Batman: Arkham Series

~~Leo656~~ · 02-04-2022, 06:27 PM

So I know this series has been talked about a lot here before, and probably had its own thread at one point, but I frankly can't be assed to look for it. Whenever it was had to have been ages ago and it would take me forever to find it, so whatever, deal.

Anyways, I recently got around to playing "Origins" for the first time, finally, and wanted to talk about it at-length as I usually do with most games I play. About halfway through my first playthrough, I decided I may as well just run through the entire series in storyline order, giving my thoughts and reviews as I go. And I figured other people would probably have their own two cents to drop in. So rather than do it in the "Currently Playing" thread, I figured I'd just do a new one dedicated to the series as a whole. Sound good? Good.

So first up, Batman: Arkham Origins (Xbox 360). Been on my shelf for years, never played it until about a month ago. What I think happened was, WAY back in the day I stopped playing "Arkham City" once I beat the main Story mode because I had a ton of Riddler Trophies left to find and just couldn't be bothered, even though I know I will "have" to get them eventually because I have a bit of a compulsion about leaving things "unfinished". Since then, whenever I've been tempted to play any Arkham game, all I think of is "Riddler Trophies" and it puts me off of the idea, and then I play something else. Not cool, I know, but it's how my brain works sometimes.

To jump ahead a little bit, SOME of that fear was indeed warranted, as once again hunting down the Riddler stuff ("Data Packs", this time) was by far my least favorite part of this game by a mile. I don't hate the idea of it by any means, and in each game I've played there's some fun to be had and some of the methods for finding them are indeed clever. But there's WAY too many of them in every game I've played, and even though I use a Guide to get them all as quickly as possible it still makes the game about three times longer than it needs to be, and it's very blatant padding. Way too many super-hero games do this sh*t. Like, 50-100 Riddler collectibles, okay, fine, but HUNDREDS of them in every game? Now you're just jerking off.

The dirt-worst is when I'm just about to get one of them and get taken out by a sniper I somehow didn't see.

Nothing like getting killed during a completely pointless and arbitrary side-quest that feels like it should've been about half as deep. Especially when almost nothing in the Main Game is all that difficult or likely to kill you.

So anyways, yeah, this game has some problems compared to its predecessors, and I'll get those out of the way first, but to me the Riddler stuff was the worst, just because it's SO needlessly bloated. I DO love the concept of it, though, and I like how Riddler (or "Enigma", this time) was done in these games, I like it quite a lot. He doesn't really "fit" the tone of these games otherwise but I'm glad they found a way to include him. It works. There's just way too much of it.

I'm aware that this game has a reputation of being sort of the "black sheep" of the series, since it was made by different people than the other games, and apparently launched with a bunch of bugs and glitches and other things (most of which seem to have been patched out; I had a few bugs including once or twice where I had to restart the game but nothing major at all). But I honestly liked it a lot, way more than some of the reviews had me expecting to. That said, there ARE some things that bothered me, and like the Riddler stuff, it's not so much in the concept as the execution of certain elements.

Stuff That Bugged Me:

- For example, the "Dark Knight" Challenges, specifically the stealth or "Worst Nightmare" challenges. When I first saw it, I was like "Oh, cool!" Getting little upgrades and rewards for playing the game a certain way, mastering certain techniques, it makes sense. But I HATED how they forced you to get them done in a certain order; for example, by the time I'd gotten to the "Stop a random crime in each district" Challenge, I'd already done that about five times over just by playing through the game, but obviously did not get credit for it because I didn't do it when the game decided I "should" do it. But it's only REALLY a problem with the stealth challenges, specifically because some of them can only be done in certain rooms and therefore you get only one or two chances at them, AND since they need to be done in order it becomes almost impossible to do some of them until you're on New Game + or "I Am The Knight" Mode, which by default makes getting them a lot harder.

