This is a game that really can't help being a game, as much as it tries to offer immersion and distance itself (and failing at it) from the Ubisoft open-world formula. Playing it is a constant battle between the premise of 'Be the Batman' and its annoying gamey contrivances.

Early into the game there's a mission where you have to rescue a hostage from 5 armed goons inside a locked room. You attract two goons outside, take them out, and then the mission pratically stops dead on its tracks to give you an upgraded suit and along with it 5 tutorials that don't feel at all connected to the suit and more to Batman own physical capabilities.

Later there's a mission where you have to scort Gordon through the streets on a flimsy police car for...some reason. And then in the middle of it Batman remembers, hey, I have a passenger seat in my nigh-indestructible tank, maybe I should put it to use? Rocksteady did a nice job with the maneuvering of the batmobile, but it gets stale really fast, especially when they're this blatant about shoving it into the game.

The fact that the map doesn't give you all its locations on a plate from the start and you have to explore while listening to radio frequencies and interrogating goons to fill it sounds like a good idea at first. Until 1 hour in and you realise there's almost nothing really interesting to find, it's just the same checklist open-world gameplay that you've seen a hundred times already.

The combat is flashy to try and guise the button mashy reality of it, and it requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief and immersion to truly have fun with it, which becomes difficulty when you consider how constantly the game breaks its immersion.

The story is...bad, to say the least, and it constantly sacrifices narrative and concision for its gamey contrivances. Also, they cared so much about the secret identity of the Arkham Knight that you can get spoiled by just looking through the skins selection menu (and not like you can't guess who it is as long as you have the most basic knowledge of Batman lore -- the death scene that plays with him basically shoves it in your face).

I understand this is more of a first impression (I'm four, five hours in), but I'm already struggling terribly with it. The game is beautiful to look at, but that's all there is to it. I don't feel invested in any of its mechanics or the story.

Well, I guess someone read The Cement Garden and went "y'know, I bet I can make something even more fucked up than that!".

Honestly, this was better than I expected. Given all the memes and online popularity, I was expecting another horror rpgmaker game that relied on sheer shock value with no substance to speak of, but this was actually an entertaining story with a great character dynamic. And that's usually what I look for in these games.

It works well by not taking itself so seriously, but not so much that the more dramatic parts become weightless and a parody of itself. It exists in its own little bizarre and dumb universe, and never betrays that tone by straying too far into one or the other. Due to that, the game never really feels that disturbing or unsettling no matter what fucked up thing is happening on screen, nor that it was written by a 14yo. That, and the fact it's not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

I'm probably never touching the fandom even with a 20 meters stick though.

Finished with episodes 1 and 2.

Edit: yup, as expected the subreddit is already way more disturbing than anything in the game...why did I even try.

Oh my god, why didn't I play this before.

I'm pretty excited to see how much they'll add to the formula on the second game.

edit: well, I got pretty excited when I first played it, but...after a few hours I realise the gameplay loop just isn't interesting enough for a game of this kind unless you screw the game up with cheats, and even then it just feels gimmicky. And the only really fun class to play with is the hacker.

Kinda torn on this one. While I enjoyed it, I can clearly see all of its shortcomings and why people were so disappointed by it. Granted, the game didn't promise much and was overhyped, but there were so many little things that could've been improved. Exploring the environments is the best part of the game and yet it's so brief, while the more game-y sequences (mostly engaging with the Headcr-I mean, Zurks) overstay its welcome and are simply not fun. It's a walking simulator that reminds me of Uncharted at times, intermissioning narrative/exploration with action, but nowhere near as fun.

And rather than "Blade Runner cat", as it was sold by people who think all cyberpunk is either reminiscent of blade runner or neuromancer or gits, this game felt way more like Fallen Angels/Chungking Express meets a Cronenberg nightmare. Most of the time it doesn't even feel futuristic.