saggysamurai
Not as good as uncharted 2 but the set pieces are amazing, the setting and the intrigue are all there, the fate of the two main villains felt a bit anti climatic and characters just kind of appear and disappear in the story. The opening is really cool and all the voice actors are great ofc. The games alot of fun with some rough edges, definitely worth a playthrough.
It’s top tier, like almost masterpiece shit like 60% of the time, low-key falls off at the end, doesn’t get better after the house section. It’s never bad or boring but the end section especially just ain’t as good as the rest of the game. The level design falls off so hard it’s crazy and the enemy variety is quite thin, it stops being scary too cuz you learn exactly how to deal with everything pretty quickly and by the end you have so much ammo and weaponry that nothing can stop you anyways. It’s really not a hard game either, i died 4 times in my playthrough with 4 steroids used.
That being said i definitely don’t regret playing it, the atmosphere early game especially is really effective and although i didn’t find it all that challenging, the encounters with the family members were tense and engaging. The most enjoyable parts of the game for me are when ur set free in the house and just left to explore at ur own leisure. The level of detail in the game at times was reminiscent of an immersive sim, very impressive stuff. The problems just get really egregious when you leave the house and go to the ship wreckage, everything past that point is kinda mid.
That being said i definitely don’t regret playing it, the atmosphere early game especially is really effective and although i didn’t find it all that challenging, the encounters with the family members were tense and engaging. The most enjoyable parts of the game for me are when ur set free in the house and just left to explore at ur own leisure. The level of detail in the game at times was reminiscent of an immersive sim, very impressive stuff. The problems just get really egregious when you leave the house and go to the ship wreckage, everything past that point is kinda mid.
Its pretty much the opposite of the phantom pain, story is king in this game and its well executed for the most part. Theres a bunch of cool memorable characters and mindfuck plot twists. Having to play as raiden rather than snake didn’t really bother me, hes not a bad character and not playing as snake himself for once gives an Interesting perspective and snake is painted as a legendary badass so there was nothing to complain about there for me. The game has lots of clever and or entertaining bosses. The soundtrack is really great again too. The core gameplay is decent stealth action. There are some things that bugged me about it though. I think the level design gets pretty repetitive by the middle of the game and the backtracking accentuates this even more. Also gameplay wise, i think the section with Otacons sister is very weak. The sniper in this game feels like complete and utter ass unless you pop a pentazemin pill. There is also pretty much no choice to go loud, a stealthy approach is always a better option, enemies will infinitely respawn when alerted. This might sound like a foolish complaint because its a stealth game but other games in the series give you the option and its actually a viable way to play.
This is indeed a good game. The plot while basic is very strong in the character department. The wild hunt as villians are meh but serviceable. Geralt is a great protagonist and his relationships are all very interesting to watch unfold. The music is fantastic and sound design is all around pretty decent. The world of the witcher is a fun one to dive into but the exploration of it is either really fun or really frustrating and annoying. Level gating and the mini map need to go and die. The gameplay is quite average overall, the combat is serviceable but its quite shallow and either too easy or too hard. Geralt also feels too floaty to control, he doesn’t have that weighty feel that he should. Overall i think its a pretty solid game thats carried by its great writing.
The perfect ending to the series. The dumbest most fan service thing you will ever experience but i would be lying if i said I didn’t enjoy it. The gameplay is sharper than anything else in the series that came before it, the music is great, the voice acting is as good as usual. I really didn’t appreciate the Akiba and Meryl thing, that was just annoying tbh, the cutscenes go on forever and theres alot of exposition that could stand to be cut out. The bosses are pretty average apart from the final one but yeah its fun lol but not as good as 2 or 3.
2019
This game is odd, the art direction is very unique and cool, the music is also pretty neat. The story starts off pretty interesting but the intrigue fizzles out after a while and the ending feels pretty anti-climatic. The gameplay is good i think but there are some gameplay sections that take so long and are so annoying to finish which also links in with another complaint that the checkpoints in the game are soooooo bad. There is also a significant amount of stuttering on the ps4 during combat sections. The combat itself can be very fun, the destructible environments are really impressive and the telekinetic powers are fun as hell to use. Facial animations and dialogue can both sometimes be quite janky. The ashtray maze section is quite exceptional though.
Thought it was about time to talk about sekiro. After completing it 13 times i can safely say that this was one of fromsoftwares best and in my view the best game that came out in 2019.
-WORLD AND STORY
The world of Ashina contains all the intrigue and depth you would expect from a fromsoftware game. Hidden secrets and clues lie in excellent environmental storytelling. A good example of this is in the senpou temple area. Through one mini boss, the armoured warrior, we are able to learn so much about the area. You can tell that the warrior is clearly not Japanese through just the look of his armour. Its quite similar to how a European warrior may have looked at the time so straight away fromsoft have created a mystery for the player to solve. Throughout the boss fight you can trigger dialogue where he speaks of defending his son so that he may be healed and if you previously noticed the piles of dead children that seem to be scattered around senpou then you can infer just like that, that the warrior had come to senpou hoping for his son to be healed by the monks rejuvinating abilities. What he didnt know is that the monks were using the children to try and discover the secret of immortality, experimenting and dissecting the kids for their life force. The armoured warriors son would have been a victim to this and the warrior himself dies thinking he failed his son and screaming his name. There are various examples if this in many of fromsofts games and its a really organic and satisfying way of creating a piece of lore which makes it all the more interesting and tragic. The main story here is basic but again they leave it down to how interested the player is in the world. There are some exceptional characters and the villain genichiro becomes very easy to understand and sympathise with. Sekiro himself shows growth over the game but he doesn’t have too much of a character to be fair. The voice acting performances, english and Japanese are both very well done.
