Does Arkham Asylum get better?

[Castanova]

I picked up Batman AA off the Humble Bundle the other day due to the X-treme level of hype surrounding it. I'm about 10% into the game so far and, honestly, it's pretty crap. Combat is simplistic and mostly focused on slow-motion "awesomeness," Detective Mode is a glorified quest compass, story is thin, there's tons of on-screen tooltips and help screens designed especially for console gamers, etc etc. The only semblance of difficulty comes from attempting to beat up large groups of gun-wielding enemies instead of sneakily downing them one by one.

Does the game get better? Or should I just stop now.

 

[Gragt]

You'll get more of the same.

 

[Night Goat]

short answer: no

 

[Sycophantic Noob]

It does get better. The levels are decently diverse, there are Riddler challenges to collect, as you progress you gain access to more gadgets which allow you to unlock certain paths etc. The level design is particularly good in the areas with many patrolling enemies; it's open ended and allows for many solutions. I have to say that the pace the game introduces new elements is almost optimal, you don't get bored of using the same tool over and over because as soon as things start getting a bit stale, the game throws something new at you. If you play at the highest difficulty setting (as you should have from the start), the combat becomes more difficult, and the tooltips and on-screen hints are rare. If you don't like the simplicity in combat, you'll be happy to find that later on there are more enemy types, which require you to use different tactics (stun them, batarang them, jump over their heads, pull them with bat claw).

 

[Eyeball]

It is a popamole game.

A fucking awesome popamole game with excellent voice acting, a great setting, memorable characters and highly entertaining kung-fu action which is not so much about challenge as about being The Goddamn Batman and taking Down dozens of thugs with your badass Ninja skills. I 100%ed AA. It is the only game in history I have ever wanted to do that with.

If you do not like this game, you are a boring individual. Fuck off back to your 1985 dungeon crawlers.

 

[Multidirectional]

It never stops being popamole, if that's what the question is, but it is a damn well crafted popamole. Both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are. They might not be really challenging, even on Hard difficulty, but using your gadgets in stealth sections as efficiently as you can or trying to stack up combos as high as possible can still be a lot of fun.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

It is a popamole game.

A fucking awesome popamole game with excellent voice acting, a great setting, memorable characters and highly entertaining kung-fu action which is not so much about challenge as about being The Goddamn Batman and taking Down dozens of thugs with your badass Ninja skills. I 100%ed AA. It is the only game in history I have ever wanted to do that with.

If you do not like this game, you are a boring individual. Fuck off back to your 1985 dungeon crawlers.

There you have it, Castanova , it's great if you really want to be Batman.

Otherwise it's pretty much Awesome Button: The Game.

 

[Heresiarch]

It's the best Batman game that makes you feel like you're the Goddamn Batman. It's a RPG because you play the role as Batman and it's presented very good at that. If you get slow-motion awesomeness that means you're not playing on hard which means you're a retard. Its combat is the best in superhero game genre and beating mooks with flawless combos and gadgets without getting hurt makes you feel you're the GODDAMN BATMAN. In other words, if you love roleplaying as Batman, Arkham Asylum/City is the best game in the market.

The only thing AA sucked is the boss fights. AC has fixed that, with the fight with Mister Freeze one of the best in 3rd person action games.

 

[Machocruz]

Not even a good Batman RPG, unless you want to RP the shittier Batman interpretations. You won't feel like The World's Greatest Detective. You perform no detective work to speak of, unless you consider solving easy puzzles 'detective work' Maybe in the Batman adventure game, if they make one some day. No escape artistry. There is no identifiable martial arts mastery, just flying around doing cartoon moves against the most incompetent thugs ever seen; Watch The Animated Series to see Batman combat done right in motion, or if you prefer silliy, OTT fighting, watch Batman of Shanghai. Beating up dozens of thugs without getting hurt doesn't happen in any Batman story not written by a child who watched Chinese Connection too many times.

