Batman Arkham Asylum is the popamoliest of them all!

[desocupado]

All right, I think a thread about this game already exists, but I can't be arsed to search for it.

I wanted to rant about this game:

First of all, the introduction took what seemed 10 minutes. A introduction can be good, but that was kinda boring for me.

The sprint button makes the camera shakes like fuck. I think that's inherent of the U3 engine, but let me make a stop here.

FUCKING MOTHERFUCKERS WITH SHAKING CAMERA, WHO WAS THE MORON WHO DECIDED THAT PEOPLE RUNNING SHAKE THEIR HEADS LIKE RETARDS?

I can get serious nausea and headaches from playing some 3D games, especially shooters, but sometimes other genres too. And one of the causes is this stupid shaky camera (the "head bob" in FPS). UNDISABLELABLE shaky camera, and by that inexistent word in caps, I meant that cannot be disabled, but with RAGE.

Alright, but to the meat of my issue.

The counter-attack button.

That was what killed the game for me. After an hour playing, I was bored.

You see, in action games, you have a dodge button. When I play DMC, or God of War (I like it, and it can be challenging on higher difficulty settings), or a decent action game, you have to be aware of what you are doing. The dodge button will move you to the side/back quickly, but you might end up circled, you might move into some other attack, and also, you stop attacking, and doing damage. Which might be very bad, if you were just pulling some very damaging move and needs to kill shit fast. Because, you know, in hard games, you might need to kill some enemy quickly before he sodomizes you.

In short, you need to watch the fuck you are doing.

In BAA, you don't need it. Just wait for the sinal of an attack and press the button. And BAM, you are safe, and you opponent takes damage. Hell, you don't need to watch out for being circled, positioning, which is very important in action games, doesn't matter, that shit works from any direction. Just wait for the sinal and attack. Wait for something to pop up, and hit a button. Pop up... hit...

I will concede the game might improve later, I don't know, I was too busy being bored out my mind (and getting a headache) to reach that far. But this is the codex, here people bitch about games they did not play, and I even shortly played this one, so it's all nice and proper, AMIRITE?

So, I'm already afraid of the backlash (I think I will get more for liking God of War, than for criticizing BAA). And I don't have a bunker.

 

[roll-a-die]

All right, I think a thread about this game already exists, but I can't be arsed to search for it.

I wanted to rant about this game:

First of all, the introduction took what seemed 10 minutes. A introduction can be good, but that was kinda boring for me.

The sprint button makes the camera shakes like fuck. I think that's inherent of the U3 engine, but let me make a stop here.

FUCKING MOTHERFUCKERS WITH SHAKING CAMERA, WHO WAS THE MORON WHO DECIDED THAT PEOPLE RUNNING SHAKE THEIR HEADS LIKE RETARDS?

I can get serious nausea and headaches from playing some 3D games, especially shooters, but sometimes other genres too. And one of the causes is this stupid shaky camera (the "head bob" in FPS). UNDISABLELABLE shaky camera, and by that inexistent word in caps, I meant that cannot be disabled, but with RAGE.

Alright, but to the meat of my issue.

The counter-attack button.

That was what killed the game for me. After an hour playing, I was bored.

You see, in action games, you have a dodge button. When I play DMC, or God of War (I like it, and it can be challenging on higher difficulty settings), or a decent action game, you have to be aware of what you are doing. The dodge button will move you to the side/back quickly, but you might end up circled, you might move into some other attack, and also, you stop attacking, and doing damage. Which might be very bad, if you were just pulling some very damaging move and needs to kill shit fast. Because, you know, in hard games, you might need to kill some enemy quickly before he sodomizes you.

In short, you need to watch the fuck you are doing.

In BAA, you don't need it. Just wait for the sinal of an attack and press the button. And BAM, you are safe, and you opponent takes damage. Hell, you don't need to watch out for being circled, positioning, which is very important in action games, doesn't matter, that shit works from any direction. Just wait for the sinal and attack. Wait for something to pop up, and hit a button. Pop up... hit...

I will concede the game might improve later, I don't know, I was too busy being bored out my mind (and getting a headache) to reach that far. But this is the codex, here people bitch about games they did not play, and I even shortly played this one, so it's all nice and proper, AMIRITE?

So, I'm already afraid of the backlash (I think I will get more for liking God of War, than for criticizing BAA). And I don't have a bunker.

