Batman: Arkham Asylum - Page 8

Same here. I usually play on the default normal difficulty my first time through a game. That cuts way down on the frustration level for me. Once I've gone through a game once, and I know what I'm doing the second time around, the harder difficulty levels aren't as frustrating because I know what's coming.

Yeah, except for that one section where he turns into the Eye of Sauron/Godzilla, this game marks the first time I've been SCARED of the Scarecrow.

I'm way too sleep deprived to have an indepth conversation about much of anything at this point. 2 Nights in a row up until 4 AM playing. I think I'm almost done but I don't want to be, this ride must continue. Damnit, I need more quarters!

Much in the same vein as the scarecrow, this is the first time I really got why such a badass as Batman was concerned about his rogues gallery. Poison Ivy? FUCK! Killer Croc? I about shat myself when he popped up at the sewer door now I gotta go fuck the fucker!

BTW, lose to bane at least once... iconic imagery ensues.

Yeah I was up til 3am last night too. Got to the penitentiary, got gooned on the electric floor/acres of baddies fight and quit for the night. I love love LOVED the way bats ultimately takes out Bane. I thought the bell was ringing for Round 2 when he came through that wall. How wrong I was.

This is the first time in a long time that I've gotten so frothy about a console game. Probably not since Dead Space last year. In many ways, Dead Space and Arkham are alike. Tightly focussed atmospheric single-player focussed games with a surprising amount of polish from a relatively unheard-of studio. Arkham seems to be a bit more on the OCD-side as far as collectables go, and you don't do as much backtracking in Dead Space, but both games offer some innovative mechanics and a fairly leisurely pace punctuated by staccato bursts of extreme violence. The point where they diverge of course is that in Arkham, I've never felt like the hunted, always the hunter.

I like the occasional radio broadcasts that pop in from time to time with a newsflash. One of the last ones I heard was the reporter talking about the fact that they had unconfirmed reports Joker broke free Batman was dead. Not a hugely important piece of the story or anything but its little things like that which really lend to the atmosphere for me because I could imagine that sort of exaggerated story quickly cropping up if it were a real life event.

I was just talking with my friend about how awesome it would be if they had challenge room DLC that was done in the style of the 60's TV show. Get Adam West to do some lines for the batman, have the thugs be those generic looking goons from the TV show and replace the models with cheap brightly-colored 60's sets and the Pow!, BAM!, and Zokk!'s when you get a good combo going.

Obviously the typical video game player wouldn't appreciate the non grim and gritty take on Batman but I'd find it hilariously awesome.

That might be cute, but we've just now finally reached a time when not every mainstream comic-book related article begins with Biff! Wham! Pow!

Makes me nuts - it was four decades ago people.

The parts with the Scarecrow kind of remind me of Eternal Darkness. Do you know how much I love Eternal Darkness? I love this game!

Games I'll be really into, I usually play on Hard. It's more challenging and usually squeezes out more game playing. If I can get an extra 30 minutes of a game that I love, such as this, then the slight frustrations that may come up make victory more rewarding.
And I do love this game, so the longer my initial playthrough the better. You only get to have one first time, you know what I mean?

And If they're not already working on a sequel, then shame on them! If they do have one in the works, I'm sort of hesitant on the whole "Drive the Batmobile" thing. I do want it, but I don't. It could either be great, or completely awful. Here's hoping for a good one, though.

One thing That I wish they did that would have been AWESOME - *tiny spoiler ahead* - Is Clayface. Yeah, you meet him in the game in his cell. But how great would it have been if you could have taunted him like an angry ape in a cage. Throwing batarangs at the glass until he flips out and starts screaming, doing all this crazy morphing shit while he tries to get at you, and you see the REAL him before he composes himself. I probably would have shed a tear.

I love them more for the fact that Jack Ryder's the reporter.

Agreed on Eternal Darkness and this game. I played this bastard for about 6 hours today. I never do that anymore.

I'm really impressed by the actual versatility of the combat system once you start getting into it. It's not automatic, like I was worried it would be (or like Assassin's Shitty Shit Shit Creed). Just hammering the attack button will get you shitty fights, or worse, get you killed, but combining it with counters, throws, gadgets, dodges, and the other tools at your disposal and you get some really awesome, satisfying combat. There's just something about flipping over a guy, charging at his back and kick-leaping off him to elbow another guy in the face.

Completed the main storyline last night around 2 AM.

