Them Batman Arkham games.

[MojoJojo]

Heh, unfortunately I think that's one of the better boss fights. Asylum suffers from bad boss fights, and limited enemy variety, but the more linear structure makes it probably my favourite of the series.

[Mister Six]

Quite like how in City

Spoiler alert

the game looks like it's setting you up for another Bane fight, only for cutscene Batman to give it an "arsed, mate" and immediately lock the steroidal fucker in a cage

[close]

.

Also like the dialogue where Batman goes "I knew hitting you with a car and sinking you into the Gotham harbour wouldn't kill you", even though that's obviously impossible, just to retroactively make Arkham Asylum Batman look a bit less like a callous, murderous cunt.

[Cold Meat Platter]

I sacked off City because it seemed really stop-start and the plot seemed totally at odds with the twelvety million side quests on offer. I remember getting poisoned and looking like utter shit but getting stopped the moment I got back on the streets by a copper wanting me to rescue his mates or something and I could hear one of the payphones ringing in the background. Poisoned mate. Give us a minute.

[Glebe]

Also like the dialogue where Batman goes "I knew hitting you with a car and sinking you into the Gotham harbour wouldn't kill you", even though that's obviously impossible, just to retroactively make Arkham Asylum Batman look a bit less like a callous, murderous cunt.

"Here Gordon could you fish Bane out of the sea before you fuck off back to Gotham? I'm sure he survived, he's a big, venomy fucker."

[Mister Six]

Also thought it was a bit rough that Gordon got to head off to Gotham, but the rest of the cops and guards on the island had to sit around and hope Zsasz or Joker or someone wouldn't pick them off while Batman was off breaking down walls to pick up Riddler clues.

I sacked off City because it seemed really stop-start and the plot seemed totally at odds with the twelvety million side quests on offer. I remember getting poisoned and looking like utter shit but getting stopped the moment I got back on the streets by a copper wanting me to rescue his mates or something and I could hear one of the payphones ringing in the background. Poisoned mate. Give us a minute.

I completed it for a second time the other month after picking up the remastered version. It's well worth playing, but yeah the story is a mess. It can't decide whether the Joker is supposed to be the A-plot or whether that belongs to Strange, and all the side missions do get a bit distracting, but you can always ignore them until you're ready to get dug in. It's still definitely worth playing, even if it's not as tightly plotted and designed as Asylum.

[MojoJojo]

I think https://www.shamusyoung.com/ makes the point that non-comic Batman has a real problem with the Joker, in that it seemsto be impossible to make a Batman story without the Joker in it. They made a big fuss about City being Mark Hamil's last time voicing the Joker, which made sense as they killed him off. Except they bought Joker (and Hamil) back for the next game in flashbacks.

It's a shame as I think Batman has a pretty decent roster of baddies, and I think it's something that Batman has over most other comics. But all we ever get is the Joker.

[Clownbaby]

Arkham Knight is my favourite. I like how it feels like two games. There's the combat tanky game and then the massive Riddler puzzley scavenger hunt. Swapping between both when I get bored of the other is fun, and there's so much bits you can fuck about with and sort of chip away at that it's my go-to relaxing game before bed. Sound design, vibe, voice acting, all great

[Glebe]

I'm storming my way through Return to Arkham: Arkham City on me Xbox now, winning some of the boss fights first time around and all. I'd completed the original version on my laptop a few years back, but really it's having played through Arkham City and RtA: Arkham Asylum recently that's helped.

[bgmnts]

Arkham Knight was okay but the overuse of the Batmobile and the Riddler stuff was just too much. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are top quality though, they actually made me feel like I was experiencing a night in the life of Batman, silly as that sounds.

[Glebe]

but really it's having played through Arkham City

That should be Arkham Knight, duh.

[beanheadmcginty]

Has anybody ever actually managed to successfully do the stealth bits in any of these games completely stealthily? I've completed all of them and in every case only managed to take out a maximum of about 3 goons before I get spotted and all hell breaks loose and I end up beating the shit out of everyone out in the open.

[Magnum Valentino]

Yeah, for some of the challenge missions you have to do them not only without being seen or suspected but with certain requirements (like take one fella out by ziplining him through a pane of glass etc) which more or less means you have to do them in a specific order as each takedown can influence the behaviour on the map overall (as smashing glass will alert nearby goons). Need to do all all of them perfectly for certain tokens, which involves a time limit as well. Isn't this a Riddler challenge? Or it's for Trophies on PS4 maybe.

Really fun and difficult once you get into it, nice wee mental workout figuring it out first of all then the execution requires patience and dexterity.

Edit: for me the difficulty wasn't the stealth but the combat. It wasn't til my third (my fucking THIRD!) playthrough of Asylum that I realised how to fight, the slow deliberate combination of directions and single actions. I think it was because I couldn't beat a particular fight on the harder difficulty while button mashing. Quite telling that the game actually allows you to progress despite button mashing if that's how you choose to play, but only to a point.

[Mister Six]

Has anybody ever actually managed to successfully do the stealth bits in any of these games completely stealthily? I've completed all of them and in every case only managed to take out a maximum of about 3 goons before I get spotted and all hell breaks loose and I end up beating the shit out of everyone out in the open.

Yeah, that's part of the fun!

You can always run away and hide again if you're spotted, assuming there are grates/gargoyles/other things to hide on or near.

