fight them. The QUICK EXPLOSIVE GEL attack, the ELECTRIC Gun Tool thing you obtained to open doors and SLIDE under them or use it to shock your enemies and other stuff like the FREEZE GRENADES to create platforms across water or freeze your enemies.
While the Bosses themselves are designed well, the overall fighting isn’t epic and is too easy but Mr. Freeze proves to be a challenge even on Harder difficulties, been the only villain you have to use all of your skills to defeat. Mr. Freeze’s Boss Fight was hands down one of the best Boss Encounters in Video Games this year.
However everything else about this game is just so dark and gloomy. The first game’s dark atmosphere made sense. Here it somewhat doesn’t. I’m not expecting Disney colours ands shit in a game like this but some variety otherwise this game comes off as been downright fucking depressing and unoriginal. At least try to come up with a different colour like scheme for the atmosphere and environment.
Take Nolan’s Batman films for example. Begins had a brown dark colour to it with the theme of Fear. The Dark Knight a Blue colour scheme with the theme of Chaos. Arkham Asylum had the unique gothic like design to it with Fear playing a heavy theme in the game but Arkham City is just more of the same. There is nothing new to the design or anything else related to it in terms of Gameplay.
And then there’s the weak ass storyline, which is the biggest disappointment and flaw to this game. People will say the storyline is nothing and that a game should be driven by the Gameplay but the Gameplay is just reused from the previous game. All they’ve done is thrown Batman into a more somewhat open place and added tones of characters that you don’t really fight or get any development.
I know it’s become overrated for sequels to go all dark and shit but that’s what sets it apart from the Original. Like I already said Asylum is a pretty dark themed game. Hell, a lot of innocent people are murdered. What I liked about it was encountering some survivors and then coming back to them later and finding them dead and murdered. It hit you hard emotionally as a player that you couldn’t save them and it just made you more determined to find and beat the Joker.
Here its just all a bunch of criminals with all the supporting characters been the innocent would bees that get saved by Batman. There isn’t a lot of Innocent blood shed. People do die but not enough for one to give a shit.
Honestly, I could write a better plot and I’m not just saying that. I’m either a fucking idiot who is probably deluded but I COULD WRITE a better plot or at least add stuff to it that adds more weight to the crap Paul Dini came up with because in the end of the day this game has such a half rush ass feeling to it.
Anyway, to the Conclusion of what I proper think of this game. With these Flaws mentioned what can there possibly be to say is Positive about it?
Well the Voice Acting is what makes this game. The Performances by Kevin and Mark are thrilling and Mark is as funny and demented as the Joker as ever but the fact his character goes out in such a lame way and not the way Joker should go is what yet again ruined the ending for me or maybe I just don’t understand.
Tara Strong replaces the original Harley Quinn Voice Actor and God does she sound and look crazy hot as hot as Catwoman does and Talia Al Ghul, GOD, THOSE ARSES!!!
So I like animated booty, I’ll pretend they were modelled on real beauties and leave it at that.
Honestly, the Voice Acting is some of the best I’ve listened to in a Game.
I LOVE NOLAN NORTH and GOD do I HATE THE PENGUIN. But North made it work. He made the Penguin sound interesting and made him into a sadistic bastard. LOVED THAT. One of the things that this game actually got right was making some of the characters seem interesting than they really are.
Take Mr. Zsasz for example. The Voice Actor Danny Jacobs really makes the character shine. In Arkham Asylum he was as much a sub-character as he is here. But he development as a serial killer is somewhat akin to that of Hannibal Lector.
In Arkham City his side-missions involve Batman having to race to a ringing phone before the time limit is up and then trace the call to Zsasz. This has to be done a few times and it gets really repetitive but it is the voice acting of Jacobs, telling Batman his origins of how he came to be a murderer that make the side-missions worth doing just to hear more of how it all came out. Zsasz is pretty much an unseen presence who is easily defeated once found but his character development here is pretty solid. Add that with what we know from Arkham Asylum it adds a whole lot of layers to the character.
Sadly a lot of the villains as mentioned don’t really get to shine at all and are all pretty much cameos or just thrown in for the sake of fan-service. They appear and are gone then make appearances and are gone again. NO ONE GETS ANY FUCKING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!
AND THAT’S MY MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THIS GAME.
I can handle to some extent the repetitive boringness of the Combat, the shitty piss easy ass but over-Crowded Riddler Trophies and Challenges but the Rushed and under-developed Plot and Characters I cannot.
