The Batman Arkham games. What do you like and dont like in the games

[Panfoot]

I actually like the riddler trophies, there one of the few open world collectibles I actually like to actually hunt down. They aren't just thrown around at random on the map like a lot of other games do.

[Kingcrimsonprog]

I love the gameplay so much, and a lot of the acting and designs and the versions of the characters.

I didn't like that in the first one all the boss fights were the same, I didnt like the version of bane pre-origins.

I really like almost everything about the games, except when things go unrealistic, like the underground robot city, or the Ras Al Ghul flying section, or the Mad Hatter bits.

But the scarecrow bits in the first one were awesome so its not a flat 'it must be realistic thing' but rather the specific bits.

I haven't played Knight though cuz I can't justify buying a PS4 with my current life.

[Alycat]

Riddler trophies are the worst;I only ever finished them for Arkham Knight and City. I love the games overall though and like that they are mostly their own thing. They also have my favorite version of Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

[godisawesome]

I'll start off with the negatives so that I can end on a high note.

-Rocksteady's handling of Batman family. They really seem to only barely understand the appeal and distinction of these characters, and throughout Arkham Knight there's this anti-Family subtext. There's no good logic behind locking Robin in the Joker Cell, or having literally every single member be taken hostage to force Batman's hand. Throw in the way they underutilized Nightwing in what's supposed to be Batman's swan song, and the confusing way in which they seemed to confuse Tim and Dick while still only half executing Jason's story well, and it feels like loads of wasted story potential, especially in regards to DLC content or the Dual Play mode.
-The general sloppiness of Arkham Knight's story. Scarecrow as the big bad should lead to more creative hallucinations and levels, the Halloween setting should be maximized, the Joker idea doesn't need the Joker blood idea, which while a fun level could have been done without Bruce being infected (especially since he was clearly shown getting cured in the last game), the lack of good boss fights (don't have Deathstroke as a tank boss!), the lack of coordination between the villains, and the contradictory and puzzling Arkham Knight antagonism, which could have been much better handled, especially if they'd taken the time to incorporate investigation into the mystery about him.
-Riddler trophies. I actually love the Riddles, and even a few of the puzzles, but I hate the over-saturation of the trophies that have little to no trivia or challenge to them. I'd rather have 20 fun riddles and 10 puzzles than 100 random trophies. Plus, the riddles still give Riddler his gimmick... Much more so than race tracks. Plus, al, the fort spent placing trophies could have been better spent in Knight.

+The GAMEPLAY. Good lord, are these games fun. The fighting mechanics are perfect, as are most of the gadgets, and gliding is unbelievably fun. And the Detective Vision is a perfect tool for the investigation side, especially in Origins. Even the sidekicks have great individualized playing styles.
+Asylum's atmosphere. Pitch perfect throughout. This thing made me like the madness theme of the place more than any comic based on the idea. There's something so creepy about answering a riddle about Amadeus Arkham by finding a statue with its head taken off because it hearkens back to his daughter's decapitation.
+Origins' story. I really don't think you can downplay how well written Origins is; it's arguably the only game to actually pull off 2 main antagonists thanks to probably the smartest written Joker in the series and a Bane who puts his previous appearances to shame, all while giving Bruce a character arc and really making it feel like the night Batman became The Dark Knight.
+City's overall structure. It almost matches the atmosphere of Asylum and the storytelling of Origins, and combining the two with great gameplay makes for an almost unbeatable combination.
+Overall quality. This series has 2 certified great entries, and both of the only "very good" games are still awesome.

[rev516]

The relationship between Bruce and his rogues, the suit designs are spectacular, the atmosphere in every game is amazing, THE THUG DIALOGUE IS THE BEST.

Now onto the negatives:

Tim/Barb: What in the flippity floppity hell was that?

Arkham Knight boss fights sucked.

The riddler trophies almost made me lose my sanity.

The horrendously short DLC story packs in Arkham Knight, sans A Matter of Family.

[GamerSlyRatchet]

These games are excellent when it comes to gameplay, atmosphere, and the general fan-service. It's crazy seeing all the easter eggs and references to other Batman characters.