On my first playthrough, I'd gotten all of the other Challenges done and about half of the stealth ones done. I had to do the rest of the stealth ones during New Game +, and I don't mind telling you, a couple of those were among the least-fun and most frustrating things I've ever had to deal with. A lot of them were still easy, but some of them were made more difficult than they had to be since enemies on New Game + either wear armor (thus making them immune to Stealth takedowns you HAVE to do in order to get the Challenge credit) or else don't end up going near where they need to go so you can get the proper takedown. Rooms I'd whipped through in two minutes the first time through, I'd spend an hour retrying over and over just because nobody would go near the wall I needed to smash through, or wouldn't go near the propane tank I needed to blow them up with, or some nonsense. Too many times they'd just ignore the Sonic Batarang or whatever other tricks I'd use to try and lure them into position and do whatever they felt like. It was SUPER annoying. Once I finally got them all completed, it was one of those "Thank GOD I never have to do this again for the rest of my life!" moments. So yeah, this could've been done better; either the criteria for the Stealth challenges could've been less strict, OR they just could have let you complete the various Challenges in any order you wanted to, and in either case it would have made things far less annoying.

- The Deadshot mission wasn't bad altogether, but there were a few times that it glitched and I lost automatically. Like I didn't notice that his Health was already super-low and so I'd go to beat him up after a takedown, only for him to immediately kill the hostage before I could even make any effort to hide (like he would "warp" to the hostage regardless of where we'd been before and immediately kill them), and a few times I was behind him and the Takedown button simply wouldn't respond and he'd "see me" (even though I was behind him) and kill the hostage. I looked it up and saw that a lot of people had similar "automatic fail" issues on that mission, and was relieved it wasn't just me. Apparently it was much worse before the patch. Regardless, good idea overall but hurt by some bugginess.

- Both fights with Bane were made more annoying than they had to be, particularly on New Game +, by all the random dorks the game drops on you while you're trying to fight Bane. Especially when he does that stupid "bull charge" move, which is already annoying enough because so much of the time he "magically" hits you even when you dodge at the right time. I lost track of how many times I jumped far out of the way, only for him to be drawn to me like a magnet and run me over; this usually ended up with me pinned against a wall, where he'd do the same thing and I'd lose all my health in five seconds between him ramming me and the other idiots dogpiling me. There were times when it seemed like every single time I'd stun Bane, three other guys would attack me at once before I could even hit him, and then he'd charge and I'd be unable to dodge in time. Again, not terrible, but could've been tightened up. The normally-stupid enemy AI was magically super-aggressive during the Bane fights and it was aggravating.

- Magic Snipers. Seriously, there's a bunch of times when they absolutely should not be able to see you, but they do, and then you're dead in two hits no matter how much you upgraded your armor. The enemy AI is basically very inconsistent, being either brick-stupid or magically flawless, and the snipers are a good example. It got to the point where if the snipers spotted me, I'd just restart from the last checkpoint rather than try to run away or fight them.

- Graphics "pop-up" or "draw-in". It's minor, but I can't get over how when you go to select one of the alternate Batman skins, it starts out all blurry for a second and the game has to "draw" it in front of you. That feels sloppy and unfinished.

- Robin being Multiplayer Only. Why bother even having him playable? This was super-annoying, because the character skins look great and I would very much like to be able to at least play as him on regular Challenge maps, like Bruce or Deathstroke.

- Unobtainable Skins/DLC. This is GARBAGE whenever companies do this. Having a skin locked behind something like "WBID", which you can't even use anymore, is ridiculous and never should have been done. Likewise, I wasn't aware when I got the game that the PS3 version of the game had exclusive Knightfall skins and Challenge Maps, along with the Adam West Batman skin. I can see it being a limited-time "exclusive", but at some point it should have been released for the 360 as well. Preferably for free under Season Pass, but even if it was like $5 paid DLC that would be acceptable. Better than just "you can never own this unless you bought the PS3 version". I like the game a lot, but I'm not buying it again just for that. Even if I had bought the PS3 version instead, the fact that stuff was never made available on 360 is unacceptable. Companies need to stop doing that sh*t.