-COMBAT
The reason you should pick this game up is the combat. Dark souls famously tests the players timing and patience, sekiro tests your reflexes and your confidence essentially, hence isshins line “hesitate and you die.” In short the combat system is really one of the best in games ever. The sword combat is absolutely exceptional but brutal. You must be close to perfect in your timing of deflections and blocks else you will be thoroughly punished. The boss fights are really where everything shines perfectly, clashing swords, going back and forth from deflecting and countering to striking at your enemy to try and break their posture is honesty one of the most satisfying things in a video game. The focus on posture rather than the health bar in some of these fights is really an interesting choice and more so than any other game ive played they actually feel like real sword fights because your actually crossing blades and it give the bosses these beautiful rhythms which compare most to something like a guitar hero, it’s basically a rhythm game and it feels so good to play because of that. The best bosses in the game are the ones that have this rhythmic feel, Genichiro, isshin (both versions), emma, corrupted monk and the owl. Then we have the guardian ape who flips pretty much all of that on its head which surely means it sucks? Nah lol. This for me was easily the hardest boss in my first playthrough because he is so different to the others which is why his placement is so well done. It forces you to learn another way of play pretty much throws everything you know out the window. Its truly a great fight. Easily the worst boss is the folding screen monkeys tho, they become a bit of a pain on repeat playthroughs. The mini bosses are also quite noteworthy. There are some really fun ones like O’rinn of the water and seven spears. The game also gives you the option to go stealthy wich lets you thin the heard a little or delete one of a bosses health bars before going all swords sparking. Stealth is no where near as fun as the sword to sword combat but the addition is appreciated.
-BONUS STUFF
The score is very well composed and amplifys the sweat that your balls produce when on the final phase of the final boss. The level design is alot more vertical than the souls games but there isnt really any of that interconnectivity that you would expect from a souls game which is a little disappointing but not a deal breaker. The bonus combat equipment like the prosthetics and the skills can sometimes feel very situational, firecrackers are far and away the most useful tool. The hidden quests and secret bosses are very interesting and many can effecf the ending of the game which is cool.
Overall its another banger from Fromsoft. Highly recommend.
-WORLD AND STORY
The world of Ashina contains all the intrigue and depth you would expect from a fromsoftware game. Hidden secrets and clues lie in excellent environmental storytelling. A good example of this is in the senpou temple area. Through one mini boss, the armoured warrior, we are able to learn so much about the area. You can tell that the warrior is clearly not Japanese through just the look of his armour. Its quite similar to how a European warrior may have looked at the time so straight away fromsoft have created a mystery for the player to solve. Throughout the boss fight you can trigger dialogue where he speaks of defending his son so that he may be healed and if you previously noticed the piles of dead children that seem to be scattered around senpou then you can infer just like that, that the warrior had come to senpou hoping for his son to be healed by the monks rejuvinating abilities. What he didnt know is that the monks were using the children to try and discover the secret of immortality, experimenting and dissecting the kids for their life force. The armoured warriors son would have been a victim to this and the warrior himself dies thinking he failed his son and screaming his name. There are various examples if this in many of fromsofts games and its a really organic and satisfying way of creating a piece of lore which makes it all the more interesting and tragic. The main story here is basic but again they leave it down to how interested the player is in the world. There are some exceptional characters and the villain genichiro becomes very easy to understand and sympathise with. Sekiro himself shows growth over the game but he doesn’t have too much of a character to be fair. The voice acting performances, english and Japanese are both very well done.
-COMBAT
The reason you should pick this game up is the combat. Dark souls famously tests the players timing and patience, sekiro tests your reflexes and your confidence essentially, hence isshins line “hesitate and you die.” In short the combat system is really one of the best in games ever. The sword combat is absolutely exceptional but brutal. You must be close to perfect in your timing of deflections and blocks else you will be thoroughly punished. The boss fights are really where everything shines perfectly, clashing swords, going back and forth from deflecting and countering to striking at your enemy to try and break their posture is honesty one of the most satisfying things in a video game. The focus on posture rather than the health bar in some of these fights is really an interesting choice and more so than any other game ive played they actually feel like real sword fights because your actually crossing blades and it give the bosses these beautiful rhythms which compare most to something like a guitar hero, it’s basically a rhythm game and it feels so good to play because of that. The best bosses in the game are the ones that have this rhythmic feel, Genichiro, isshin (both versions), emma, corrupted monk and the owl. Then we have the guardian ape who flips pretty much all of that on its head which surely means it sucks? Nah lol. This for me was easily the hardest boss in my first playthrough because he is so different to the others which is why his placement is so well done. It forces you to learn another way of play pretty much throws everything you know out the window. Its truly a great fight. Easily the worst boss is the folding screen monkeys tho, they become a bit of a pain on repeat playthroughs. The mini bosses are also quite noteworthy. There are some really fun ones like O’rinn of the water and seven spears. The game also gives you the option to go stealthy wich lets you thin the heard a little or delete one of a bosses health bars before going all swords sparking. Stealth is no where near as fun as the sword to sword combat but the addition is appreciated.
-BONUS STUFF
The score is very well composed and amplifys the sweat that your balls produce when on the final phase of the final boss. The level design is alot more vertical than the souls games but there isnt really any of that interconnectivity that you would expect from a souls game which is a little disappointing but not a deal breaker. The bonus combat equipment like the prosthetics and the skills can sometimes feel very situational, firecrackers are far and away the most useful tool. The hidden quests and secret bosses are very interesting and many can effecf the ending of the game which is cool.
Overall its another banger from Fromsoft. Highly recommend.
2011
Pretty much builds on everything introduced in arkham asylum. Excellent freeflow brawling, probably the best arkham game for predator gameplay, contending with arkham origins. The arkham game with far and away the best side missions, the best riddler challenges, the best story and again contending with arkham origins for the best bosses. This is what i call a perfect batman game. Kevin conroy and mark hamill are better than ever and the ending is fucking amazing. Catwoman is a great addition and the side missions introduced story threads so interesting and cool that they managed fuck up all of their follow ups in Arkham knight. I will also say that the open world is pretty great for the most part. Its rich with depth and interesting places to go and explore. The environments and character designs still hold up and look better than they do in the awful return to Arkham remaster. I spent like a whole year as a kid just playing this game and i love it.
