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Batman - Arkham City

Started by Custard, October 13, 2010, 01:07:41 AM

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Little Hoover

Spoiler alert
Don't comic books have a thousand different reboots and canon's? I've a feeling he'll be brought back anyway, but you could just say this is it's own series. Incidentally there's a scarecrow related secret in the game. He's not in it or anything, I won't spoil the detail's  but a sequel where he's the main villain could be great.
[close]

Anyway I agree that I would have preferred the side missions to have been tied in to the main game. I would have completed more side missions first, but the game locks you in to a point of no return far earlier than you expect.

MojoJojo

I'm feeling a bit conflicted about this at the moment.

It looks amazing, the flying is great, the huge amount of stuff to do and explore is good. Fighting, while not massively changed from AA is still good.

But the sandbox nature has really robbed the main story of it's focus. I think one of the strongest things about the first game was it got the balance between being on rails and freedom to explore right.

Related to this I'm also finding the notion of time a bit messed up. The fact the main story is supposed to be set over 10 hours or so (from Dr Strange's countdown over the loudspeakers, haven't actually finished yet) makes all the stupid stuff that's fun in sandbox games feel a bit weird. I've been imprisoned and poisoned - time to vandalise all the cameras and fly around and enjoy the scenery!
In other sandbox games I've played (GTA:SA mainly)  the missions aren't really linked in time, and could be happening days or months apart, so all the time you spend dicking around fits in naturally.

I know it's only a game, but it's a sort of niggling problem that's breaking my suspension of disbelief.

Nik Drou

Finally caved (no pun intended) and bought this on Friday.

There's certainly a huge amount of content, far more than Arkham Asylum. I've finished the main story and I'm still less than 50% complete. Let's take it as read that the game's brilliant and generally an improvement on its predecessor, so I can focus on some spoilery niggles:
Spoiler alert

The plot doesn't really hold together that well. Sure, it's hamstrung by having to provide set ups for gameplay setpieces and does an admirable job of making it all fit together, but you spend most of the time running errands for supervillains. The last game was a bit like that, except now you're actively providing Mr Freeze with his suit so he can attack you with it later on. Also, the big reveal of who Hugo Strange is working for is massively underwhelming, considering it's a villain you've already witnessed and defeated in the game.  Come to think of it, what the hell was Ras Al Ghul doing in Gotham anyway? Lazarus pits are everywhere, so why stick around and jeopardise the whole plan? How did Strange discover Batman was Bruce Wayne? Why doesn't he just kill him to begin with again?

What happened to the 3X Batarangs and grapple gun? I liked those! I miss throwing people too!
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AsparagusTrevor

I got this at the weekend as it's finally out on PC. Putting the well publicised DX11 problem to one side, I agree with the sandbox nature diminishing the coherence of the plot, and I find the city a massive pain to find my way around sometimes as it's so huge. The parts where you inevitably find the front door of the place you've been searching for is inaccessible and have to find an alternative way seem so much more tedious in such a big play area.

Having said that, I've played for about 6 hours so far and I am mainly having a lot of fun and Batman travels around the city in quite a nice flowing way, especially when you unlock the grapnel boost. Also, the game looks beautiful and beating down gangs of thugs in massive combos never seems to get old. The Catwoman stuff is great too, just too brief so far.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Nik Drou on November 28, 2011, 11:40:54 PM
What happened to the 3X Batarangs and grapple gun? I liked those! I miss throwing people too!

Spoiler alert
You do the 3x batarangs if you are in freeflow focus and have the freeflow focus gadget combo upgrade. Not sure if you get the 3x grapple gun, but I guess so. It's a bit too slow to be useful I find.

The 3x batarangs were a little overpowered in AA. In stealth sections you only needed to get down to 3 enemies then you could take them all out in one go.
[close]

madhair60

Any tips on improving performance in the PC version without sacrificing too much visual fidelity?

Johnny Textface

^

Spoiler alert
Get an Xbox?
[close]


madhair60

Without sacrificing visual fidelity.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: madhair60 on November 29, 2011, 02:33:18 PM
Any tips on improving performance in the PC version without sacrificing too much visual fidelity?