As I’ve already said, its what makes and breaks Batman.
Oh, and speaking of Riddler Trophies, GOOD GOD!!! They were the easiest piles of crappy puzzles I have solved in my life but that’s not the annoying part. The annoying part is that there are about Four Hundred of these pointless fucking things and I have to go around solving them if I want to unlock Patient Interviews or get experiences points and encounter the Riddler, which is such a lame ass encounter to a Villain.
The Riddler in the first game felt terrifying and unnerving. That Baby Joke is what convinced me. He is an annoying, stupid ass, dipshit. Here the Riddler isn’t threatening or horrifying like he was in Arkham and even then he was an unseen presence but here you do see him and while he looks great his character is just written so poorly.
Not only that, Puzzles for the sake of Puzzles is not a fun way of extending game time. Its repetitive and annoying as is the Riddler. This sequel went from making the villains in the first game seem horrific and terrifying to annoying mouth-assed pricks who act like spoiled children all the time. Even Batman is a prick and I felt no emotion or connection with him at all. He feels like a complete different character.
ANYWAY….
Well in this case you might as skip ahead to the CONCLUSION because as of now I’m going into a rage rant about the plot from beginning to end and form my own idea of how the game should’ve been done.
SPOILERS:
The game like I said begins with Bruce Wayne getting captured by Dr. Hugo Strange’s TYGER Guards and thrown into Arkham City. But right there is a stupid way of setting up the game. For one thing, its Bruce Wayne been arrested in front of the public and the news and no one dares question as to why Strange does this and there is no big ass compliant mentioned through the news of this.
The only mention is by Gordon who is overheard on the radio that all officers are to bring the criminals to their station prisons or anywhere else besides Arkham City and not let Strange get their hands on them and Vicki Vale makes a mention of Bruce Wayne’s kidnapping but nothing important. Overall a stupid ass illogical start to a game and Strange makes threats that he never keeps to his word.
HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE…
Start the game at WAYNE MANOR. Why? Because it’s Wayne Manor. It’s the place where Bruce lives and feels most secure at. His home and his biggest secrets contained within it along with the graves of his Parents. What better way to start off the game then to have Strange and TYGER breaching Wayne Manor, taking Alfred hostage and forcing Bruce to sneak to the Bat-Cave to somewhat send a SOS signal to his allies while activating a self-destruct that will keep Strange out of his systems and in the end getting captured and taken to Arkham City.
It would show exactly that Strange knows his Batman and make him a big ass threat who isn’t afraid to get close and personal, attacking his allies and maybe even have him burn Wayne Manor to the ground, setting up a dark theme and start to the game.
Bruce is taken to Arkham City and Strange manages to persuade the authorities to arrest Wayne by creating false evidence that lands him in Arkham City. Strange would also explain why exactly he is sending him into Arkham City in the first place, wanting him to suffer with his ‘Creations’ so to speak, explaining right here and now how he thinks Batman is responsible for all the insane criminals that have crawled out of the woodwork because of him.
Bruce is sent in and the game would continue as usual. Beating up Penguin and getting his suit from the Batwing, but with the added twist of trying to contact his allies, Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, only for Strange to connect to him via radio that he will not get any help and that he is lost in this city. With no outside help coming to aid him in anyway Batman would seek out the help of the one person he knows who can help him from the inside. Catwoman.
The whole opening with Two-Face and Catwoman was a actual terrific start to the game that I believed was setting up the Love Interest in Selina Kyle/Catwoman and setting up the potential Villain/Anti-Hero in Harvey Dent aka Two-Face.
Great voice acting from both sides of Two-Face’s personalities and a great set-up but after this sequence Two-Face isn’t seen again and Catwoman only makes one more actual helping appearance. If you want you’ll have to download the Catwoman DLC to get more of them and even that isn’t a lot. I’ll get to that later.
Anyway, again as usual, Catwoman is saved and she acts flirty with Batman, setting up their obvious love romance in one another. Anyone whose read HEART OF HUSH then knows that Comic officially sets up that Bruce dearly loves Selina. But as stated already, this game has now set out to be its own universe and thus all the character history and moments in the past few years are un-canon here. But still, the game should have tried harder to stick true to what is known among fans in this day and age. OR MAYBE this game is meant to be a tie-in to the Animated Series. OR MAYBE NOT…
The game would continue as usual. Joker makes his presence known, the whole Church setting which actually was Kickass would be involved, and eventually it all leads to the Steel-Mill and Batman is like the game captured by the Joker after thinking he has found him dead.