It might be a controversial thing to say that this is my second favourite arkham game but idc, this game is so damn good and people shit on it for no good reason. First of all its a common misconception that the story sucks, if you ignore the fact that this is the joker again which tbf does kinda suck and i would rather someone else could get the spotlight for one game, however the joker stuff in this game is actually fuckin cool and no one can tell me otherwise, we learn about his origin and get to see how he falls in love with a younger batman voiced fucking excellently btw by roger craig smith who perfectly portrays that kind of young, aggressive, filled with rage type batman who is still out for vengeance. And plus we do get to see other villians take a large part of the spotlight, fuckin bane in this game is cool af and actually threatening, he works out who batman is, raids the batcave and almost kills alfred! And alfred btw in this game is certainly the best he has ever been in this series, he and bruce actually have arguments and confrontations, its interesting af too watch and it shows how much alfred gives a shit about bruce and its such a breath of fresh air after the last few games where hes just essentially an info dispenser. Also the bounty thats placed on batmans head works beautifully in this games story to give us a whole host of villains to face down. Which leads me to the boss fights which are some of the best in the series. Deathstroke, bane (All 3 of his fights) , firefly and killer croc are the standouts. The combat is pretty much the exact same as arkham city’s but with some excellent new enemy types, the many bane guys are cool and the ninjas that can counter your attacks are sick. The shock gloves are OP as fuck and completely unnecessary tho. The predator combat in this game is super underrated, it has some of the best designed rooms and maps in the series because they are all unique and provide a huge amount of variety in the ways you can dispose with enemies. The traversal is again just the exact same as city except you get the gragnel accelerator from the beginning which is fine i guess. The map is made up of 2 islands. One of witch is the arkham city map and the open world is OK but a little dull. The game did introduce new crimes in progress to spice things up a bit but that doesn’t really save it. The side missions average out as OK, theres some boring arkham knight busy work here and there but there are good ones like the anarchy, deadshot, shiva and mad hatter side missions so thats about half i think. The rest are just whatever with the exception of the one hidden side mission about cyrus pinkey ,which i gaurantee no one knows about, Which is actually so fucking interesting and im so sad it was never continued because it touched on the old families of gotham and teases the court of owls which is badass af. As a final note i would just like to point out that this game was made in a year which is impressive af considering what they were able to do and i have replayed this game probably joint the most with arkham city at this point. And yes it is in fact underrated. Fuck arkham knight dude.
This review contains spoilers
Introduction
I think the discourse around this game is still so interesting 9 years later, theres just so much to chew on. Its contentious, brilliant, awful and generally quite confusing in so many ways. For a game that got such outstanding critical reaction when it first released (excluding the PC port) to me its interesting that a lot of what's wrong with this game was completely ignored. Make no mistake I do really enjoy playing this game, its addictive as hell and can be really immersive, its just as an overall package with the context of this being the big final entry in the series, its kind of disappointing, like there is a lot wrong with this game that's not talked about enough and I genuinely think as an overall package its probably the worst one in the series, it has elements that are far and away the best in the series but then it fumbles in places where the other games nailed it.
The opening
So lets start actually justifying some of these bold statements I'm putting forward. I think a good place to start is the opening, it perfectly personifies what is great about the game and generally what's its problems are.
Burning the jokers corpse to "ive got you under my skin." is just so perfect man, perfect way to set the tone and remind us of the great ending from the last game, the hidden detail in new game plus here is really cool too, trademark Rocksteady. We then cut to a first person segment where we play as a cop during a scarecrow fear toxin attack, again I think this part is really immersive, sets up the threat of scarecrow well, isn't too monotonous on replay and this is where you start noticing the level of detail in the environment's, little easter eggs and references litter this whole diner and this doesn't stop throughout the entire game, there was just clearly so much love poured into every environment in this game. theres even an optional conversation you can overhear later on in the game depending on if you shot anyone when you were playing as officer Blake, again its a level of detail that's unnecessary but its adds so much man. Then we get a lil monologue from Gordon about the city and we get this amazing seamless camera pan of batman transitioning straight into gameplay, that last line from Gordon : " and tonight we're relying on 1 man to save us all." still gets me hyped to play the game, really strong stuff. Also sidenote I prefer the starting costume over the advanced suit they give you later. It makes sense for the story that batman would want an armoured asf suit but idc i prefer less bulk for my batsuits.
The city and roaming
But this is the first point we are allowed to roam the city so this is a good place to mention that this game still looks (and runs.) better than I would say 80% of the games coming out today. 1 console generation later and its still one of the most detailed, pleasant looking games I've played. Im nowhere close to an expert on this sort of stuff but I think its the rain and the way it interacts with batman's character model and the way it reacts with his cape while he's gliding n stuff. Just looks really stunning.
The movement and traversal is also greatly approved, its alot faster to glide around and using the grapnel accelerator thing, especially when its fully upgraded is really fun.
Freeflow
Then we get our first free flow brawling segment and its kind of my least favourite thing to discuss when it comes to the game, its great and they make some welcome improvements to it in this game but that's about all I can say on it, its great, its addicting just like it always has been, theres afew new enemy types to spice this up, the medic is a good addition if a bit annoying just for when they charge up another enemy with an electric shield. Its easy enough to counter with the quick fire batclaw but its those moments when ur about to hit an enemy and at the last minute they get charged up so you hit them and lose ur combo, like that's kind of bullshit and feels a bit cheap and i say that as someone who considers themselves to be quite good at the combat in this game, like I've gone into the iceberg lounge challenge map and got to the 500 combo to get the killer croc boss fight thing. Somtimes i think they are overcompensating a bit with the amount of enemy's with relatively similar gimmicks you have to get round but tbf they do limit this with giving you multiple ways to get past various weapons and stuff, like for the shock stick guys for example, you can vault over them to hit them in the back, you can shock them with rec gun, disarm them, take them down straight up or just grapple it straight out their hands, theres usually more than one way to beat every enemy which is appreciated and shows good design.
