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What a joke.


Druoxrodest

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Bought this game day one, finally popped it in. I was expecting something brutal like Arkham Asylum's challenges. I was expecting a long story. My expectations were not met. Personally, I see this as a game which reversed the ups and downs of the last game (ie. Predator Challenges harder while Combat Challenges got easier, gameplay a lot better with a bigger map but short story, Asylum had it reversed). Don't get me wrong, this game is good. I like it, but the combat system does not feel so rewarding. I mean seriously, I beat all Combat Challenges in one try (including DLC characters) except for Catwoman's Funhouse Brawl (Extreme) on the last round where I was literally combo'd to death at the start by the two titans and lieutenant. Twice it happened. I then went on a two hour grind to get all of her body armor upgrades. Beat it first try with the upgrades. While the upgrades were not required, Catwoman's health is very low and I would rather be on the safe side taking 2 hours to complete her.

 

Anyway, for Combat, all I did was strike, evade, strike, evade, strike, evade, X+Square, rinse, and repeat. I managed scores 2-3, hell even 4 times greater than what was required. You could even lose your combo multiple times and still make 3 medals. This is ridiculous. These combat challenges became boring and required little to probably no skill to 3 medal. Back in Asylum, you could do all of which I stated, but you would not get 3 medals on all (if not, most) of the maps. In Asylum, you had to perform flawlessly and use all of Batman's moves (you can be short a move or two at tge most) to make the requirements. The combat system in Asylum was not easy to learn, but it was not as hard as I thought. You develop a feel for it quickly. Back when I first tried the challenges, I put down the game for 2 years. When returning to it, I lost all memory of how the game's mechanic worked. I spent the next 15 hours completing all challenges while learning the combat system. 15 hours was all it took for both in that amount of time is good (well to me it is) and HALF of that was spent on Shock and Awe (Extreme). I did not manage to beat it until I remembered that Ground Pound existed... But yeah, a lot more effort was required to 3 medal those challenges.

 

The DLC characters for Arkham City were a bit more difficult but still easy. If you relied on Disarm and Destroy, but were an Asylum veteran, these were no problem. If not, then you had to change your play style a bit, except for Catwoman. You had to change it a little more for her (L1+Square instead of tap L1 for instance). She is quick and has low health so she provides a small challenge. She has two special attacks that rack up points while the other characters have only 1 and she cannot ride titans. Overall, she was a fun character, perhaps the funnest out of the boredom. Nightwing is a close second. He would have been the funnest except the fact that he is a bit buggy. Your commands would usually not register from time to time making you have to press the buttons you want more than once. That, and he feels heavy. Not sure why that is despite that his skills are trained to the human peak. He has two specials which work magnificent with crowd control (except X+O does not rack up points). He is my favorite character. It is a shame that there was no story for him. Robin... Arguably he is the most difficult. I always barely made his required score on Funhouse Brawl (Extreme). His X+Square range is short and is blocked by armored and shielded enemies. His X+O throw is buggy (noticed it on Prison Riot and Freight Train). He would pretend to grab an enemy while the AI look at him as if he is on crack or something. I like throw, but it is useless. Oh, and I believe I have also been hit by a knife while being severely out of range...

 

Predator Challenges... I can feel that the devs dumbed down the aggression of the AI but made them smarter making the medals much more difficult because of it. Batman's were not so difficult, they were easy. Catwoman's were a bitch though. Limited gadgets really make a difference making you need to take extra safety precautions. I noticed that her medals were not only tasks, but required anyway if you wanted to beat the maps with ease. Robin was supposedly very difficult, but I can't say that. I found him yo be over exaggerated in difficulty. Nightwing... His medals are quite possibly the most difficult to pull off, but I found him the easiest to work with (tied with Batman)... Except for the Police Brutality (Extreme) map. My strategies made it hard when it was easy.

 

Campaign... I found this mode to be utterly useless. The conditions hardly make any difference in difficulty. Well, most of them anyway. The only conditions that significantly change the difficulty are on the predator maps and they are Decreased Health, Danger Zones. Takedown Projectiles saved you time and Free Medal is a freebie. Everything else... Useless. It feels boring to do all of the maps all over. This mode needs to be removed from the next game or at least redone in such a way where it does not feel so monotonous. It sparked no life into the game at all. What is even worse is that when you do these with the DLC characters, you are in for hell. I struggled with Catwoman making it on the Predator Master campaign with no retries and the lowest amount of health possible. Robin's was not so bad. I did waste a retry because of my failed aim with a smoke pellet. I should have played on easy. I would have gotten a lot more. Nightwing went by with no retries wasted. I fucked up my barely new strategies on the second map in Predator Master but saved my ass (I think I have been lucky throughout all of his challenges). I fucked up my regular strategy on the last map but still pulled it off.

 

Oh, did I forget the 400 riddles? What a chore. Riddler, you are only amusing 25% of the time.

 

So far, I have completed everything except New Game+. I believe I will rate this a 4/10.

 

So there you have it, a joke. The challenge is only available on the DLC and is far more difficult than Asylum itself. This platinum could have been a lot more satisfying.

 

Now if you will excuse me, I have a playthrough to mop up until Platinum city.

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Wow, the award for the longest post goes to you my friend.