Have you disabled DX11? There's a technical issue with it - a patch is meant to be on the way.

madhair60

I have.  It's not running too badly, just chugging in the outside areas a bit.  Disabling Ambient Occlusion helps but it looks sooo much nicer with it on.

Ignatius_S

Sorry, bit of an obvious one bit thought I would check! If I see anything, I'll let you know...

AsparagusTrevor

If you use anti-aliasing, try FXAA instead of MSAA and also turning PhysX off on your control panel if you've got an Nvidia card might help in some places.

Also using a slightly lower resolution than your native resolution can give a boost, I used to do that with Crysis with my old gfx card to make it run at playable speeds. Plus the monitor's scaling can give you a cheap anti-aliasing effect. 

madhair60

Quote from: AsparagusTrevor on November 29, 2011, 05:25:06 PM
If you use anti-aliasing, try FXAA instead of MSAA and also turning PhysX off on your control panel if you've got an Nvidia card might help in some places.

Thanks, that did the trick!  Lovely and smooth now :D

AsparagusTrevor

I just finished the main story tonight. I felt genuinely sad
Spoiler alert
at the Joker's death, especially the voice-mail on the credits
[close]
.
Great game, despite what I thought earlier on I ended up really loving every second. It did have its flaws but so much is done right that they don't hurt the overall experience. Also now the DX11 patch is out the game looks spectacular.

I'm gonna play the Plus mode and hunt for the Riddler shit now, try to 100% it all.

MojoJojo

Same here. Although I felt
Spoiler alert
Batman carrying Joker's body out was a bit overdone - how many other people have died during the game, and how many people has Joker killed. Hardly a tragic death
[close]

Little Hoover


MojoJojo

I have now.

Having minor annoyance from New Game+ not allowing you to do certain things because you're not supposed to have unlocked the gadget yet. "I don't have time for that now!" - like a 90s adventure game.

Also, how the hell do you do unlock the riddler trophy with the 6 switches, all in cages. It's near where
Spoiler alert
the silly reporter woman ends up
[close]
. I know how to do 3. But I can't work out the trick for more.

Uhhh, although I have one gadget left unlocked apparently - will I get that eventually?

Spoilers might be good.

Nik Drou

Quote from: MojoJojo on December 11, 2011, 08:39:51 PM
Also, how the hell do you do unlock the riddler trophy with the 6 switches, all in cages. It's near where
Spoiler alert
the silly reporter woman ends up
[close]
. I know how to do 3. But I can't work out the trick for more.

Spoiler alert
Try using the explosive gel.
[close]

As for the ending, I was kind of hoping it'd be
Spoiler alert
Batman actually deciding not to give Joker the cure. It's a little too 'safe' as it is, but then I was rather underwhelmed by the story as a whole.
[close]

MojoJojo

Quote from: Nik Drou on December 11, 2011, 08:48:40 PM
Spoiler alert
Try using the explosive gel.
[close]

That's how I do 3! How do I stretch it to six? Unless it's
Spoiler alert
just 2 with quick batarang and the first with remote batarang, although that sound annoying rather than clever
[close]

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: MojoJojo on December 11, 2011, 08:54:58 PM
That's how I do 3! How do I stretch it to six? Unless it's
Spoiler alert
just 2 with quick batarang and the first with remote batarang, although that sound annoying rather than clever
[close]

You have to
Spoiler alert
take out the top three with the gel and very quickly batarang the bottom three
[close]
. It's an absolute pain in the arse, but after the nth attempt, I got it.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on December 12, 2011, 09:24:56 AM
You have to
Spoiler alert
take out the top three with the gel and very quickly batarang the bottom three
[close]
. It's an absolute pain in the arse, but after the nth attempt, I got it.

Ah, poop. I did have a a couple of goes at attempting that before deciding there must be a better way. I now think I probably won't 100% this.

Pete23

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but it's not just Batman trophies that contribute to the Riddler side quest, so you can leave a lot of the trickier Batman Riddler trophies and substitute them for the easier Cat Woman trophies and still get to fight Riddler.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Pete23 on December 14, 2011, 01:47:02 PM
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but it's not just Batman trophies that contribute to the Riddler side quest, so you can leave a lot of the trickier Batman Riddler trophies and substitute them for the easier Cat Woman trophies and still get to fight Riddler.