The batmobile
We then get our first bat mobile segment which is probabley the one thing that everyone agrees is like kinda overdone and not executed in the best way it could have been. That being said, its introduction here is cool, the chase segments throughout the game are generally fun and fit well in the game, the environmental destruction and the way the car interacts with the city is really, really cool, i have no idea how the got the destruction and stuff to look as good as it does without completely blowing up last gen consoles. To me its seriously an underappreciated part of the game that goes a little under the radar. The problems with the car are the drone tank fights, how it can trivialise combat sections and the tank puzzle sections. The drone tank fights are easily the worst combat related thing you do in the game, theres issues with it gameplay wise but also i don't know how well these translate narratively. Lets start with the gameplay wise critiques first, ide like to first just say if there was like 3 tank combat sections in the game i genuinely think it would be a non problem but its how they insist it upon us as now a core element of the gameplay, it takes up so much of the runtime and it feels like you spend more time tank fighting than fist fighting, they banked so heavily on it being really fun and strong enough to carry large portions of the game but its just not compelling, its just very simple and easy, theres very little depth to it and it just feels very arcadey, it just needs something more and i genuinley do not know what that is, they clearly spent alot of time trying to make it work but I cant help but think the game would be better off without any of it. And this isnt even mentioning the god awful tank stealth they get you doing at later points in the game, theres so many issues with this, its actually crazy, they are overly simple, boring and feel so so dumb, i groan at every point i am forced to do them. Then we have the narrative questions that the tank combat brings up, firstly like i just cant shrug off the feeling that what im playing just doesnt quite fit with batman, the fact that i can bulldoze into criminals on the street with it feels slightly out of character. Its also like where tf did the arkham knight get these drones from and if he knows batman so well then why doesnt he just use manned vehicles? So then Batman cant just blow them up? I literally had this thought the very first time I played the game, just feels like such a poorly thought out addition. Theres also the puzzles man holy lawd, these are not fun, its like they decided it would be cool to do literally everything you did from the last few games but just in the tank, you follow round trails on the floor and do detective work in a tank? Its just such a chore man like did anyone even playtest some of this cuz it could so easily be removed from the game and the experience would be better for it.
Predator gameplay and how it has regressed.
Skipping ahead a little bit, i do also want to talk about the predator sections in this game, this might be the most divisive thing i say about this game but i feel like the predator sections are also kind of a downgrade from the last 2 games. To help understand where im coming from, let me explain what made the predator sections great in origins and city. To me the best preadtor maps are the intrinsically designed tight areas where the enemies are using all the tools at their disposal to limit what you can do. The more challenging these sections are, the better in my view. Like the final predator section in arkham city at the top of wonder tower is brilliantly designed because it forces you think outside the box and use whatever tools you have at your disposal, you cant rely on the gargoyles or floor grates all the time for safety, it forces you to be a bit more creative. The reason i dont like alot of knights predator maps is because i find alot of them to be too big, majority of them are seemingly outside and also as cool as they are, i think the fear multi takedowns actually hurt the experience. To explain, With alot of the sections being so large and outdoors, alot of the thought that went into the design of the areas can be largely ignored because if u make a mistake, escaping is often as simple as just grappling away from the area and then coming back, theres not much of a reason to engage and learn the space when you can so easily leave it and thats exactly it, alot of the predator maps in this game just arent memorable like they were in city or even origins. And just to add to this, fear multi takedowns can often absolutely trivialise these maps, you can upgrade it to the point where you can take down 5 enemies at once and all it costs is a single silent takedown? Dont get me wrong you should feel empowered as Batman but this is a little too much for me because it is so easily recoverable and enemies have virtually no response to it. It would work well if the means to acquire the ability were harder like maybe you could have been able to do certain things in the environment or being more theatrical would have started to build up your "fear meter." and once Ur foes were sufficiently terrified, you could use the ability and then if you were spotted or if ur enemies landed a hit on you the meter could go down or be reset. This is literally off the top of my head and doesn't it sound so much cooler, who knows maybe they did think of something like this and it just didn't work or they didn't have time, i dont know.
Boss fights (or lack of.)
Not to continue being negative but we also have to talk about boss fights, theres basically like 2 or 3 in the game. This is probably the most shocking thing about this game, the studio that went from creating one of the best boss fights in gaming in Mr freeze to these sorry excuses for bosses, genuinely infuriating. Just to list them, you have the arkham knights helicopter, arkham knights underground vehicle thing, arkham knights stealth tank fight, then the arkham knight predator section. Not one of these is fun, 3 of them require you to be in the tank and just to rub it in ur face a bit more, 1 of them is repeated just with deathstroke in the tank (we will speak about him more in a bit.) The bosses are just so so bad man, they are indefensible, like i cant even think of anything to say about them, they are just bad lol, asylum has better bosses. They dont even give you a fun scarecrow boss in this game, in fact there is no final boss, you just do the final joker first person section (which I like btw.) and watch a cutscene and then the game ends. This HAS to be a result of them just not having enough time to create these bosses, i refuse to believe a development team this talented looked at these bosses and thought yeah these are good. Its one of the many reasons that when i go back to play one of these games, i gravitate to city or origins over this game even tho it arguably has the gameplay at its peak. They even tease you with the thought of a good boss fight with death stroke again and then throw it away immediately by just having you watch a cutscene of batman 1 shotting him after a shitty tank fight.
The actual narrative :0
ITS SO BAD YOU GUYS NEED TO WAKE UP IT SUCKSSS SO MUCH, WHY DID THEY LET PAUL DINI GOOOO?!