(Cont.)

02-04-2022, 06:27 PM	#1
~~Leo656~~ Banned Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,703	Batman: Arkham Series So I know this series has been talked about a lot here before, and probably had its own thread at one point, but I frankly can't be assed to look for it. Whenever it was had to have been ages ago and it would take me forever to find it, so whatever, deal. Anyways, I recently got around to playing "Origins" for the first time, finally, and wanted to talk about it at-length as I usually do with most games I play. About halfway through my first playthrough, I decided I may as well just run through the entire series in storyline order, giving my thoughts and reviews as I go. And I figured other people would probably have their own two cents to drop in. So rather than do it in the "Currently Playing" thread, I figured I'd just do a new one dedicated to the series as a whole. Sound good? Good. So first up, Batman: Arkham Origins (Xbox 360). Been on my shelf for years, never played it until about a month ago. What I think happened was, WAY back in the day I stopped playing "Arkham City" once I beat the main Story mode because I had a ton of Riddler Trophies left to find and just couldn't be bothered, even though I know I will "have" to get them eventually because I have a bit of a compulsion about leaving things "unfinished". Since then, whenever I've been tempted to play any Arkham game, all I think of is "Riddler Trophies" and it puts me off of the idea, and then I play something else. Not cool, I know, but it's how my brain works sometimes. To jump ahead a little bit, SOME of that fear was indeed warranted, as once again hunting down the Riddler stuff ("Data Packs", this time) was by far my least favorite part of this game by a mile. I don't hate the idea of it by any means, and in each game I've played there's some fun to be had and some of the methods for finding them are indeed clever. But there's WAY too many of them in every game I've played, and even though I use a Guide to get them all as quickly as possible it still makes the game about three times longer than it needs to be, and it's very blatant padding. Way too many super-hero games do this sht. Like, 50-100 Riddler collectibles, okay, fine, but HUNDREDS of them in every game? Now you're just jerking off. The dirt-worst is when I'm just about to get one of them and get taken out by a sniper I somehow didn't see. Nothing like getting killed during a completely pointless and arbitrary side-quest that feels like it should've been about half as deep. Especially when almost nothing in the Main Game is all that difficult or likely to kill you. So anyways, yeah, this game has some problems compared to its predecessors, and I'll get those out of the way first, but to me the Riddler stuff was the worst, just because it's SO needlessly bloated. I DO love the concept of it, though, and I like how Riddler (or "Enigma", this time) was done in these games, I like it quite a lot. He doesn't really "fit" the tone of these games otherwise but I'm glad they found a way to include him. It works. There's just way too much of it. I'm aware that this game has a reputation of being sort of the "black sheep" of the series, since it was made by different people than the other games, and apparently launched with a bunch of bugs and glitches and other things (most of which seem to have been patched out; I had a few bugs including once or twice where I had to restart the game but nothing major at all). But I honestly liked it a lot, way more than some of the reviews had me expecting to. That said, there ARE some things that bothered me, and like the Riddler stuff, it's not so much in the concept as the execution of certain elements. Stuff That Bugged Me:* - For example, the "Dark Knight" Challenges, specifically the stealth or "Worst Nightmare" challenges. When I first saw it, I was like "Oh, cool!" Getting little upgrades and rewards for playing the game a certain way, mastering certain techniques, it makes sense. But I HATED how they forced you to get them done in a certain order; for example, by the time I'd gotten to the "Stop a random crime in each district" Challenge, I'd already done that about five times over just by playing through the game, but obviously did not get credit for it because I didn't do it when the game decided I "should" do it. But it's only REALLY a problem with the stealth challenges, specifically because some of them can only be done in certain rooms and therefore you get only one or two chances at them, AND since they need to be done in order it becomes almost impossible to do some of them until you're on New Game + or "I Am The Knight" Mode, which by default makes getting them a lot harder. On my first playthrough, I'd gotten all of the other Challenges done and about half of the stealth ones done. I had to do the rest of the stealth ones during New Game +, and I don't mind