Um…how exactly did Joker manage to fool Batman’s Detective Mode into thinking he was dead? How the hell did that even work? NO EXPLANATION given. This is where the game started going downhill for me very fast.
The Joker captures Batman and reveals to him that he is indeed dying because of the Titan he injected into himself during the first game and it has now become a toxic in his blood, which is killing him. He then reveals that he has injected his own blood into Batman and Batman just says that he doesn’t care if he and the Joker die together.
Cool so far. But then the Joker explains he wants a cure to save himself and that he has also send copies of his blood to hospitals in Gotham City and that as they speak hundreds of patients are been infected with it and thus Batman is forced to go in a search for a cure.
This entire plot-point in the story just felt unholy to the way the characters are portrayed. To me the Joker isn’t someone who’d want to be cured. In fact he’d accept death, poison Batman as well as a way of saying that if he dies he’ll die with him and at the same time causing as much chaos as possible before he dies. They got those points right but then have to add in the Joker been a desperate little shit asking for Batman’s help of all people.
And then there is the whole PLOT HOLE with the Titan Disease and cure. Batman and a bunch of thugs were injected with Titan but there is no mention of them contracting a disease from it. Batman also created a cure to the Titan and used it on himself to cure himself from changing into a monster like the Joker and then proceeds to beat the Joker up which then forces him back into his normal form.
But the point I’m making is that THERE WAS A CURE TO THE TITAN. So why not use that? Hell, at least explain why it is only the Joker who got a killing disease from it. This is never addressed and thus is a stupid ass form of plot device to get the story moving.
Not only that, this creates another story thread in the game that has no relation whatsoever to the main plot of Batman fighting Strange. So not only does Batman have to find out what Strange is up too and what Protocol 10 is but all of that is dropped in favour of the Joker and Cure Plot which pretty much drives the rest of the story with the whole Strange threat becoming a behind the scenes plot. WHAT A WASTE, all that set-up at the beginning and its thrown out the window to be revisited later.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE…
Joker reveals he is working with Strange like Catwoman told Batman and that Strange organized Joker’s blood to be delivered out of Arkham City and be sent to the Hospitals as a plot to damage the rest of Gotham while he’s Protocol 10 Scheme would deal with Arkham City. Not only does this tie Joker’s plans together with Hugo’s but makes the storyline seem less crowded.
Batman escapes Joker’s clutches and contacts Catwoman who would be his Alfred and Oracle in this game providing him all the information as she has been in Arkham City and knows all there is to know while continuing to develop the love relationship between them. With Batman on the verge of death along with Gotham, Batman would be determined to find a cure to Joker’s disease while struggling to maintain his sanity.
Knowing the one person who can help him Batman seeks out to find Mr. Freeze. Catwoman who has been in Arkham City for a while knows where he can possibly be and Batman heads there.
The game continues as usual with the whole Penguin Segment. He finds Freeze, defeats Solomon Grundy and defeats Penguin etc, etc, and the Cop Hostages should’ve been Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya. If you’re going to throw all these characters in and not have Gordon be the important GCPD Character than make it these two. Not only is it fan-service but also shows these are characters that aren’t forgotten for Christ sake.
These guys and the rest of the Cops take refuge inside and Batman gets Freeze’s suit etc, etc and discusses the cure with him. Freeze explains he’ll need certain ingredients to create the cure. As Batman heads out from the Museum Strange contacts him via radio and further screws with Batman by revealing his allies and friends are captured and in Arkham City and held hostage by the Riddler.
The Riddler Hostage Challenges were good but the fact that you were rescuing characters who we as an audience and fans don’t even know and aren’t even important characters but just characters doesn’t make it so worthwhile.
Batman is forced to drop finding the cure and goes on a rescue mission around Arkham. However with Catwoman around she can just as easily aid him in the other department. Instead of actually playing Catwoman in Down Loadable Content, actually make her part of the main game and have her story proper connect with Batman’s like with Resident Evil 4s Separate Ways Missions.
Catwoman goes and confronts Scientist Villains like Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter and boards a ship belonging to Scarecrow (Great Easter Egg in the actual game by the way) and collects the Ingredients She needs while Batman saves Robin, Nightwing, Alfred and Oracle. Little clues would be given that Hush and even the Red Hood Robin in alliance with Riddler and Strange were behind the kidnapping hinting at possible villains for the next Instalment while at the same time setting up a emotional conflict and plot that would be confronted and resolved in the next one.