The Arkham Knight
Creating an entirely new character for the series was actually a really cool concept and genuinely showed alot of potential, his costume was actually pretty cool and there was alot of buildup over who the arkham knight was under the mask and then the game came out and it turns out he actually wasnt a new character and was generally just a reskin of the red hood, who would have been cooler. Oh and hes also just generally dumb and non threatening, WHAT WAS THE POINT? If you were gonna just do red hood reskin atleast do it properly, the entire appeal of red hood is that hes a direct answer to batman's ideals, hes one of the only characters in the verse that can go up to batman, challenge him idealistically and be justified in his position. But no the arkham knight is just kinda mad that batman couldnt find him so he joins up with scarecrow... ??? Feels a little out of character but ok then he also leads and entire army of military trained individuals that he got from... uh... well.. the game actually never explains this. Theres just so many question marks that arise from asking the simplest of questions and this theme carries onto the joker plot.
The Jonkler
The idea of batman having joker show up in his mind throughout the game is genuinely, again, a cool concept. Having him randomly pop up in the open world for a bit of dialogue is actually awesome, its just the reasoning behind it that really makes you raise an eyebrow, so jokers blood actually made it to some patients and somehow this makes them start turning into joker? @ROCKSTEADY you guys do know that joker is just a regular human and that suggesting he can be cloned through the use of blood transfer is not only ridiculous but it also slightly ruins his character cuz then it kind of implies that he isnt special at all, its just the toxins that he fell into that made him crazy? The execution of this whole idea is just messy as fucckk, like you can still have the jokers subplot at panessa studios without this awful explanation, just have them as some joker fanboys that want to continue his legacy, i wouldnt have questioned that and then for batman i can generally buy into the fact that he would be mentally damaged by the jokers death and then his mental illness is only exacerbated by the fear toxin that scarecrow keeps giving him throughout the night. Like you dont need the dumb "oh no the jokers blood is making me turn into him." Like such an easy fix and makes way more sense. Like we know Batman is mentally unwell. Paul dini please why have you done this to me. There was rumours that his version of knight was gonna have hush as the main villain with court of owls playing a big role and like i just think that sounds so much more interesting. This game is just a victim of key developers leaving and a rushed development, this could and should have been the greatest Superhero game ever made and i cant help but shake the feeling that they bottled it man. Im patiently waiting for the day when a developer goes back to this sort of formula and tries again with a Batman game, wether its in the same universe, a follow up to origins or a completely new thing.
I just also want to take a moment to speak on the voice acting, not just in this game but the whole series, its truly magnificent. The decision to get the animated series voice cast back way back in asylum was just such a great move and one that feels like it was truly made by fans of the character. Mark Hamils Joker and Kevin Conroys Batman are perfect renditions of the characters, these are the voices i hear when i read the comic books, They will always be a massive part of my childhood and its deeply saddening that we will never hear Conroy reprise the role again. May he rest in peace, he will always be My Batman.
I think the discourse around this game is still so interesting 9 years later, theres just so much to chew on. Its contentious, brilliant, awful and generally quite confusing in so many ways. For a game that got such outstanding critical reaction when it first released (excluding the PC port) to me its interesting that a lot of what's wrong with this game was completely ignored. Make no mistake I do really enjoy playing this game, its addictive as hell and can be really immersive, its just as an overall package with the context of this being the big final entry in the series, its kind of disappointing, like there is a lot wrong with this game that's not talked about enough and I genuinely think as an overall package its probably the worst one in the series, it has elements that are far and away the best in the series but then it fumbles in places where the other games nailed it.
The opening
So lets start actually justifying some of these bold statements I'm putting forward. I think a good place to start is the opening, it perfectly personifies what is great about the game and generally what's its problems are.
Burning the jokers corpse to "ive got you under my skin." is just so perfect man, perfect way to set the tone and remind us of the great ending from the last game, the hidden detail in new game plus here is really cool too, trademark Rocksteady. We then cut to a first person segment where we play as a cop during a scarecrow fear toxin attack, again I think this part is really immersive, sets up the threat of scarecrow well, isn't too monotonous on replay and this is where you start noticing the level of detail in the environment's, little easter eggs and references litter this whole diner and this doesn't stop throughout the entire game, there was just clearly so much love poured into every environment in this game. theres even an optional conversation you can overhear later on in the game depending on if you shot anyone when you were playing as officer Blake, again its a level of detail that's unnecessary but its adds so much man. Then we get a lil monologue from Gordon about the city and we get this amazing seamless camera pan of batman transitioning straight into gameplay, that last line from Gordon : " and tonight we're relying on 1 man to save us all." still gets me hyped to play the game, really strong stuff. Also sidenote I prefer the starting costume over the advanced suit they give you later. It makes sense for the story that batman would want an armoured asf suit but idc i prefer less bulk for my batsuits.
The city and roaming
But this is the first point we are allowed to roam the city so this is a good place to mention that this game still looks (and runs.) better than I would say 80% of the games coming out today. 1 console generation later and its still one of the most detailed, pleasant looking games I've played. Im nowhere close to an expert on this sort of stuff but I think its the rain and the way it interacts with batman's character model and the way it reacts with his cape while he's gliding n stuff. Just looks really stunning.
The movement and traversal is also greatly approved, its alot faster to glide around and using the grapnel accelerator thing, especially when its fully upgraded is really fun.
Freeflow
Then we get our first free flow brawling segment and its kind of my least favourite thing to discuss when it comes to the game, its great and they make some welcome improvements to it in this game but that's about all I can say on it, its great, its addicting just like it always has been, theres afew new enemy types to spice this up, the medic is a good addition if a bit annoying just for when they charge up another enemy with an electric shield. Its easy enough to counter with the quick fire batclaw but its those moments when ur about to hit an enemy and at the last minute they get charged up so you hit them and lose ur combo, like that's kind of bullshit and feels a bit cheap and i say that as someone who considers themselves to be quite good at the combat in this game, like I've gone into the iceberg lounge challenge map and got to the 500 combo to get the killer croc boss fight thing. Somtimes i think they are overcompensating a bit with the amount of enemy's with relatively similar gimmicks you have to get round but tbf they do limit this with giving you multiple ways to get past various weapons and stuff, like for the shock stick guys for example, you can vault over them to hit them in the back, you can shock them with rec gun, disarm them, take them down straight up or just grapple it straight out their hands, theres usually more than one way to beat every enemy which is appreciated and shows good design.
