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| samberto
13th Post
  
New Customer
|  "Now Playing: Arkham City" , posted Fri 21 Oct 00:37  
Anybody playing this most excellent sequel?
Basically the same mechanics as its predecessor and bigger maps, new enemies, new playable characters and DLC gimmicks galore.
It's loaded with easter eggs for example just before entering Arkham City go to the right side of the fence, in the wall there's Black Mask getting a beating sponsored by the cops.
By far the most fun I've had in a game in years, the cut scenes are entertaining as hell, and getting to play as catwoman is really cool, she's really fast and can defy gravity (climbs on walls and ceilings) and I also got the Robin bundle and the Freight Train challenge feels a lot like the Final Fight train level, now I just need to wait for the nightwing bundle pack until late november.
Definitively a must buy in anybody's list, even if you don't like batman this is a very well made game, and Getting the "I'm Batman" Achievement/Trophy is sure to cause some fanboys to cream their pants ;)
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| Gojira 2799th Post
PSN: Gojira_X
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| "Re(1):Now Playing: Arkham City" , posted Fri 21 Oct 04:06
I'm enjoying it.
My first impression is that it's only about as good as Arkham Asylum. That's not really a bad thing (I loved AA), and if I was only grading for content it'd certainly be better, but trying to keep the larger scope of the game in perspective it's a bit leaner. Unlike Asylum's more Metroid-like exploration, this is an open sandbox game which falls victim to many of the open sandbox pitfalls: lack of clear direction, unbalanced utilization of space, inconsistent accessibility and interactivity to the environment, etc. Still, I do want to get through the game proper before I make a final judgement on it so my opinion may improve.
The easter eggs are nice, and boy there are a lot of them. One nice one is that if you visit the basement of the courthouse at the beginning, there's a certain prisoner there who doesn't react to Batman. But if you visit this person with Catwoman, you get a creepy little dialogue cutscene. It doesn't add anything but flavor to the game, but such things are quite delicious.
Speaking of Catwoman, she's far deeper than I think anyone would have expected; her ability to climb on some ceilings is every bit as fun as using Batman's gadgetry to grapple about (if only there were more places to do it), and her gadgets aren't just carbon copies either. Also I like that you can use her on predator challeges and enemies change their taunts and everything.
I'm hoping that eventually there will be a faster way to get around the city, because as smooth and seamless as the movement is, it gets really boring running from one end to the other. A Batmobile is doubtful since the roads are a complete mess, but hopefully a Batwing or Bat-jetpack-thingy will come up.
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| GekigangerV 1723th Post
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| "Re(2):Now Playing: Arkham City" , posted Fri 21 Oct 11:49:
I just finished the main story campaign this evening after a 3 days of afternoon/evening grinding. I decided to mostly stick to the main campaign and save the side story stuff for when I do my New Game+ run.
Gameplay-wise it is a step up from Arkham Asylum no doubt about it. The basics of stealth and combat are pretty much the same, but small things like double stealth takedowns or double/triple counters really add a lot. The enemies also have a few more options when it comes to giving you some trouble like thermal goggles to look for you on gargoyles or grenades to try to get you out of a rooptop you are hiding on.
Except for smoke pellets, the new items really don't feel like they do much to add variety.
The new gliding mechanic is really fun and there are a couple of tough challenges that really push you to the limit on gliding after diving. I wish there were a couple more of those.
Boss fights are a lot better now too. Not just titan after titan.
In terms of story though, I feel it is a step down.
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
I wasn't following the news too much, but from the amazing CG trailer that was released featuring Strange and the intro of the game having that conversation between Bruce and Strange it really felt like there was going to be a great confrontation at the end between the two.
When Hugo mentions that he knows Bruce is Batman and that he will be a "hero" too it got my mind geared to think that we would see something like Strange dressed as Batman at the end and you would have a one on one fight. I knew Joker was in it and that the post-titan sickness would be involved just from the trailers, but I didn't imagine it would be the main story.