It. Was. TOTALLY AWESOME!!

watch after the credits.

It's lifted wholesale from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but for some reason it just works better here. Well, being The Fucking Batman helps, of course.

On Penny Arcade today..



So, yeah. I love this game. I beat it already, found all the riddles. I'll play through on hard soon I think and then spend my days taking down thugs in various ways with the challenge rooms.

I'm about halfway through and Im pretty sure Batman is sport 'n a 5'oclock shadow that wasn't there in the beginning.

I haven't finished yet, but I do like that the tear he gets in his costume early on stays there for the rest of the game. And he's definitely getting dirtier as the game wears on.

"Be careful, Batman, it's a trap!"
"I know it's a trap. Just not for me."

*commences beating the shit out of 8 roided-up inmates*

I love this game so much.

"Just so you know, the GCPD found one of the Joker's bombs. It was full of marzipan and kittens."

I would love this game just a little bit more if it weren't fucking saddled with Harley Quinn. God, I hate that character. Just a terrible, annoying addition to the rogues gallery. She's the Robin of villains.

I actually wanted to ask people that- does everyone's Batman suit deteriorate the same way? My Batman ended up with a cut over his right chest, a couple slits on his left arm, a slit on his right leg and two slices on his cape, which was tattered on the bottom right. Didn't seem to be put there in relation to gameplay so I'm assuming it's what everyone goes through.

Yeah, sounds familiar.

Seems to be the case from what I've seen. There's always the (free-roaming Gotham)sequel!

I am currently trying out the demo... Holy fuck I am so sold on this game now.

They finally made a stunning Batgame that is a joy to play.

Yeah I've played through the game twice and his suit tears the same way. Batman also grows some nice stubble in the meantime as well!

I think it's mainly the voice that grates my nerves, but she does seem like a bizarre addition in the first place. Why not just have some Joker henchwomen in bondage gear or kinky clown suits or some shit if they're trying to work that angle?

Well, given Paul Dini's repeated use of Harley Quinn in The Animated Series it doesn't surprise me. In fact, it really just feels like it's Batman: The Animated Series: The Video Game now with Grimmer, Grittier Art Style.

Much as I love Harley, everything about her presence does feel pretty extraneous from the rest of the game. She would've worked better if she was still a doctor in Arkham instead being brainwashed by the Joker instead. Still, I remain a fan of the character.

My sole real complaint thus far: The platforming sections of the Scarecrow stages destroy the awesome sense of dread built by the lead in. Cool as these sequences are, the payoff being another chance to shine the Super Bat Signal of Doom at a giant Scarecrow doesn't do the ideas justice.

Lastly, I gotta say, as if the combat wasn't rewarding all its own, the little bites of character we get from the inmates is so amazingly well done it does give you a moment of pause before figuring out how to deal with each enemy. The guy whose family the Joker threatens to hunt down and kill no matter what he does, despite being alone, got a silent takedown from me. Meanwhile, the group of guys talking about how the only way to join the Joker's gang was to kill their sisters, and in fact one of them, not having a sister, decided to run over some random woman in the street with his car, on the other hand, I took my time.

I fucking love this game.

I like Harley Quinn.
And Robin.
When used correctly, they're both fun characters that prevent the Batverse from getting too broody and grim.
I liked the moment when you encounter a magazine reading Harley and she throws a can at Gordon.

Fixed that for you.

But this game seems to be going for the broody and grim, which makes her stand out like a sore thumb. Their attempts to make her more gritty fall on their face. I have no objection to making Batman less grim. But this game isn't doing that. And really, if it were, why not include Robin as well?

Wait, they've made Harley Quinn grim? I'm not sure how you'd even attempt to do that, given that the darker edges of her character are all subtext (granted this is based purely on exposure to her as a cartoon character).

The look of the game is Grim and Gritty, but the game itself doesn't seem that much darker than the animated series. They can get away with showing more violence, but Harley's acting pretty much like the Harley from the animated series. I'm only 12% into it, though.

Well, when you get the Instant Takedown ability, you do start to see Batman breaking people's limbs. That's pretty dark.

And Quinn's new costume really doesn't suit the vocal performance. Not that anything would. I hate her voice.