If you want to be an bodybuilder with Predator technology, the is the game for you. If you want to play as Looney Tunes version of Batman, the game is for you. If you want a polished Metroid-lite, the game is for you. But a Batman game that puts you in the shoes of Batman requires a much more sophisticated design than you're likely to get in the AAA space.

 

[Sranchammer]

I couldn't play past the first fight. It made me nauseous when no other FPS was able to do that.

 

[Multidirectional]

It made me nauseous when no other FPS was able to do that.

Posting in wrong thread?

 

[ZagorTeNej]

It's the best Batman game that makes you feel like you're the Goddamn Batman. It's a RPG because you play the role as Batman and it's presented very good at that. If you get slow-motion awesomeness that means you're not playing on hard which means you're a retard. Its combat is the best in superhero game genre and beating mooks with flawless combos and gadgets without getting hurt makes you feel you're the GODDAMN BATMAN. In other words, if you love roleplaying as Batman, Arkham Asylum/City is the best game in the market.

This, you aren't really supposed to be troubled by some low life thugs (I mean, you're fucking Batman), the challenge comes from achieving a flawless combo (which requires not getting hit at all, not missing etc.) and current available maximum variety bonus in every fight you can. Regarding stealth sections, similarly, challenge lies in taking out enemies in as many different ways as you can (facing mooks with guns head on in search of some artificial challenge is missing the point of the game). It's a different kind of challenge in an action game compared to the traditional one (staying alive) but it's still there depending on your mindset in approaching this game.

Voice acting is also top notch for the most part (especially Mark Hamil, who is just brilliant), overall as a fan of Batman TAS, I loved seeing a number of actors reprising their roles here.

Regarding detective vision, I barely used it (especially in AA, which art direction and graphics I really liked) so it didn't really bother me.

The only thing AA sucked is the boss fights. AC has fixed that, with the fight with Mister Freeze one of the best in 3rd person action games.

Not just the boss fights (though they are much improved and I definitely agree on Mister Freeze fight, especially on Batman plus difficulty) but the overall gameplay is significantly improved IMO (both beat em up and stealth sections) in the Arkham City.

That said, I still prefer the first one's mood, atmosphere, art direction, story, pacing and more Metroidvania feel.

 

[Castanova]

It's the best Batman game that makes you feel like you're the Goddamn Batman. It's a RPG because you play the role as Batman and it's presented very good at that. If you get slow-motion awesomeness that means you're not playing on hard which means you're a retard. Its combat is the best in superhero game genre and beating mooks with flawless combos and gadgets without getting hurt makes you feel you're the GODDAMN BATMAN. In other words, if you love roleplaying as Batman, Arkham Asylum/City is the best game in the market.

The only thing AA sucked is the boss fights. AC has fixed that, with the fight with Mister Freeze one of the best in 3rd person action games.

I don't know, I don't really feel like Batman so far. I mean, right off the bat (PUN NOT INTENDED BROS) I didn't feel like Batman where you spend the first 10 minutes just standing there amongst normal people. That's not Batman, that's some dude in a rubber suit who's too buff for people to make fun of him. And the Batman-esque combat sequences are really gimmicky. Why are there evenly spaced gargoyles in all the rooms where the game tells me I'm supposed to use stealth combat? And all the other combat encounters are just some thugs standing around in a hallway?

I really wanted to like this game which is why I was hoping it would change going forward.

 

[Declinator]

I bought it from the same Humble Bundle and it really is just a really mediocre game with nothing horrendous but nothing especially good either. The fighting feels like it's just a step removed from QTE and certainly doesn't make me feel like I'm the goddamn Batman as everyone seems to say. It feels more like I'm Superman honestly speaking and that is not a compliment. Ninja Gaiden made me feel more like the Batman than Arkham Asylum has. I'm not done with the game yet but seems like it's going to be an utterly forgettable experience.