Not going to backlash you, you are right on all of your points. I shall however say that, in AA, the combat is supposed to look like it's actually fucking Batman fighting. When was the last time you saw Batman, whose been know to out reaction speed SUPERMAN, take more then one hit from a random Mook?

Also it does get allot better later, you meat guy's with actual weapons, and who can retain said weapons for more than one cursory blow. Also you can't counter the shock prods that come about later. You also get a hell of allot more enemies coming at you at times. They are also often come equipped with sonic collars which beckon people towards you. Making hit and run tactics, very vital in allot of cases, because you could end up mobbed by about 5 shock prod wielding rapist's whose every strike mean's that the 10 mooks around them get to take a quarter off your health.

Also God of War is fucking awesome, don't listen to some of the codex, any game where you can ride a griffin before jumping off and cutting the wings off a harpy, is Eh Oh Fucking Kay to me. QTE's suck, but the rest of the gameplay, the story, and the ability to tear enemies apart limb from limb make up for it.

It succeeds very well, in it's genre.

 

[Heresiarch]

Just wait for the sinal of an attack and press the button

LOL u normal difficulty playing weaktard

Go play hard and there'll be no stupid I AM ATTACKING U LULZ signal.

Personally, I find the combat of BAA awesome, even more so than God of War or DMC. I just love the feeling of jumping right in the middle of a dozen enemies, and then smack them one by one with really painful looking, realistic, one-blow-one-down wrestling moves, while dodging and blocking every sneak attack of them. It's just so much more satisfying than jumping around like a monkey to dodge attacks and repeatly hack basic mobs with 10+ slashes to kill it.

 

[Archibald]

You`re goddamn Batman, not some washed out god of war.

 

[Ulminati]

1: Play on hard. Lose the warning graphics Only weaktards play on normal

2: The fights get harder later with lunatics, guys with stunrods and weapons etc.

3: You're the goddamn batman. It's meant to be easy for him to take on 5-6 thugs.

4: This was already covered. Use search or GTFO

In closing: Thread sucks and OP is a faggot.

 

[treave]

As mentioned, hard mode gets rid of the Popamole Signal.

Also, you can't just run up to gun-wielding mooks without first figuring out how to stop them from ventilating your body with dozens of rounds, which is good.

 

[desocupado]

Hard might gets rid of the popamole signal, but the button still is works as making you unkillable. You just have to pay more attention.

But as some mentioned, the armed guys might change the game.

 

[Silellak]

1: Play on hard. Lose the warning graphics Only weaktards play on normal

2: The fights get harder later with lunatics, guys with stunrods and weapons etc.

3: You're the goddamn batman. It's meant to be easy for him to take on 5-6 thugs.

4: This was already covered. Use search or GTFO

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Hard might gets rid of the popamole signal, but the button still is works as making you unkillable.

If you aren't attacked while you pressed the counter button, you are vulnerable for a second or so, which is dangerous even on lower difficulties.

Also, could you counter the guys with knives (who don't lose them btw)?

 

[KalosKagathos]

1: Play on hard. Lose the warning graphics Only weaktards play on normal

Except start-up animation on most enemy attacks still takes an eternity to play out. I swear, mooks in Assassin's Creed are faster than AA thugs (and timing on counters is more strict). When Assassin's Creed starts to look like fucking Ninja Gaiden you know you have a really bad action game on your hands.

3: You're the goddamn batman. It's meant to be easy for him to take on 5-6 thugs.

Using story to justify shitty gameplay? Cute.

 

[desocupado]

Just wait for the sinal of an attack and press the button

LOL u normal difficulty playing weaktard

Go play hard and there'll be no stupid I AM ATTACKING U LULZ signal.

Personally, I find the combat of BAA awesome, even more so than God of War or DMC. I just love the feeling of jumping right in the middle of a dozen enemies, and then smack them one by one with really painful looking, realistic, one-blow-one-down wrestling moves, while dodging and blocking every sneak attack of them. It's just so much more satisfying than jumping around like a monkey to dodge attacks and repeatly hack basic mobs with 10+ slashes to kill it.

But the thing is exactly that. You are not dodging and blocking. You are not aware of enemies. Control is an important thing in an action game, it was in Final Fight, dozens of years ago, and it is in DMC4, in 2008. But this Batman game (at least partialy, since like some said, things spice up a bit later), does away with the need of it. You have no weak spot when attacking, in DMC4, if there's a guy behind you when you slash something, you might get hit (and get dead). This was not the case in BAA. Also, when you start to slash stuff in a game, you usually are commited to that slash. You have a recovery time, before the dodge works. The "I'm unkillable" button works even mid strike.