As far as actual characterizations and story? A mixed bag. Batman is too much of a flat character. Joker, Mister Freeze, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and Professor Pyg were excellent. They dropped the ball with Two-Face, Catwoman, Killer Croc, Deacon Blackfire, and certain others. We didn't get enough of the Batfamily. Tim was forgettable and pairing him with Barbara was unnecessary. Gordon was an non-entity until the last two games. Alfred, Lucius, and Nightwing were pretty great, though.

City and Knight had really messy plots. The former was basically a fetch-quest with mixed-up stories. What they did to Hugo Strange was disappointing and Ra's was underwhelming. The latter was doing fine except when it came to the Arkham Knight himself. It was a VERY predictable twist and everything regarding this character was badly-handled. Not to mention Scarecrow didn't have the menace he had in his first appearance. Origins had a weak story as well, but the characterizations were perfect. There's a lot of interaction with Alfred and Gordon. Bane felt menacing. Even Joker gets a character arc!

[paurru]

By the way how tall is Mr Freeze in the Arkham games he's supposed to be anyway?

I was playing the side quest of finding Nora in Arkham City and told Mr Freeze yada yada.


So I went to the building Freeze went to and I as Batman stood right next to Freeze and jeez Mr Freeze looks like he's about 7 and a half feet tall even if he didn't have his ice suit armor on he'd still be a 7 footer or at least 8 feet tall.


I haven't played the DLC yet but is Mr freeze still a honkin giant in Cold Cold Heart DLC?

[Mutant God]

I agree with godisawesome, I think they should have been more riddles then puzzles well because he is The Riddler not The Puzzler but I do like in Knight where the riddles rhymed (I thought some of them were pretty clever).

I like the use of the Batmobile in Knight.

I didn't like Batman's identity being exposed in Knight.

The only females villains being used are currently being used as anit-heroes in the comics, where Knight two of them are allies and one was being led by an old man who only thought he was the Joker. Batman has other female villains, they didn't have to give them a big mission a small sidequest could do.

I love the fact that they were in their own universe.

I like the interview tapes.

The militia missions, in Knight, led up to a anti-climatic Arkham Knight and Deathstroke boss battles, I think each militia (did they have a name?) mission could of had a boss battle for each mission.

Calendar Man never got his own mission.

Didn't like Tim and Barbara's relationship.

I like the more "realistic" take on Deacon Blackfire.

Joker hiding and torturing Jason Todd makes a great addition to the Batman mythology.

I didn't like how the firefighter mission in Knight ended. So you just beat a bunch of random crooks and put a regular sane guy in the same cell as Deathstroke, Blackfire, Pyg, and Firefly...what? and why?

[Mace Dolex]

The Bad
Yeah for me it's the Riddler trophies/puzzles that always irked me, also the fact that it took me awhile to learn what were my next steps in the game if it weren't for handy YouTube videos to guide me I would have been lost.

Also those strategy guides for the games are of no use, the screen grabs are dark and hard to follow.

The Good
The layout of Gotham and Arkham is really innovative, it really feels like you're Batman and the fighting techniques are the best, don't know it it's been mentioned but even the music score is really intense almost cinematic.

[Infamous_Genie]

first time playing this game, I know I know I'm late lol.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRS8FlTadF4

[godisawesome]

Resurrecting this thread because I've been thinking about ways they could have made Arkham Knight's story better, and maybe shift the gameplay around a bit for some players.