I was given the option to fight the Riddler after collecting around 350 or so secrets - I hadn't collected most of the Catwoman trophies at this stage, and still had at least a couple of dozen of Batman's left to do.

Meh. Thought that was a bit shit honestly - shit considering what it could have been at least, if I'd never played Arkham Asylum then this would be the masterpiece. But I have, and it isn't.

Theremin

Sorry to necro, but I just got this.

Really rather enjoying it so far, as it builds and improves on my favourite things about the orginal, exploring and fighting.

However, as has been said, the time limit is weird, the story is all over the shop, and the way the writers and designers deal with any female character is utter dogshit.

The inmate chatter is mostly well-written, though.

Noodle Lizard

I got it a few months ago and can't quite see why it's being praised as highly as it is - especially given the fact that it doesn't noticeably improve on Arkham Asylum and, I'd argue, adds some things which take away from the enjoyment of the original.  Too much travelling around, too much repetition, far less streamlined, too few great setpieces and I don't think there were any great boss fights.  I ended up just playing to get to the end.

I would have liked it a lot more had it been a fresh and original game, but considering Arkham Asylum's not even cold yet, comparisons are only going to be unfavourable.  For me, anyway.

MojoJojo

Quick response - I think one of the best things about asylum was that it wasn't a sandbox - it was an extremely game but it had a lot of exploration in it.

IMO, exploration is the only good thing about sandbox style games. But I don't like them much, really.

City isn't bad, but it's not an improvement, and it's disappointing that they though a sandbox would improve it.

Theremin

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on September 01, 2012, 09:14:39 PM
I got it a few months ago and can't quite see why it's being praised as highly as it is - especially given the fact that it doesn't noticeably improve on Arkham Asylum and, I'd argue, adds some things which take away from the enjoyment of the original.  Too much travelling around, too much repetition, far less streamlined, too few great setpieces and I don't think there were any great boss fights.  I ended up just playing to get to the end.

I would have liked it a lot more had it been a fresh and original game, but considering Arkham Asylum's not even cold yet, comparisons are only going to be unfavourable.  For me, anyway.

That's pretty darn fair, I think. One of the best design features about the original was that it had a laserlike focus on just a small handful of locations.

Theremin

Quote from: MojoJojo on September 01, 2012, 09:25:19 PM
City isn't bad, but it's not an improvement, and it's disappointing that they though a sandbox would improve it.

That's prettymuch the deisgn rationale.

"You liked this? Have more of it! Much more!"

eluc55

Funnily enough I was thinking of bumping this thread last night, as I got it during the recent steam sale and finally got round to playing it this week. I tend to agree with the last few comments; it's certainly not an improvement on the nearly perfect Asylum; it definitely lacks that focus, and the gadgets and moves have become so innumerable that I actually found it hard to master the new combos and make good use of many of the skills - it felt like I was constantly scrolling through the list, because I couldn't remember which quick button related to which ability[nb]Maybe I'm just getting old.[/nb]

Story-wise, I thought it was good seeing and hearing all the rival gangs fight for control of the city, but the final confrontation with Strange and
Spoiler alert
Ra's Al Ghul
[close]
, was very disappointing, and would have worked much better if you had to battle Strange and they dropped
Spoiler alert
Ra's
[close]
altogether[nb]Hardly a good twist when you've
Spoiler alert
already defeated him much earlier in the game
[close]
[/nb].     

My biggest complaint, though, was that the city itself looked so drab, after the beautiful Arkham Asylum, which I played a few weeks before. I guess when you designing a small island you can make every building and every room filled with detail, whereas in a game as big as City, sacrifices have to be made for time. As a result, sections like the Subway, Police Building and Steel Mill looked pretty bland and forgettable - even ugly at times[nb]I'm playing on a decent PC with all the graphics option on high[/nb]. In fact, even the city itself often looks like a mass of grey, black and brown buildings, with only a few memorable landmarks. Obviously there are tons of nice graphical flourishes in there, but the design itself is less remarkable.   

I also agree that it lacks stand out set-pieces, the one exception being the battle with Freeze, which is the only fight which requires you to use multiple skills and change your game as you battle him.

It was good, certainly. Often very good - but as others have said, it lacks that streamlined design that made Asylum so unforgettable.