The batmobile
We then get our first bat mobile segment which is probabley the one thing that everyone agrees is like kinda overdone and not executed in the best way it could have been. That being said, its introduction here is cool, the chase segments throughout the game are generally fun and fit well in the game, the environmental destruction and the way the car interacts with the city is really, really cool, i have no idea how the got the destruction and stuff to look as good as it does without completely blowing up last gen consoles. To me its seriously an underappreciated part of the game that goes a little under the radar. The problems with the car are the drone tank fights, how it can trivialise combat sections and the tank puzzle sections. The drone tank fights are easily the worst combat related thing you do in the game, theres issues with it gameplay wise but also i don't know how well these translate narratively. Lets start with the gameplay wise critiques first, ide like to first just say if there was like 3 tank combat sections in the game i genuinely think it would be a non problem but its how they insist it upon us as now a core element of the gameplay, it takes up so much of the runtime and it feels like you spend more time tank fighting than fist fighting, they banked so heavily on it being really fun and strong enough to carry large portions of the game but its just not compelling, its just very simple and easy, theres very little depth to it and it just feels very arcadey, it just needs something more and i genuinley do not know what that is, they clearly spent alot of time trying to make it work but I cant help but think the game would be better off without any of it. And this isnt even mentioning the god awful tank stealth they get you doing at later points in the game, theres so many issues with this, its actually crazy, they are overly simple, boring and feel so so dumb, i groan at every point i am forced to do them. Then we have the narrative questions that the tank combat brings up, firstly like i just cant shrug off the feeling that what im playing just doesnt quite fit with batman, the fact that i can bulldoze into criminals on the street with it feels slightly out of character. Its also like where tf did the arkham knight get these drones from and if he knows batman so well then why doesnt he just use manned vehicles? So then Batman cant just blow them up? I literally had this thought the very first time I played the game, just feels like such a poorly thought out addition. Theres also the puzzles man holy lawd, these are not fun, its like they decided it would be cool to do literally everything you did from the last few games but just in the tank, you follow round trails on the floor and do detective work in a tank? Its just such a chore man like did anyone even playtest some of this cuz it could so easily be removed from the game and the experience would be better for it.
Predator gameplay and how it has regressed.
Skipping ahead a little bit, i do also want to talk about the predator sections in this game, this might be the most divisive thing i say about this game but i feel like the predator sections are also kind of a downgrade from the last 2 games. To help understand where im coming from, let me explain what made the predator sections great in origins and city. To me the best preadtor maps are the intrinsically designed tight areas where the enemies are using all the tools at their disposal to limit what you can do. The more challenging these sections are, the better in my view. Like the final predator section in arkham city at the top of wonder tower is brilliantly designed because it forces you think outside the box and use whatever tools you have at your disposal, you cant rely on the gargoyles or floor grates all the time for safety, it forces you to be a bit more creative. The reason i dont like alot of knights predator maps is because i find alot of them to be too big, majority of them are seemingly outside and also as cool as they are, i think the fear multi takedowns actually hurt the experience. To explain, With alot of the sections being so large and outdoors, alot of the thought that went into the design of the areas can be largely ignored because if u make a mistake, escaping is often as simple as just grappling away from the area and then coming back, theres not much of a reason to engage and learn the space when you can so easily leave it and thats exactly it, alot of the predator maps in this game just arent memorable like they were in city or even origins. And just to add to this, fear multi takedowns can often absolutely trivialise these maps, you can upgrade it to the point where you can take down 5 enemies at once and all it costs is a single silent takedown? Dont get me wrong you should feel empowered as Batman but this is a little too much for me because it is so easily recoverable and enemies have virtually no response to it. It would work well if the means to acquire the ability were harder like maybe you could have been able to do certain things in the environment or being more theatrical would have started to build up your "fear meter." and once Ur foes were sufficiently terrified, you could use the ability and then if you were spotted or if ur enemies landed a hit on you the meter could go down or be reset. This is literally off the top of my head and doesn't it sound so much cooler, who knows maybe they did think of something like this and it just didn't work or they didn't have time, i dont know.
Boss fights (or lack of.)
Not to continue being negative but we also have to talk about boss fights, theres basically like 2 or 3 in the game. This is probably the most shocking thing about this game, the studio that went from creating one of the best boss fights in gaming in Mr freeze to these sorry excuses for bosses, genuinely infuriating. Just to list them, you have the arkham knights helicopter, arkham knights underground vehicle thing, arkham knights stealth tank fight, then the arkham knight predator section. Not one of these is fun, 3 of them require you to be in the tank and just to rub it in ur face a bit more, 1 of them is repeated just with deathstroke in the tank (we will speak about him more in a bit.) The bosses are just so so bad man, they are indefensible, like i cant even think of anything to say about them, they are just bad lol, asylum has better bosses. They dont even give you a fun scarecrow boss in this game, in fact there is no final boss, you just do the final joker first person section (which I like btw.) and watch a cutscene and then the game ends. This HAS to be a result of them just not having enough time to create these bosses, i refuse to believe a development team this talented looked at these bosses and thought yeah these are good. Its one of the many reasons that when i go back to play one of these games, i gravitate to city or origins over this game even tho it arguably has the gameplay at its peak. They even tease you with the thought of a good boss fight with death stroke again and then throw it away immediately by just having you watch a cutscene of batman 1 shotting him after a shitty tank fight.
The actual narrative :0
ITS SO BAD YOU GUYS NEED TO WAKE UP IT SUCKSSS SO MUCH, WHY DID THEY LET PAUL DINI GOOOO?!