And no, I'm not playing on hard but instead on normal/medium or whatever the middle difficulty was. This is because I heard that hard basically just goes the way of hp bloat and more enemy damage. Guess I could try hard but I very much doubt it'll be a significant improvement.

The story seems to be rubbish and there are many infuriating moments where people, especially Batman himself, do not act rationally. Basically, plot-induced stupidity is rife in this game and makes me want to skip all cutscenes.

It's a RPG because you play the role as Batman

I hope you're joking.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Play it at the hardest difficulty, same goes for the sequel. That actually makes the combat rather interesting.

I found the story rather good for comicbook fare, and the voice acting is great. My favourite thing about the Arkham games is the atmosphere and presentation, there aren't any other superhero games that are this moody and true to the source material.

 

[Excidium]

No, it's like Assassin's Creed, same thing over and over. I liked because it's batman.

 

[RPGMaster]

The best 3D Castlevainia game ever made.

 

[Heresiarch]

Yeah well, as a 3rd person ACT game with a superhero who relies on (sort of) realistic fighting model, what other combat system can you expect? Ninja Gaiden/DMC/God of War-ish combat is completely out of question (I facepalmed a bit that you say Ninja Gaiden feels more Batman like), can you imagine Batman kicking a mook into the air and then jump up himself and give him a 5 hit air combo? Assassin's Creeds combat is more on the realistic side but enemies would just go attack you one by one and your own moves are limited mostly to block, slash and run away. Arkham series used a more balanced approach by making enemies capable to attack you with 2 or 3 guys at the same time, and post early game you'll see a lot of enemies that require you to use special attacks instead of mindless button mashing. Or perhaps you want some old school Batman beat-em-up action like Batman Returns on SNES?

AA/AC is good as it's a pretty good balance between the feeling of being the Dark Knight yet retaining a fun gaming system. If you want to deal more with the detective part there's the riddler trophies to pursue after. If you love beating people up with Kungfu with realistic motions, there's no other games being better than this. Finally the best things are the atmosphere, voice acting, and Scarecrow parts.

I don't know what you guys think a real "Batman experience" is. Mind you, there are the Animated series, movies (Burton and Nolan series), comics, and fucking Adam West series. The Arkham series is apparently closer to the movies' style - beating people (who are dumb enough to not gang up on you) up with Kungfu, solving idiotic detective problems which are full of plotholes - and it's serviceable for a 10 hours length video game which happens in one in-game night. If you want something which involves more dialogues, plotting, thinking, then you'll need to wait for a Batman: The RPG (does such a thing even exist?) which sadly Arkham series isn't that.

 

[Sranchammer]

It made me nauseous when no other FPS was able to do that.

Posting in wrong thread?

Nope

 

[Cowboy Moment]

The best 3D Castlevainia game ever made.

What in the world does it have to do with Castlevania?

 

[Excidium]

What in the world does it have to do with Castlevania?

Bats

 

[Machocruz]

The best 3D Castlevainia game ever made.

Nothing like Castlevania. What a random statement. And Dark Souls fits that bill better. As does an actual 3D Castlevania game, Lament of Innocence.

. If you love beating people up with Kungfu with realistic motions,there's no other games being better than this

The Warriors, God Hand (basic attacks, not the cartoony super moves), Punisher arcade game, Oni. There is nothing realistic about the way Batman moves in the Arkham games. I don't think the animators actually looked at any martial arts for these games, which is fine, but it can't claim to be anything other than made up, cartoon fighting designed according to what the developers think looks cool and badass.

 

[RK47]

No, it's like Assassin's Creed, same thing over and over. I liked because it's batman.

what he said

 

[DefJam101]

AA got points for presentation, not substance.

 

[Average Manatee]

No, it's like Assassin's Creed, same thing over and over. I liked because it's batman.

what he said

This, except unlike Assassin's Creed it's shorter and to the point rather than being a long grind of the same shit over and over.

Combat will always be easy and simplistic though.