After the rescues and some emotional scarring and Batman nearly going into a breakdown at discovering that Jason could be alive and was behind it along with his childhood friend Thomas Elliot and defeating the Riddler, Batman heads to where Freeze is located. He has been given the ingredients by Catwoman but frozen and captured…Again and demands Batman save his wife Nora for him.
Batman refuses and we get the whole Mr. Freeze Boss Battle except now it’s a bit of comparisons with both fighting each other because they want to save the women they love. After Freeze is beaten and Catwoman is freed it is revealed that Batman needs one more special ingredient and only one person can get him that. Ras Al Ghul. But with no idea whether Ras is in Gotham, Batman decides to head to one of the League of Assassins Lairs hidden deep underground below Arkham City.
Before that can happen Bombs all over Arkham City go off. Joker has retaliated and Two-Face comes back with a vengeance. One of my favourites things in the Arkham City Teaser was the bombs going after in what appeared to be the actual city and Joker just sitting in his death chair and enjoying the view. But alas, we never actually got to see that. While bombs did go off, set off by the Penguin, it wasn’t to the extent I had hoped.
However, this is what I think should have happened. It’s all about extending gameplay and developing the characters as much as possible. Joker attacks along with Two-Face’s forces and they all converge on the Museum and Ice Lounge and it becomes a three out battle between the Police trapped there and the villain forces.
Batman heads back while Catwoman would be busy doing her missions connecting to Batman’s and goes off finding Nora Freeze while Batman sneaks through the warzone and stops Joker’s forces, rescues Vicki Vale from her crashed helicopter (Nice Tim Burton Batman references there with the Line Launcher) and confronts Two-Face, saving his life from Joker’s forces. Here, depending on the coin-flip, it neither ends with Dent’s side coming through and promising to help him next time or a Boss Fight with Two-Face and Batman defeating and locking him up in the Museum. Again, with such a character the possibilities of ‘Chooses’ were very possible here but alas, the game developers don’t think that far ahead.
With Two-Face dealt with Batman discovers one of the League of Assassin Members captured. Like in the game she escapes and Batman gives chase. One of the things I really hated about this was you couldn’t fail this. She’d stop running and wait for Batman to catch up and then all you do is Counter-Attack her and its all over. No challenge whatsoever. What’s the point of doing a chase sequence if you’re not going to challenge the player with it?
Batman catches up with her but is ambushed by several members including Talia herself. Enter Robin and Nightwing coming in to save the day and Catwoman having a Boss Battle with her. This game really lacked Character Interaction. Every character in this game only really interacted with Batman. One of my favourite moments in Asylum was when Harley and Ivy get a scene to themselves. I really wish this game had something like that one episode form the animated series in it where all the villains are sitting down and playing porker. With this many villains you’d expect someone kind of meeting of the bad guys to take place.
Anyway, after the Boss fight, Catwoman and Bruce and the others have their moments and Batman goes after Talia while ordering the others to return to Gotham and help the sick and ordering Catwoman to sneak into the security control room for Arkham City and find out about Protocol 10 while keeping in contact with Oracle about it. Alfred would take over as Batman’s Radio Contact for the time being.
He does that whole thing like in the game, does the Assassin Trails, confronts Ras and Talia and ends with him getting the next part of the Formula that he needs. He heads back to Freeze and he fixes up the Cure for him. However, Strange knowing what he is up sends TYGER forces in to stop him and you could have them been led by say maybe…Firefly.
Imagine a Boss Battle like Mr. Freeze but with flames everything and more flying about perhaps. Batman defeats him and Freeze freezes him up. However the Cure has been stolen by Harley Quinn. At the same time Catwoman radios Batman, informing him what Protocol 10 is.
Batman heads out and more chaos is under way all over the city as all those gang less inmates battle it out. Batman heads back to the Steel Mill and finds Harley tied up like usual and the whole Joker encounter takes place. Joker pretends to have taken the cure and lied to Batman about not wanting to die and after the massive brawl; Talia saves Bruce and takes Joker away. Batman is knocked out and Protocol 10 begins.
Catwoman saves him and they decide its time to attack Wonder Tower and shut down Strange’s plan. Whether Two-Face agreed to help or not, He and his gang along with the
GCPD would draw the attention of the attack choppers and Strange as a diversion while Batman sneaks into Wonder Tower. Catwoman, Oracle and Alfred would hack the system but wait for Batman to install the program they created to shut down Protocol 10.