The Arkham Knight
Creating an entirely new character for the series was actually a really cool concept and genuinely showed alot of potential, his costume was actually pretty cool and there was alot of buildup over who the arkham knight was under the mask and then the game came out and it turns out he actually wasnt a new character and was generally just a reskin of the red hood, who would have been cooler. Oh and hes also just generally dumb and non threatening, WHAT WAS THE POINT? If you were gonna just do red hood reskin atleast do it properly, the entire appeal of red hood is that hes a direct answer to batman's ideals, hes one of the only characters in the verse that can go up to batman, challenge him idealistically and be justified in his position. But no the arkham knight is just kinda mad that batman couldnt find him so he joins up with scarecrow... ??? Feels a little out of character but ok then he also leads and entire army of military trained individuals that he got from... uh... well.. the game actually never explains this. Theres just so many question marks that arise from asking the simplest of questions and this theme carries onto the joker plot.
The Jonkler
The idea of batman having joker show up in his mind throughout the game is genuinely, again, a cool concept. Having him randomly pop up in the open world for a bit of dialogue is actually awesome, its just the reasoning behind it that really makes you raise an eyebrow, so jokers blood actually made it to some patients and somehow this makes them start turning into joker? @ROCKSTEADY you guys do know that joker is just a regular human and that suggesting he can be cloned through the use of blood transfer is not only ridiculous but it also slightly ruins his character cuz then it kind of implies that he isnt special at all, its just the toxins that he fell into that made him crazy? The execution of this whole idea is just messy as fucckk, like you can still have the jokers subplot at panessa studios without this awful explanation, just have them as some joker fanboys that want to continue his legacy, i wouldnt have questioned that and then for batman i can generally buy into the fact that he would be mentally damaged by the jokers death and then his mental illness is only exacerbated by the fear toxin that scarecrow keeps giving him throughout the night. Like you dont need the dumb "oh no the jokers blood is making me turn into him." Like such an easy fix and makes way more sense. Like we know Batman is mentally unwell. Paul dini please why have you done this to me. There was rumours that his version of knight was gonna have hush as the main villain with court of owls playing a big role and like i just think that sounds so much more interesting. This game is just a victim of key developers leaving and a rushed development, this could and should have been the greatest Superhero game ever made and i cant help but shake the feeling that they bottled it man. Im patiently waiting for the day when a developer goes back to this sort of formula and tries again with a Batman game, wether its in the same universe, a follow up to origins or a completely new thing.
I just also want to take a moment to speak on the voice acting, not just in this game but the whole series, its truly magnificent. The decision to get the animated series voice cast back way back in asylum was just such a great move and one that feels like it was truly made by fans of the character. Mark Hamils Joker and Kevin Conroys Batman are perfect renditions of the characters, these are the voices i hear when i read the comic books, They will always be a massive part of my childhood and its deeply saddening that we will never hear Conroy reprise the role again. May he rest in peace, he will always be My Batman.
2020
This is a great open word action game but just an average RPG. Overall i was really engaged throughout my playthrough but there are clearly some deep problems with the game. Many of the RPG systems are bad or just underdeveloped and the general progression and levelling up is not great. Most skills are simply small percentage boosts and the looter shooter style of item acquisition is sucky and doesn’t really fit with the game in my view. The optional implants you can get at ripper docs are cool tho. You can give yourself a double jump, gorilla arms or mantis blades which are very cool. The gunplay itself is average but guns look and sound incredible. Melee combat is fine but has been done better in other first person games like dishonoured, its not quite as satisfying as you would expect but its serviceable. The driving is fine but a little bit too floaty, driving through the city with the radio on is very enjoyable tho and the city looks beautiful (most of the time) the general art designs and the look of the world and the fashion is all really cool and the general atmosphere the game gives off is perhaps its greatest strength along with its music which is one of the best osts of all time and its writing which is exceptional in both side missions and main missions. There are some really great characters that you can befriend. The overall impact of your choices and the ending are similar to how choices worked in the witcher 3, which means there really isnt a great deal of consequence for your actions, the 3 beginning backstories are really unimportant to the overall plot. The endings are fine, often bein very miserable. They dont beat the ME2 suicide mission but its still decent. The bosses are very few and far in between and they arent really too great. Now for the technical issues, oh boy. There are some horrendous issues that need to be solved here. My game crashed about 10 times in my playthrough and there are some other terrible game breaking bugs. If they fix these bugs and the game starts to look great on console i will up my score to 4.5/5
2018
Recently started with playing through this again for like the 8th time and I thought now would be a nice time to start a review.
Fuck me i love this game, one of my favourites of all time. The story, characters, world and combat are pure gaming perfection.
The plot is relatively simple but the characters are excellent, seeing kratos as an old grumpy dad is hilarious and depressing and seeing his relationship with his son grow is very reminiscent to what the original last of us did with ellie and joel. But also different in the right ways, kratos’s wife and atreuses mother turns out to be such a cool character when you realise everything she did at the end of the game and how she planned everything out. Its such an engrossing relationship to see morph in front of your eyes, set in a gorgeous corrupted version of norse mythology which feels so original and interesting to learn about. The giant statues, architecture and intricately designed enemies that you punch the shit out of, all work together in harmony to craft such a spectacularly miserable place to be. In a good way, it feels as if the odds are stacked against kratos and atreus and you end up caring so much about the pair and even mimir who is fucking hilarious, loveable and excellently paired with kratos. The story all builds up to such an ooooo!!!! Moment where you just cant wait to see what happens next. Fuck.
The combat is brutal, weighty and oh so satisfying. It’s definitely one if the most well designed combat systems of the generation. The shear variety and vast collection of distinct and beautiful looking combat abilities is simply fucking badass. The various combos, takedowns and ways to deal with your opponents is so fun to play around with. The enemy variety at first is very impressive but about half way through the game, new enemy types kind of stop appearing and this is kind of the only issue with god of war. It doesn’t really effect overall gameplay for me but there are some very clear re- uses of certain mini bosses and such. However this doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a single player game with an excellent story and actually great combat and gameplay, not just shooty shit in uncharted and lazy hack and slash combat, like in the witcher 3.