You see the character do the dodge move, but for me at least, there was no satisfaction at all. It all seemed like one giant QTE.

Again, the game might improve later, and be more fun. But I just couldn't get past that.

And about the basic mobs, I don't know if you played God of War through, because, while the first level indeed suffers from the same mobs, the game introduces new enemies mid game, and by the end of it, you are fighting enemies in various combinations, the mid/end fights in that game are the best.

 

[Silellak]

ITT: People mistake Batman: AA for an action game ala DMC or Ninja Gaiden.

Batman: AA is a Metroidvania-style action adventure with elements of stealth and action games. It doesn't excel in any one area, but unlike most games that try to do so much, I found it that handled each aspect well enough that overall the game was quite good.

The action isn't meant to feel like, or have the depth of, something like DMC or Ninja Gaiden, where melee combat is literally the only type of gameplay.

 

[treave]

You have no weak spot when attacking, in DMC4, if there's a guy behind you when you slash something, you might get hit (and get dead).

Uh... you can cancel attack strings in DMC with other actions. The timing for DMC4 counters and cancels are definitely less lenient than in Arkham Asylum, but that just means that Arkham Asylum is an easier game.

I didn't care much for the melee fighting which is serviceable, but stalking and swooping down on thugs isn't too shabby.

 

[KalosKagathos]

Batman: AA is a Metroidvania-style action adventure with elements of stealth and action games.

Except... It's not a very good Metroidvania either. Too little variety in different locations and enemies. Still, nice try.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah, just try to counter-mash a thug when three of them are shooting you with SMGs. Dumbass.

The thing that made me stop playing was that Hard mode finally made the minions put up a decent fight, but it made bosses really annoying since I already wasn't good at the total twitch-fest boss fights were.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Strangely enough, nobody here mentioned the X-ray vison detective mode.

But anyway, AA is a great game, because it's fucking batman, and yes, this is using story to justify gameplay. But it's fucking batman.

That's why a superman game would never work, since you would have to fly, be invulnerable, etc.

And you DON'T need to counter every hit. you may just Bash the gangs a lot and not use the the counter at all. It's not an obligation.

And the dodge in God of War is very like a "god mode" or a cheat mode. if you dodge, you NEVER get hit. You can dodge forever amog 50 enemys, and you get out without one scratch. Of course, too kill them, you have to stop dodging.

 

[Vibalist]

Combat in AA is all about timing your blows/counters and stacking up combos. It may not be the most complex combat system, but there's no reason to compare it to something that is totally different from it, like God of War.

The combat in AA does get difficult when you're up against 10+ opponents I reckon, especially when they use the stun prods and knives.

 

[Silellak]

Batman: AA is a Metroidvania-style action adventure with elements of stealth and action games.

Except... It's not a very good Metroidvania either. Too little variety in different locations and enemies. Still, nice try.

That's my point - it's not any single style of game. It has elements of a Metroidvania game, elements of an action game, and elements of a stealth game. It's not as good at exploration, combat, or stealth to compete directly with a specialized game like Symphony of the Night or Ninja Gaiden or Thief, but many people (myself included) find that it's good enough at all of those things that they come together to create a highly enjoyable experience.

If you dislike Batman: AA, that's fine. Different games for different people. But to say you don't like it because one particular gameplay element doesn't match-up to the same gameplay element in a specialized game - that's a bit much.

 

[Sick Bum]

All right, I think a thread about this game already exists, but I can't be arsed to search for it.

I wanted to rant about this game:

First of all, the introduction took what seemed 10 minutes. A introduction can be good, but that was kinda boring for me.

The sprint button makes the camera shakes like fuck. I think that's inherent of the U3 engine, but let me make a stop here.

FUCKING MOTHERFUCKERS WITH SHAKING CAMERA, WHO WAS THE MORON WHO DECIDED THAT PEOPLE RUNNING SHAKE THEIR HEADS LIKE RETARDS?

Actually the faster you run the less your head bobs up and down.

This is a fact that seems left behind by most animators and game engines. It's just another bullet point in why unreal engine is the decline of all game engines.