One of the many aspects of the game I was looking forward to was the confrontation between Batman and Strange and instead all Batman does is beat all the guards up, hack the door and punch and kick Strange over a fucking table.
HOW I or should I say IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE…
Strange’s Bio already explains he is capable physical hand-to-hand fighter. He has studied Batman and knows how he moves and thinks. Therefore Strange should really have the upper fucking hand here. What happens is Batman goes to punch his lights out and Strange does the complete unexpected by counter-attacking Batman and injecting him with his own version of the Fear Toxin or the Hallucination potion Batman took during the trails to stay alive.
He is sent into world similar to the Scarecrow and Ras Al Ghul Dream/Nightmare Sequences but more violent and horrifying and Batman battles Strange in that. It’d be a mix of combat, stealth and horror. Batman however overcomes this and results in him kicking Strange’s ass. He then shuts down Protocol 10 with the help of his allies.
The game then reveals the big bad mastermind behind all this and its none other than Ras Al Ghul. For starters, this was pretty bloody obvious. Second the moment Ras was even mentioned and revealed in the game it just wasn’t a fucking twist anymore. Every fan whose ever read a comic or played another cheap Batman game with Ras in it knows he is always the big guy pulling the strings from behind the shadows. THIS IS EXPECTED WITH HIS CHARACTER.
But that’s not my fucking problem.
No, my problem is that in the actual game Strange is stabbed and done with, without ever him and Batman fighting and then minutes later Wonder Tower explodes after Strange commits self-suicide to thwart Ras, which results in Batman and Ras both flying out the window and free-falling.
Okay, so far so good but then Batman tries saving Ras and Ras stabs himself while trying to kill Batman at the same time. Ras falls down, dead and no boss fight. YEEEAAHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK? SERIOUSLY, THAT’S TWO BOSS FIGHTS THAT PLAYERS HAVE LOST NOW
WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED…
Instead of a fucking Cut scene have Batman actually as part of the gameplay fly down and catch Ras resulting in a punch up in mid-air similar to the Kratos vs. Icarus Fight from God of War 2 or the Final fight between Ezio and that Prince in Assassins Creed Revelations. If those types of games can do it so can this one. But because it’s a piece of shit rushed job all the possible epic moments are left out.
Now two things could have happened here.
The resulting mid-air fight causes both Hero and Villain to fall into Wonder Tower and actually have them engage in proper combat as the Tower explodes and rains down upon them or they fall down to the main entrance of Arkham City where the game began and they duke it out. Either way, something happens and Ras ends up killing himself.
Cut massive explosive that knocks Batman out and when he wakes up Ras corpse is nowhere to be seen (I know if you come back later his body is gone from the top of the gate).
Honestly, this entire game was leading up to that moment but instead it’s just an afterthought. One of the things I love about Nolan’s Batman films is how the villains are all connected somewhat. Falcone was connected to Scarecrow and Scarecrow to Ras. It all felt like a true comic book experience leading to the big final. This game just didn’t do that. As mentioned before Joker and Strange’s ploys and plots should have been connected from the very beginning and this would’ve all be kept as one big ass storyline instead of several and become a huge gaping mess.
So how would I have ended the game?
Well same thing happens as usual. Batman gets Joker’s message and heads to the Theatre where he confronts Joker and Talia stabs him in the back. ONE QUESTION…
Why isn’t the Joker bleeding? When Ras stabbed Strange there was blood forming on the good doctor. Why not Joker? Or how bout this one…When I used my detective mode during that brawl fight I saw something interesting…like the fact Joker was the only one in the fucking room with no bones in his body. JEE…WHERE HAVE I SEEN THAT BEFORE? WELL…THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING NOW…PLOT TWIST RUINED…and it makes Batman look stupid…FUCK SAKE.
Either have a ending where Batman deduces right there and now that its Clayface and saves Talia from been shot and she aids him in his battle or you never used detective mode and Cut scene resumes like normal with Batman putting the clues together and realizing too late what is going on and Talia getting shot and dying. The real dying Joker reveals himself and so does Clayface. Commence Final Boss Fight.
WHERE THE HELL IS TALIA’S BODY GONE????????
I liked this fight because of the fact Batman got to use a fucking Sword but the fight itself was too easy and I played this game the first time on HARD MODE. Disappointing. Not only that, it’s the second time the game developers have cheated people out of a proper boss fight with the Joker and other villains.