1. Scarecrow's Fear Toxin has varying effects and cues numerous hallucinations like in Arkham Asylum, but they're used as transitions for (2) and to do some more organic exposition. For instance, Bruce is in a dual play scenario with Tim!Robin, and then his hallucination starts to replace Tim with Dick, than Jason, and at one point gets replaced with Babs as Batgirl, so that the audience can get this idea of a family a bit easier. The hallucination platformer levels cover the individual tragedies too, to try and obfuscate Jason's death among others: one level covers Babs getting shot (and Oracle talks you through it on the headpiece), one covers Dick and Bruce getting into a fight (and foreshadows Jason's death), then Jason's death is covered. Joker only appears sporadically until later, at which point you get his FPS section, but NOT as the finale.
2. That "transitions" thing I mentioned back in (1) is basically short mini-levels of free roam as Batfamily members; not just Dual Play, which is awesome, but full fledged free roam that can be accessed later, but in story serves to give individual members a few moments to shine. Nightwing (who, incidentally, is Babs boyfriend and Bruce's clear number 2) saves Bats after he gets a bad hit of Fear Toxin (Predator boss fight where you have to disarm Bruce and inject him with a suppressant). Azrael holds a road exit open against Firefly to earn Batman's trust (Origins style boss fight with Firefly). Robin runs a diversion to give Bats an opening into the Arkham Knights' HQ (impossible fistfight with Arkham Knight where he captures Tim at the end so we can see that conflict get some resolution; maybe the longer you fight the more respect Jason gives Tim?) Catwoman breaks into Arkham Asylum to help free Bruce from Scarecrow's capture of him (Predator challenge).
3. Overhaul on Arkham Knight as an antagonist and as a mystery. The biggest thing is to not fall back on a simple "shocking reveal"; give the player a short side missions they're encouraged to complete where they can have Bruce deduce Jason's back, ala Under The Red Hood. Embrace his ambiguity a bit more, and contrive a better backstory for his post-death adventures: Ra's launched a raid to retrieve him from Joker's grip after he was tortured, and tutored him into being the anti-Hero he is, with Jason breaking away because while he's darker than Bruce, he's not as crazy as Ra's. Have him working with Scarecrow, but only because his ulterior motive is to both strike back at Bruce and kill the villains, with Scarecrow's gas hitting him at a key point to make him a great boss fight (Vehicle, Predator, and Melee) and to allow Bruce to try and correct him.
4. Overhaul on the badguy alliance, especially with infighting. Penguin and Two-Face should form a pretty good counter to Scarecrow's manipulations, especially since he actually commands them at times. Harley brings most of the muscle with the Jokers street gang at full power, and is being manipulated with Scarecrow toxin, so Catwoman can free her and give us a short-lived Gotham Sirens moment before Poison Ivy dies. Have the finale be rearranged to that Catwoman has to free the captured and unmasked Batman, and then you take advantage of Harvey's sudden spaz out to fight all the bad guys while dealing with the last bit of fear toxin simultaneously, shifting between play former's and predator and melee fights.

[Bukdiah]

I didn't like Arkham Knight's over reliance on the Batmobile. It didn't have many improvements in terms of combat either. I think Arkham City was my favorite one.

[byrd156]

I didn't like Arkham Knight's over reliance on the Batmobile. It didn't have many improvements in terms of combat either. I think Arkham City was my favorite one.

Any improvements over the combat? Are you sure you played Arkham Knight? The throw counters were new, tons of new fighting animations, interactables with the environments, the fear take downs, the overall speed increase in predator movements, being able to team up with heroes, new takedowns, quickfire gadgets all have takedowns, you can punch or pick up bad guys off the ground, and weapon steals. Play AC and AK side by side and you can see how much the combat system has changed.

[Bukdiah]

Any improvements over the combat? Are you sure you played Arkham Knight? The throw counters were new, tons of new fighting animations, interactables with the environments, the fear take downs, the overall speed increase in predator movements, being able to team up with heroes, new takedowns, quickfire gadgets all have takedowns, you can punch or pick up bad guys off the ground, and weapon steals. Play AC and AK side by side and you can see how much the combat system has changed.

I said it did not have many improvements. Fear take downs were about the newest in terms of stealth play. Grounded strikes were around before. I don't really count animations as gameplay improvements. The combat consisted of doing redirects to get invincibility frames, timed disarms, or grapples to take out tough opponents. AK was ass during launch too, so my memory may be really soured lol. Teaming up with heroes was also in AC but it was a DLC with Harley's Revenge.

[byrd156]

I said it did not have many improvements. Fear take downs were about the newest in terms of stealth play. Grounded strikes were around before. I don't really count animations as gameplay improvements. The combat consisted of doing redirects to get invincibility frames, timed disarms, or grapples to take out tough opponents. AK was ass during launch too, so my memory may be really soured lol. Teaming up with heroes was also in AC but it was a DLC with Harley's Revenge.

Ground strikes were not there previously, you could jump on someone and take them out by holding the left trigger and y or triangle depending on console but thats different then being able to continue a combo by punching characters on the ground. That was added in AK and hasn't been in any other Arkham game. Teaming up with heroes wasn't in AC, other playable heroes were but not team ups.