At one point in the game Batman patches up his wounded face with smiley face band-aids.
I recently finally caught up with the times and, after long years of playing games on my trusty Playstation 2, bought a PS3. So naturally games took up quite a lot of my time last week. I bought "Batman: Arkham City" a few days ago and although I didn't finish it yet, here's some of my thought's on the game so far. I didn't play the first game yet so I'm basing this solely on "Arkham City". In no particular order:
(SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!)
- I don't think I've ever seen Batman this ripped. He kinda looks like he's back on venom.
- I'm sorry, but the premise that there was a ghetto for supervillains created in the middle of Gotham is as dumb as it gets. I understand suspension of disbelief (and boy do I suspend it!) etc. but this is a bit too unlikely for me. I mean this place is a war zone, set up in the middle of the city. Gotham has always been a lousy place to live and all but it never was a dystopian shithole like that, with crazies armed to teeth on every corner killing each other and shooting rockets at news helicopters... However, I also understand why this premise is there (after all, the creators needed a reason for all those villains being in one place at the same time) and the game sure is a lot of fun, so I can happily forgive that. And who knows, maybe there's gonna be something at the end of the game that makes the premise look a bit better for me (right now I'm near the end of the game, hunting Joker in his hideout).
- Solomon Grundy! It was nice seeing him.
- Mark Hamill's Joker is fantastic. Appropriately creepy, maniacal and funny. The voice actors in this game are generally very good, but he's the star of the show.
- As a child raised on Batman stories such as "The Idiot Root" I immensely enjoyed all the sequences of Batman tripping balls/hallucinating. The Ra's al Ghul stuff was top notch and the short Mad Hatter cameo was good too.
- Even though I thought the premise itself was ridiculous, the story built upon it, with all it's various plot twists, is really good and sucks you right in.
- Batman is waaay too easy on Mr. Freeze. I know the guy just wants to cure his wife and all that, but he's also an asshole.
- The character designs for Bane and Harley Quinn do absolutely nothing for me and I think they're quite poor, especially considering every one else looks real good.
- The Catwoman DLC pack is good enough and fills out the main story nicely. I didn't play the Robin DLC yet, but I like how they redesigned him.
Overall, I really like this game and you owe it to yourself to get it. It's one of those games where I actually want to delay finishing it because I'm enjoying the gameplay so much.
EDIT: Finished the game's story mode just now. Fantastic stuff. The voice message during the credits creeped me right out. Bravo!
EDIT: Finished the game's story mode just now. Fantastic stuff. The voice message during the credits creeped me right out. Bravo!
I have to agree with everything. Harley looked a lot better in Arkham Asylum, too.
ReplyDeleteThe Robin DLC is nothing special, he's just playable in the challenge maps and that's it. The DLC is pretty much a let down, imo (except for catwoman's missions) especially since you have to pay for other costumes. Remember ho costumes were unlockable in game?!?
The thugs got their weapons from Strange, though, remember? But yeah, the story was hard to take seriously.
Did you notice the positive pregnancy test in Joker's main room?
They screwed up Harley but Bane pained me the most. I like Bane (and based on what I see on comicbook blogs often, I don't get the impression that a lot of people do!) and like his "classic" design. He looked just like another one of Batman "monster" type villains in the game and he didn't prove to be very smart at all.
ReplyDeleteStill didn't check out the Robin DLC but will do so today. Meanwhile I quite like the Catwoman stuff but she's pretty slow on her feet when it comes to moving around the city. And yeah, all that DLC skins stuff is just a rip off and it seems it get's worse all the time (paying for stuff that was obviously free as unlockables just 2 years ago or so).
Right, they did get their stuff from Strange. But still... quite a far fetched premise, even for comics-type stuff!
Ooh, no I didn't notice the pregnancy test! So I assume Harley's supposed to be carrying lil' baby Joker? Hm. Wonder if they planned to ever do a follow up on that. The creepiest thing in the game was by far the "Only You" sang by Joker during the credits! Man, that was a nice little touch:)
I might do some more posts on video games, who knows. Other than Wolverine Auditions that will happen soon, I want to discuss some stuff other than comics here in the near future.