Honestly, at this point I can’t even say how the game should have ended. All I know is they completely ruined Joker’s character by making him such a desperate twat who ends up smashing the cure to save himself and he dies. Batman meanwhile carries out his body looking all sad and shit like he has just lost his best friend.
ERM…WHY NOT CARRYING OUT THE BODY OF YOUR DEAD EX-LOVER?
Well anyway, that’s really all I got in terms of suggesting ideas on how this game could’ve been extended and been better. On to my CONCLUSION.
CONCLUSION
Would I say the ending for this game is better? Hell no. It’s a comb out. We’re meant to feel sorry the Villain is dead but how else was it going to fucking end? Maybe I just don’t understand the relationship between the Joker and Batman properly because honestly, I like to think I do.
The problem is there are so many different interpretations of it that one minute Batman doesn’t give a shit about the Joker and the next he does. I don’t know which one is actual canon or not and to me personally I like to think Batman would be a little more pleased that the most mass murdering sicko fucked asshore is gone and will never harm society again.
Then again he’d probably would be sad and emotional that the one dude his been trying hard for so many years to reach out and help because he is somewhat responsible for him would be emotionally shaken at his death and loss.
Truth told I expected something similar to the comics where Joker dies but Batman brings him back using the Lazarus Pit and Joker returns, cured of his insanity but going crazy again after realizing all the horrible things he has done.
I think a somewhat adaptation for a ending like that would’ve been better than the one we got but the reason for the death is because Mark Hamill isn’t doing the voice anymore and you know what? I don’t fucking bye. I’m pretty sure the Joker is going to return in some form in the next Sequel. We all thought Bane and Scarecrow and Ras were dead and they came up, well Scarecrow’s presence was felt but that’s about it really.
Other complaints are with the quality of the piss easy Batman Boss Fights. Why are we robbed from great Boss Fights?
The reason for this is because they say the Combat System is designed in a way that doesn’t allow this. REALLY? Then DESIGN ANOTHER GODDAMN COMBAT SYSTEM WHERE BATMAN FIGHTS THE BOSSES DIFFERENTLY AND NOT THE SAME FUCKING WAY
If MGS4 could do it for its Final Battle or even Uncharted 3 then so could this game. Enough with the fucking excuses…THINK FOR ONE SECOND, THINK AND DO IT. All this shows is that the developers were fucking lazy. This game is just a paste and copy of the last one with small changes thrown in. It’s a big fucking mess of garbage that never should have existed and people praise it? I played better sequels in that same year that improved over their predecessors in everyway. This game doesn’t do that. Like I said, it’s a paste and copy. It does and offers nothing new.
This isn’t the Among Thieves to Drake’s Fortune or AC2 to AC1 or Dead Space to Dead Space 2 or…well you get the fucking picture. It’s a boring repetitive game full of crap thrown in that doesn’t really help the flow or pacing of the game, adds in puzzles that are there for the sake of extending a pointless and uninspiring narrative filled with plot-holes and over done shit that makes me want to rip my eyes out from sheer disgust.
Arkham City should have been the next best thing but instead it’s the biggest disappointment for me of 2011. If a sequel is announced I can safely say I won’t be as hyped for it as I was for this but again I must stress this…I was hyped for a lot of game last year and they delivered in every possible way. This game was hyped but the hype didn’t ruin it. It was the simple fact that it was a rushed ass product that truly deserves none of the awards and praise it is getting.
For fans that read this and loved it, open your eyes and get a fucking grip, this was an insult to the world of Batman. Arkham Asylum did something right. This took it and raped it completely.
OVERALL SCORE….5/10
LIKES:
The Voice Acting.
Mr. Freeze Boss Battle.
Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Talia Al Ghul’s ASSESS.
Nolan North as the Penguin.
Easter Eggs (Hush, Azrael, Ras and Talia’s Return, Baby Joker, CITY OF TERROR…I won’t hold my breath.)
HATE WITH A ABSOLUTE PASSION:
Repetitive Gameplay
Short Campaign.
Weak Narrative.
Piss Easy Boss Battles.
Terrible Ending.
Undeveloped Characters.
Catwoman DLC:
(Ah yes, I never got around talking about this. Why make this a DLC when it should have just been in the main game? When I installed this to play it with the main game my game kept crashing. After it crashed twice after having restarted the whole game I realized I was truly in for a shit storm of crap. Had to wipe my data clean and start without it. After completely the game I did the DLC missions and god did Catwoman’s missions suck ass. They’re just pointless really. They should have intercut Batman and her missions together with both helping each other out. All that hype and it was for nothing.)
