Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
He breaks people's necks in the stealth moves, I've noticed in when playing quite a few times. It still usually says unconscious in detective mode though.Catchy Slogan said:
It's a great game all around, my main gripe is that detective mode is too handy, so it's too easy to miss all the beautiful art while walking around in detective mode all the time.
I hate you, John Funk.
I was going to point of out the f*cking Batman thing to great hilarity, but you ruined it for me.
On Topic: The fact that I cannot by any stretch of the imagination picture the Escapist staff taking bribes from Eidos has cemented the harsh fact that I need to get this game.
I was going to point of out the f*cking Batman thing to great hilarity, but you ruined it for me.
On Topic: The fact that I cannot by any stretch of the imagination picture the Escapist staff taking bribes from Eidos has cemented the harsh fact that I need to get this game.
The Escapist hasn't had Eidos Advertising on the site OR put out an advance review, which sorta kaiboshes any theories of bribery.
You say it like Batman wouldn't pay for dinner. He's a real classy gentleman, he may buy you the restaurant (curse people having said the thing I wanted to say before I said it).
I do agree, while playing through the incredibly helpful, blue filter of Detective Mode I caught myself thinking about how much of the visuals I was missing.
I do agree, while playing through the incredibly helpful, blue filter of Detective Mode I caught myself thinking about how much of the visuals I was missing.
I loved this game however I personally hated the camera angle over batman shoulder and the only way to centre it was to run causing the cape to block out your view. Also detective mood I feel was a little too powerful, maybe include a time limit/meter to it. However that's a lot of nit-picking and didn't really ruin the game in any real way.
I've got the game and I love it. Excellent stealth gameplay and brilliant combat. When you hit someone in combat, it feels like a proper hit, especially in the slow motion shots. Getting a good combo is damn hard though.
Uh, Funk...I hate to be "this" guy, but:
But good review. If I had an Xbox, I'd consider getting this game.
Riiiiiight......"nothing."CantFaketheFunk said:
I don't have a PS3, either. When I do finally get around to getting one of those consoles, it'll a be a 360.
And my Wii will patiently wait for the release of Pikmin 3...
I haven't played through the entire game yet, but I guess some negative comments might be in place as well.
In short, the game is pretty linear and you're forced to play each area in a preset way.
An example was a spoiler-free boss fight where I figured I'd beat it by spraying explosive gel on the floor and detonating it whenever the boss got near to stun it shortly for a melee combo. My way worked somewhat, but it took really really long to deal a lot of damage. Later I found that the boss would have been down in no time, had I used some well-timed batarangs instead.
Another example was when I was exploring, jumped off a cliff to see a sequence where B-man climbed back up again to make a point of nothing being down there, only to have to jump down the very same cliff later in the game, being unable to climb back up.
Finally, the level design feels a bit cramped, with similar brown-grey corridor->ventilation shaft areas connecting all the areas where the interesting bits happen, and forcefield walls where the game doesn't want you to go yet. But I guess you can't really expect anything different from the game's setting.
Beside those points, I'm enjoying myself quite a lot through this game. And all that was said in the review is still very true.
There's a lot of different stuff going on, keeping the game from falling into repetitiveness. Just when you start getting tired of beating baddies, there's a bit of exploration or detective work to be done, and the next baddies will show up just before that bit gets boring again.
Game of the year contender? Not in my book, but definately worth a playthrough, even if you're not that much into Batman.
In short, the game is pretty linear and you're forced to play each area in a preset way.
An example was a spoiler-free boss fight where I figured I'd beat it by spraying explosive gel on the floor and detonating it whenever the boss got near to stun it shortly for a melee combo. My way worked somewhat, but it took really really long to deal a lot of damage. Later I found that the boss would have been down in no time, had I used some well-timed batarangs instead.
Another example was when I was exploring, jumped off a cliff to see a sequence where B-man climbed back up again to make a point of nothing being down there, only to have to jump down the very same cliff later in the game, being unable to climb back up.
Finally, the level design feels a bit cramped, with similar brown-grey corridor->ventilation shaft areas connecting all the areas where the interesting bits happen, and forcefield walls where the game doesn't want you to go yet. But I guess you can't really expect anything different from the game's setting.
Beside those points, I'm enjoying myself quite a lot through this game. And all that was said in the review is still very true.
There's a lot of different stuff going on, keeping the game from falling into repetitiveness. Just when you start getting tired of beating baddies, there's a bit of exploration or detective work to be done, and the next baddies will show up just before that bit gets boring again.
Game of the year contender? Not in my book, but definately worth a playthrough, even if you're not that much into Batman.
The PC version of the game was delayed for, according to them, to add in support for more detailed graphics and physics. The demo, which was released together with it's console counterparts was supposed to showcase those changes. Well, physics were non-existant to the point where throwing a batarang at an empty coffee mug does nothing and the graphics are more or less on par with the original Gears of War(the console version with the much lower rendering disstance and complete lack of AA and AF).Torque669 said:
Despite looking like i'm running it on a PS2, the game has the outrageous demand of a GTX260 AND an 8800+ just for the physics demonstrating that almost nothing has been done when porting it to the PC, including basic things like remembering that it works best by running multiple processing threads on one GPU instead of offloading each to a different one like on a console.