The flow for the main story is very jumbled and many villains just seem thrown into what seems like cameo appearances. Bruce Wayne is arrested for no reason, goes to help Catwoman because she may know what Strange is up to (she doesn't), he traces Joker's bullet to the church, traces his radio signal to the steel mill where he is then poisoned asks Joker about Strange's plan and he doesn't know either and that is the last time you really are actively told anything in the main story about Strange until he bombs Arkham City. There was this whole big story about Strange working with Ras which is unceremoniously concluded just so we can have a last boss fight with Clayface who just came out of nowhere.
The ending doesn't really provide the kind of resolution I was looking for. Batman feels the need to carry out Joker's body, but it seems like there are going to be a lot of deaths in Gotham soon as Mr. Freeze was only able to make that small amount of the cure. I would have liked to see them address stuff like how would "Bruce" explain how he survived in Arkham City. If they really wanted to show Batman being somber about the death of the Joker I would have liked to have seen him brooding in the Bat cave where he could have heard the phone call from the Joker instead of giving us 10 minutes of black screen and white text.
End of Spoiler
[this message was edited by GekigangerV on Fri 21 Oct 11:56] |
| karasu99 781th Post
PSN: robotchris
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Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(3):Now Playing: Arkham City" , posted Tue 25 Oct 00:27:
FOOLS! Why did you have to go and suggest this game so strongly? With a bunch of other fantastic games in my queue already (Dark Souls, GodHand, etc.) I bought this yesterday and played an unprecedented (in this generation of consoles at least) 6 straight hours yesterday, wandering around with sidequest after sidequest, only getting a few parts into the main story.
This is a fantastic game. After years of not really caring much about Batman and his stable of bad guys, I really enjoyed the attention to detail, at least as far as I recognize people (I've got to say-- telephone guy... no clue who he is, had to look up on Wiki), and the gameplay is spot-on and addictive. Fighting is crazily fluid, and while it doesn't have the same kind of craziness about it as something like Bayonetta, it also doesn't have the same button mashing friendliness as Bayonetta. It's got its own rhythm that you fall into eventually.
Also, I enjoyed how it solves the modern game problem of the QTE. Someone may disagree with me on this, but rather that giving you the QTE moment per se, it incorporates a lot of moments that would be a single button press in other games using the 'detective vision', along with onscreen prompts about moves you can pull off at pretty much any time (given a certain context or course, like jumping through a window. And in the course of fighting, there are some QTE-ish moments, but most are handled automatically, like the crazy counters you can do.
I even braved the Empire of Darkness to buy the game, skulking into Walmart to get the version of it that's bundled with the previous game in the series (and not just the crappy 'best' version, but the one that packs in the DLC and everything).
So... yeah, go buy it. This is a great, fun game.
PLUS: Catwoman is fantastically fun to play as-- even more so than Batman. At least I thought so.
www.secret-arts.com
[this message was edited by karasu99 on Tue 25 Oct 00:40] |
| karasu99 785th Post
PSN: robotchris
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| "Re(6):Now Playing: Arkham City" , posted Wed 26 Oct 07:22
quote:
I have a few real world expenses at the moment so I decided I wasn't going to buy every game under the sun that is currently being released. That's proving to be easier said than done. Not only do the games look fun but every time I start up my PS3 I see that everyone on my friends list is playing Batman or Dark Souls or some other new title. While the social aspect of games is enjoyable it's also a strange form of peer pressure.
Since you put it that way...
[peer_pressure]
This is seriously a fun game that doesn't require a super huge learning curve or anything. Plus all the cool kids are doing it! You DO want to be cool, don't you?
[/peer_pressure]
Actually I've got no evidence that cool kids are doing it. If anything, my enjoyment of it, combined with the fact that it's a comic book character-based game, seems to indicate just the opposite.
In all seriousness though, this is a fantastic game. Like any sandbox game it's got its issues-- not least of all how there JUST SO MUCH TO DO that it's a little overwhelming. I get halfway through some sidequest only to be sidetracked by some ringing telephone douchebag or a cop that needs rescuing. As a friend pointed out though, that must be what it's like to be Batman-- he's always in demand!
I too am trying to hold off on buying too much these days (new-ish job, limited funds, and a perception that I finish about 20% of the games I start), but this one just started looking too good to be true.
www.secret-arts.com
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