It became popular because unreal script lets people too stupid to program C++ become 'AAA game developer'. Which is a lot of why now even basic hud elements are being streamlined. Not because it's too hard and takes money and time to actually program something, no that's what the users want! Just like they wanted every other stupid change everyone hates.

Now we have web scripters as game programmers on an engine made by people who obviously have never seen a human face, watched someone walk or run, or taken one single art class, that pastes photos onto facegen faces in zbrush to make creepy as fuck floating heads in space environments that are more grimdark than a chimney sweep's ass.

Now let's just add some blur and nonsensical particle effects and ship this bitch.

I feel so fucking net gen!

 

[Overweight Manatee]

The combat in AA does get difficult when you're up against 10+ opponents I reckon, especially when they use the stun prods and knives.

I don't think a single fight in AA was difficult. Whenever I saw a large group, I thought "Sweet, I can go for a 50 hit combo again". Basically after you hit certain combo limits Batman starts getting stronger and faster while you are still on the combo. The highest level is quite ridiculous, you literally fly across the room from enemy to enemy raping anyone in your path. The difference between 5 enemies and 50 enemies is about 15s of fighting once you reach that stage.

Its mindless fun, but the game is about being Batman which means you are supposed to be awesome. I won't say it was a great game, but it was definitely 'good for what it is', 'immersive', etc.

 

[Sick Bum]

The combat in AA does get difficult when you're up against 10+ opponents I reckon, especially when they use the stun prods and knives.

I don't think a single fight in AA was difficult. Whenever I saw a large group, I thought "Sweet, I can go for a 50 hit combo again". Its mindless fun, but the game is about being Batman which means you are supposed to be awesome.

Batman's thing has always been that he's not awesome, just a regular guy who happens to know everything and be a billionaire crime fighter.

 

[Silellak]

The combat in AA does get difficult when you're up against 10+ opponents I reckon, especially when they use the stun prods and knives.

I don't think a single fight in AA was difficult. Whenever I saw a large group, I thought "Sweet, I can go for a 50 hit combo again". Its mindless fun, but the game is about being Batman which means you are supposed to be awesome.

I found some of the later fights on Hard difficulty were trouble - mostly when you started fighting the Venom-enhanced henchmen mixed with weapon-wielding ones. Though, once you get all the enemy types figured out, it does become pretty straightforward. If I were going to criticize Batman: AA's combat for one thing, it would be enemy variety. Hopefully the sequel will fix this.

Did you play through the combat Challenge Rooms? Getting gold on some of those required some interesting tricks, I found. At times it almost started to resemble a puzzle game more than a combat game, for better or worse.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Batman's thing has always been that he's not awesome, just a regular guy who happens to know everything and be a billionaire crime fighter.

I don't mean awesome in that he can stand up to real super heroes with super powers, just that he is supposed to be skilled enough that he can put down a bunch of cheap thugs without much effort. AA at a DMC or even GoW level difficulty would feel wrong.

Did you play through the combat Challenge Rooms? Getting gold on some of those required some interesting tricks, I found. At times it almost started to resemble a puzzle game more than a combat game, for better or worse.

Yeah, some of those were pretty neat. I wish those rooms could have been integrated into the main game. Chances are they were split off into challenge rooms because casualfags can't stand anything challenging that requires thought. As it is the majority of the fights in the main game are too much of the same stuff repeated over and over. Doesn't help that the game has Bioshock syndrome, IE make 3 different enemy types then just scale their health and damage as the game goes on. The titans in particular were a major disappointment.

 

[I.C. Wiener]

There is nothing innately wrong with a block-counter attack system. Batman's particular iteration isn't that good because of how slow and telegraphed everything is (and wtf is the waring graphic doing on normal) but it makes a good alternative to dodging around spastically. I'd like to see the two systems combined.

Batman's combat isn't the main attraction anyway by far. It's the stealth.

Batman: AA is a Metroidvania-style action adventure with elements of stealth and action games.

Except... It's not a very good Metroidvania either. Too little variety in different locations and enemies. Still, nice try.

There's plenty of variety in the locations compared to the typical Castlevania, so not sure what you expect. A lava world, and ice world, and a water world? It's true there are not enough enemies but that's why it's not a very good beat 'em up - Metroidvanias are first about exploring, and third about killing stuff.

Not defending Batman as a Metroidvania though. Outside of collecting trinkets and playing 'find the exit' it's still not very explore-y. I will echo the belief of another poster that the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts.

 

[CrimHead]

Never played this game but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it sucks