telling you, a couple of those were among the least-fun and most frustrating things I've ever had to deal with. A lot of them were still easy, but some of them were made more difficult than they had to be since enemies on New Game + either wear armor (thus making them immune to Stealth takedowns you HAVE to do in order to get the Challenge credit) or else don't end up going near where they need to go so you can get the proper takedown. Rooms I'd whipped through in two minutes the first time through, I'd spend an hour retrying over and over just because nobody would go near the wall I needed to smash through, or wouldn't go near the propane tank I needed to blow them up with, or some nonsense. Too many times they'd just ignore the Sonic Batarang or whatever other tricks I'd use to try and lure them into position and do whatever they felt like. It was SUPER annoying. Once I finally got them all completed, it was one of those "Thank GOD I never have to do this again for the rest of my life!" moments. So yeah, this could've been done better; either the criteria for the Stealth challenges could've been less strict, OR they just could have let you complete the various Challenges in any order you wanted to, and in either case it would have made things far less annoying. - The Deadshot mission wasn't bad altogether, but there were a few times that it glitched and I lost automatically. Like I didn't notice that his Health was already super-low and so I'd go to beat him up after a takedown, only for him to immediately kill the hostage before I could even make any effort to hide (like he would "warp" to the hostage regardless of where we'd been before and immediately kill them), and a few times I was behind him and the Takedown button simply wouldn't respond and he'd "see me" (even though I was behind him) and kill the hostage. I looked it up and saw that a lot of people had similar "automatic fail" issues on that mission, and was relieved it wasn't just me. Apparently it was much worse before the patch. Regardless, good idea overall but hurt by some bugginess. - Both fights with Bane were made more annoying than they had to be, particularly on New Game +, by all the random dorks the game drops on you while you're trying to fight Bane. Especially when he does that stupid "bull charge" move, which is already annoying enough because so much of the time he "magically" hits you even when you dodge at the right time. I lost track of how many times I jumped far out of the way, only for him to be drawn to me like a magnet and run me over; this usually ended up with me pinned against a wall, where he'd do the same thing and I'd lose all my health in five seconds between him ramming me and the other idiots dogpiling me. There were times when it seemed like every single time I'd stun Bane, three other guys would attack me at once before I could even hit him, and then he'd charge and I'd be unable to dodge in time. Again, not terrible, but could've been tightened up. The normally-stupid enemy AI was magically super-aggressive during the Bane fights and it was aggravating. - Magic Snipers. Seriously, there's a bunch of times when they absolutely should not be able to see you, but they do, and then you're dead in two hits no matter how much you upgraded your armor. The enemy AI is basically very inconsistent, being either brick-stupid or magically flawless, and the snipers are a good example. It got to the point where if the snipers spotted me, I'd just restart from the last checkpoint rather than try to run away or fight them. - Graphics "pop-up" or "draw-in". It's minor, but I can't get over how when you go to select one of the alternate Batman skins, it starts out all blurry for a second and the game has to "draw" it in front of you. That feels sloppy and unfinished. - Robin being Multiplayer Only. Why bother even having him playable? This was super-annoying, because the character skins look great and I would very much like to be able to at least play as him on regular Challenge maps, like Bruce or Deathstroke. - Unobtainable Skins/DLC. This is GARBAGE whenever companies do this. Having a skin locked behind something like "WBID", which you can't even use anymore, is ridiculous and never should have been done. Likewise, I wasn't aware when I got the game that the PS3 version of the game had exclusive Knightfall skins and Challenge Maps, along with the Adam West Batman skin. I can see it being a limited-time "exclusive", but at some point it should have been released for the 360 as well. Preferably for free under Season Pass, but even if it was like $5 paid DLC that would be acceptable. Better than just "you can never own this unless you bought the PS3 version". I like the game a lot, but I'm not buying it again just for that. Even if I had bought the PS3 version instead, the fact that stuff was never made available on 360 is unacceptable. Companies need to stop doing that sh*t. (Cont.)