[bgmnts]

There's no stealth in Batman is there? It's what I call kill stealth. It's not like MGS or Splinter Cell or anything.

[MojoJojo]

Edit: for me the difficulty wasn't the stealth but the combat. It wasn't til my third (my fucking THIRD!) playthrough of Asylum that I realised how to fight, the slow deliberate combination of directions and single actions. I think it was because I couldn't beat a particular fight on the harder difficulty while button mashing. Quite telling that the game actually allows you to progress despite button mashing if that's how you choose to play, but only to a point.

I read a good point somewhere that the combat really gets fun when you play for score, so you're building up your combo and using all the different moves and gadgets. And that's what you need to get good at for the really hard fights. But the main game isn't very good at emphasising your score or indicating if you beat a fight well. If it threw up a score board and ranking like after challenge fights it would make a big difference.

[Clownbaby]

Has anybody ever actually managed to successfully do the stealth bits in any of these games completely stealthily? I've completed all of them and in every case only managed to take out a maximum of about 3 goons before I get spotted and all hell breaks loose and I end up beating the shit out of everyone out in the open.

I'd like a Batman game that puts more emphasis on stealth, having big sections where it's not optional. In the Arkham games there is nothing stopping you from just beating the shit out of everyone 90% of the time

[MojoJojo]

? I found trying to fight my way out hard, they all have guns. Easier just to hook on to a gargoyle.

There were janky things that made the stealth easy and repetitive - gargoyles to hide, you could use gadgets to take out the last 3 in one go*, some other things I can't remember. But fighting your way out wasn't the easy option.

[beanheadmcginty]

I wonder whether there was some element to the stealth mechanic that was completely passing me by because I found it nigh on impossible to do effectively. Much easier to jump in and punch everyone in the face.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I did find the stealth sections a bit repetitive. They try to jazz them up by having the baddies get all jittery but, unless I'm missing something, that doesn't really seem to make much of a difference. Even when you get other stuff involved, like breakable walls, it still feels kinda formulaic, like you're just ticking options off a list.

[bgmnts]

There is little stealth as such as far as my interpretation of stealth goes.

Would Batman ever sneak past some goons in order to get to the real prize of the supervillain, or is he duty bound to break every bone of every goon within his reach?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

There's were a couple of bits in the first one where you had to sneak past the baddies without knocking them out, or they'd kill a hostage. Overall though, there aren't that many extended stealth bits, like in a Metal Gear Solid game.

[Glebe]

So I completed RtA: Arkham City... I had the original version for PC, never completed all the side missions but I'll have a crack at it this time around (still don't think I'll manage all the Riddler challenges though).

Here's a funny thing, 'Michael Gough' is credited as one of the voice actors and I though, "No way, who played Alfred in the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies!" but nah, it's not him.

Arkham Knight was okay but the overuse of the Batmobile and the Riddler stuff was just too much. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are top quality though, they actually made me feel like I was experiencing a night in the life of Batman, silly as that sounds.

Nah not silly, get what you mean bgmnts.

[Glebe]

So I was going on before about CEX having the Xbox 360 version of Arkham Origins for a the princely sum of €18 (and second hand of course) but the branch I popped into today had it for €12 so I picked it up. I completed it on my old laptop, I mostly play games on my Xbox One now (Origins isn't available to download on Microsoft Store but the disc is supposed to be backwards-compatible). Looking forward to soaking up that Gotham Christmas atmos again!

[Glebe]

I thought the worst Origins boss was Deathstroke, after a shit-ton of frustrating attempts I ended up beating him just by spamming Batman's roll.

It's one of those lazy video-game bosses where everything you've learned throughout the game before is useless and no amount of quick reflexes, skill or technique will help you because he's a fucking cheating bastard.

Fuck I'm stuck on him at the moment. As I said I'd completed the PC version a few years back doing it again on the Xbox I'm wondering how I ever got past him. Should be the final boss ffs.

[Glebe]

Fighting Firefly now. Pain in the arse.

[Glebe]

Completed Arkham Origins on me Xbox One, managed to collect all the datapacks and find all the Anarky tags and Cyrus Pinkney plaques (ahem, with a little online help!). Some of those datapacks are a bugger to get, the pressure pad things can be really annoying!

[Glebe]

Batman: Arkham Knight Player Hilariously Finds and Shoots Arkham Knight at Ace Chemicals.

Haha! I'd no idea he was actually there in that part of the game!

[H-O-W-L]

If you're struggling with Deathstroke,

Spoiler alert

spam the everlasting fuck out of the batclaw grab-and-punch attack. It worked for me.

[close]

[Glebe]

If you're struggling with Deathstroke,

Spoiler alert

spam the everlasting fuck out of the batclaw grab-and-punch attack. It worked for me.

[close]

Thanks Howlers (hope your ear's feeling better btw), I actually managed to complete it, and yeah the batclaw came in handy in that Deathstoke fight! This is the Xbox I'm talking about, I'd completed the PC version a few years back but this time I managed to get all them bloody datapacks! This and Asylum are the only Arkham games in which I completed all the Riddler's challenges.

[Glebe]

Been doing Knight over again (though I'm not brave enough to do a New Game Plus!), having played both Return to Arkham games and also Origins again recently and having gotten some mastery of the gliding, etc. I'm actually finding it handy enough. Not far in but I'm finding controlling the car and tank battles handy enough, and completed the first few VR training things without much fuss. That remote helicopter battle is still a bit of a bugger though.