As a bonus i would also like to mention that the bosses are phenomenal, the ost is beautiful, the game looks visually breathtaking and it does the 1 take method of presentation better than 1917 by far. And overall its just such an ambitious and fresh new experience for us gamers to gush over. Hats off to cory ♥️.
Fuck me i love this game, one of my favourites of all time. The story, characters, world and combat are pure gaming perfection.
The plot is relatively simple but the characters are excellent, seeing kratos as an old grumpy dad is hilarious and depressing and seeing his relationship with his son grow is very reminiscent to what the original last of us did with ellie and joel. But also different in the right ways, kratos’s wife and atreuses mother turns out to be such a cool character when you realise everything she did at the end of the game and how she planned everything out. Its such an engrossing relationship to see morph in front of your eyes, set in a gorgeous corrupted version of norse mythology which feels so original and interesting to learn about. The giant statues, architecture and intricately designed enemies that you punch the shit out of, all work together in harmony to craft such a spectacularly miserable place to be. In a good way, it feels as if the odds are stacked against kratos and atreus and you end up caring so much about the pair and even mimir who is fucking hilarious, loveable and excellently paired with kratos. The story all builds up to such an ooooo!!!! Moment where you just cant wait to see what happens next. Fuck.
The combat is brutal, weighty and oh so satisfying. It’s definitely one if the most well designed combat systems of the generation. The shear variety and vast collection of distinct and beautiful looking combat abilities is simply fucking badass. The various combos, takedowns and ways to deal with your opponents is so fun to play around with. The enemy variety at first is very impressive but about half way through the game, new enemy types kind of stop appearing and this is kind of the only issue with god of war. It doesn’t really effect overall gameplay for me but there are some very clear re- uses of certain mini bosses and such. However this doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a single player game with an excellent story and actually great combat and gameplay, not just shooty shit in uncharted and lazy hack and slash combat, like in the witcher 3.
As a bonus i would also like to mention that the bosses are phenomenal, the ost is beautiful, the game looks visually breathtaking and it does the 1 take method of presentation better than 1917 by far. And overall its just such an ambitious and fresh new experience for us gamers to gush over. Hats off to cory ♥️.
2020
Comically bad
tooooo good man, i loved that shit.
Playing this again this year made me appreciate it way more, it still has an abundance of issues but the pros outweigh the cons by quite a considerable amount.
I’ll repeat some things i said in my previous review, the plot is basic and kinda whatever and the combat is pretty meh but these things don’t really take away from the game because i feel like it nails other things really hard.
This is one of the greatest open worlds in all of gaming, even though it still relies on an overly obstructive mini map and a billion assassins creed question marks all over the map, The world is extreme impressive, i think out of every open world game i’ve played, this beats out all the rest solely based on immersion, the visuals, the sound design and the music perfectly ground you, the player into a believable and atmospheric setting. Just strolling the region of kaer morhen and exploring the ruins of old witcher buildings is so damn engaging, like you really do feel like you’re right there with geralt. And this level of engagement that the game manages to create in the player makes the kind of average combat mechanics feel better because you are fucking Geralt of rivia, one of the coolest characters in gaming, fighting monsters and shit, planning your fights, oiling your blade, drinking and brewing potions and none of that is at all necessary, the game is way too easy to make any of these things be mechanically required, but i engage in the systems anyway because i’m just so goddamn immersed into the experience, you do it because that’s what Geralt would do and not alot of games can create such a connection with the player. That being said, if there were more mechanical based reasons to utilise all these systems of alchemy, crafting, preparing for battle then i think the game would genuinely be on another level. Even as someone who has 100s of hours in the game, has played through on death march difficulty multiple times, there is still barely a mechanical encouragement to engage in these systems, the games combat just isn’t really suited to it in my opinion, fights end way too quickly for there to be that extra bit of thought. And even when you do find an enemy that has a considerable amount of health it will be because they are wildly over your level and then you can’t really engage with them until they become too ezy, there were literally no duels in the game that felt properly tuned, apart from the first available olgeird fight in the hearts of stone dlc, which is easily the best boss in the game and it is a fight that i think a lot of players will miss which is a huge shame.
I’ll repeat some things i said in my previous review, the plot is basic and kinda whatever and the combat is pretty meh but these things don’t really take away from the game because i feel like it nails other things really hard.
This is one of the greatest open worlds in all of gaming, even though it still relies on an overly obstructive mini map and a billion assassins creed question marks all over the map, The world is extreme impressive, i think out of every open world game i’ve played, this beats out all the rest solely based on immersion, the visuals, the sound design and the music perfectly ground you, the player into a believable and atmospheric setting. Just strolling the region of kaer morhen and exploring the ruins of old witcher buildings is so damn engaging, like you really do feel like you’re right there with geralt. And this level of engagement that the game manages to create in the player makes the kind of average combat mechanics feel better because you are fucking Geralt of rivia, one of the coolest characters in gaming, fighting monsters and shit, planning your fights, oiling your blade, drinking and brewing potions and none of that is at all necessary, the game is way too easy to make any of these things be mechanically required, but i engage in the systems anyway because i’m just so goddamn immersed into the experience, you do it because that’s what Geralt would do and not alot of games can create such a connection with the player. That being said, if there were more mechanical based reasons to utilise all these systems of alchemy, crafting, preparing for battle then i think the game would genuinely be on another level. Even as someone who has 100s of hours in the game, has played through on death march difficulty multiple times, there is still barely a mechanical encouragement to engage in these systems, the games combat just isn’t really suited to it in my opinion, fights end way too quickly for there to be that extra bit of thought. And even when you do find an enemy that has a considerable amount of health it will be because they are wildly over your level and then you can’t really engage with them until they become too ezy, there were literally no duels in the game that felt properly tuned, apart from the first available olgeird fight in the hearts of stone dlc, which is easily the best boss in the game and it is a fight that i think a lot of players will miss which is a huge shame.