Absolute love for this game so far (just took down Harley Quinn).
The Scarecrow...holy crap, the feeling of dread and insanity when the fear gas kicks ( the bright red eyes on Batman was a nice "Batman begins" homage) was fantastic, and I loved the design of the character; sure, the plataforming bits were a bit lame, but when that syringe clawed hand smashes through a wall, it feels like something out of Wes Craven territory; hell, im actually losing or dying on purpose just to watch the game over animations/dialogues ("THE BAT IS BROKEN!")
Loving the audiotapes and the Riddler's challenges.
My sole complaint would be wasting time because due to not having a clue what tools you need to solve a particular riddle, but thats part of exploring the gameworld.

You know what would be nice? The ability to put waypoints on the map, with a direction indicator pointing you toward it on the main screen. I keep having to bring up the map to make sure I'm still going the right way.

Sounds good to me. Loved the animated series and I like Harley's new look.

I enjoyed this game quite a bit. Though maybe a little short, I don't regret buying it. It understands that you can only take the gameplay so far and doesn't try to stretch it out for too long. Even then, it has some quality replay value. I can totally see myself picking this up again on a rainy weekend for some quality time as the goddamn Batman.

The rather streamlined nature of the game helps in this regard. Though I usually enjoy a bit more open gameplay, the pacing in this game really works well. While you can, as I did, spend some time trying to solve riddles earlier than the game wants you too, it's often pretty clear about when it wants you to find everything, pretty much forcing you to backtrack with the new gadgets, but in a really organic way. That said, I wish there were a handful of really difficult riddles just to make things interesting. I guess the best way to amp up the difficulty in this regard is to just not pick up the maps. But, in regards to the trophies it can often just be way too easy with the maps and way too hard without them.

As someone who enjoys Harley Quinn, I didn't mind her inclusion at all. They needed someone to run around to lead Batman on while Joker's behind the scenes and she made as much sense as anyone else. Her defeat is kinda anticlimactic, though.

In regards to Scarecrow, I wouldn't go nearly as far as to feeling scared or senses of dread in his scenes, but they were really well handled (particularly the last one). While the platforming elements were so so, and the only parts that felt repetitive in a tedious way, I loved everything else about them. The inclusion of Scarface made my day.

The problem, though, is that the Joker didn't need to be out of sight. They intentionally sidelined him to give Harley Quinn something to do. And that's a lot of my problem with the character. The Joker gets pushed aside every time she opens her mouth.

Loving it so far, I've played only up to the room where you find the dead guard and get outside, but man this fun.

I'm on PS3, but the only thing i kinda wish i had was the option to play my own music in the background. Zimmer and Elfman would be getting a workout. Wish I never gave away my 360.

edit: its 2 am, and well I'm about to face poison ivy. need some sleep.

I hadn't paid attention to these bits of dialogue but I will now. Justice will be served.

http://kotaku.com/5348541/nananana-nananana---arkham

Glorious, in a horrible, horrible way.

The Challenge rooms are hours of fun, I love when the joker says the end of a round You know Bats, one day I'm just going to have to find you and kill you"
This fucking game rocks hard

My favourite is "Oh you won that round. Well while you were doing that I've just brutally killed everyone you love....only joking".

Ok new complaint time. It's only really because I love the game so much, but I'm kind of let down by the post-game Arkham. I would've liked to have seen more people out and about. The final cut scene clearly shows the Island is populated.

Even if it's just inmates still in their cells, and doctors clearing up the numerous dead bodies, SOMETHING would've been nice. Hell I'd even like a 'Broken Steel' type DLC. But again, I complain cos I love.

Yeah, not so much. The idea is great, the execution sucks. "Balls in your mouth"? Was this made by a twelve-year-old?

Yeah, that was a semi-cool idea ruined by an Xbox Live mentality.

Im having an impossible time with the Joker challenge rooms. I think I got too used to having the grapple gun so its a lot harder now that its gone.

Sneaking around with Joker is fun. He doesn't have a grapple gun, but he does have real gun, x-ray specs, stun gas and exploding teeth. Supposedly you can kill multiple guards if you line up your shot right. The exploding teeth work like a charm if you alert the guards and they all gather in one place.

The Clayface cameo was great. My son rescued the warden, came out, saw the warden inside the cell and proceeded to put explosive gel on the cell to get him out. He suddenly switched to detective mode, saw that the "warden" had no skeleton and yelled out "NICE TRY!" and walked away.

Has anyone blown Clayface outta there, or is that even possible? I just walked past him after that part, figuring that something was up and not even realizing who it was until reading this thread.