 

So I have to agree with a lot if what you said, the DLC unfortunately became a grind towards the end there. Batman and Nitwit were easy for me, but Robin and Catwoman were more challenging - I'm talking predator only here, combat is so easy it's not funny.

 

I also enjoyed the first game a little more, but still I loved this one too. I really hate games that make you play through the damn thing twice. It can be the best game ever in the history of gaming but playing it a second time when you know what happens at every point is boring. Give me super hard difficulty as an option to start with people! Uncharted I am looking at you too so wipe that smirk off your face.

 

I think I was about over the riddles at 200. I probably had around 180 from my playthrough so for me another 20 or 50 would have been about right, you at least need a few you have to search for, don't you? But 400 plus Catwomans, plus Harley's balloons? Damn that was a grind.

 

Still with all the things I didn't enjoy much overall the experience was great. It was my choice to buy DLC and my choice to get the platinum as well as 100%. The grinding on the challenges was entirely my own doing.

 

I'm looking forward to the next one.

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Anyway, for Combat, all I did was strike, evade, strike, evade, strike, evade, X+Square, rinse, and repeat. I managed scores 2-3, hell even 4 times greater than what was required. You could even lose your combo multiple times and still make 3 medals.

 

This is exactly what I was saying in a thread a while ago. If the game isn't going to reward me for going the extra mile and making use of everything available to me, I'm probably not going to bother. There were specific combat challenges that I definitely had much greater success with by only striking and evading, sometimes even reaching the top target with up to two rounds to spare.

 

I know I probably whined about AA's combat challenges a lot, but at least they left me with a sense of accomplishment. AC made me do all of them three times, and that doesn't account for any repeats within the campaigns (if there were any?). The custom challenges were a complete and utter waste of time as well... I basically just used increased health with the armour/weapon penetration ability and got them done in two or three rounds. If the knock-out batarangs were available, I would spend the final round(s) spamming those.

 

There is absolutely 0% chance of me getting any DLC that is just going to make me complete them yet again!

 

The one thing I would specifically criticise about combat challenges is the blade attack that can be done by knife wielding enemies. It just feels out of place with the rest of the game... I can be in the middle of a huge combo, I see a knife guy coming at me so I attempt a disarm and destroy, but it's like the game just completely ignores my command -- knife guy has precedence, always. Even if I try to jump to the side to avoid him, he's able to simply change direction mid-lunge, and attack me anyway. I wouldn't mind them so much if the only possible counter-attack wasn't so slow and boring. Shielded enemies are as annoying when they randomly lunge at you with their red invincibility markers.

 

The Riddler is the other disappointment I share with you, a disappointment that also lives on from AA. It's not the quantity of his challenges that bothers me, it's just how stupid his "riddles" are. They were slightly better than AA this time, but for the most part, they were still lame. What's funny is that the only times he gives you actual riddles are when he also gives you the enigma machine which tells you the answers anyway. >_>

 

Overall, I do think AC is a great game but I just think it tried to do too much and didn't make me feel how I imagined it would be to play freely as Batman in a big open city. In fact, you know what kills that the most? Saving the base jumper trophy until last, only to find out that you can't actually glide over the city from the tower. Why the hell would they even put in a trophy that requires a whole minute of bouncing off of an invisible boundary?? :confused:

 

I definitely preferred the linear and more simple nature of AA.

Edited by Robaldinio
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Saving the base jumper trophy until last, only to find out that you can't actually glide over the city from the tower. Why the hell would they even put in a trophy that requires a whole minute of bouncing off of an invisible boundary?? :confused:

 

I definitely preferred the linear and more simple nature of AA.

 

Definitely agree with this one and glad it wasn't just me that thought it was odd.

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... Robin and Catwoman were more challenging - I'm talking predator only here, combat is so easy it's not funny.

 

I found Robin to be easy in predator... That is until my strategy for Crowd Control on Natural Selection (Extreme) in Campaign mysteriously stopped working. That is when shit started hitting the fan.

 

I really hate games that make you play through the damn thing twice. It can be the best game ever in the history of gaming but playing it a second time when you know what happens at every point is boring. Give me super hard difficulty as an option to start with people! Uncharted I am looking at you too so wipe that smirk off your face.

 

I will have to disagree with this. I can tolerate multiple playthroughs because I miss a lot of details in my first playthrough. For example, I noticed Black Mask in the start of NG+. While this may be small, another playthrough helps me understand the story better. Like for another example, I noticed why Wayne was in Arkham City. Maybe it's things like, "hey it's Batman, fuck logic and see what happens next" that blind my understanding of the story in a first playthrough, but I am glad that happens because I can still enjoy the story for another playthrough. That's just me though, I don't know about anybody else.

 

Still with all the things I didn't enjoy much overall the experience was great. It was my choice to buy DLC and my choice to get the platinum as well as 100%. The grinding on the challenges was entirely my own doing.

 

Remember, this is a trophy site. The choice argument doesn't matter here. We're all here to earn trophies regardless of the obstacles.

 

This is exactly what I was saying in a thread a while ago. If the game isn't going to reward me for going the extra mile and making use of everything available to me, I'm probably not going to bother. There were specific combat challenges that I definitely had much greater success with by only striking and evading, sometimes even reaching the top target with up to two rounds to spare.

 

Well you're still rewarded trophies if you think about it, but there's very little feeling of relief and that sense that you were able to pull off something you needed to put effort to complete. Since these are bronze trophies, this is acceptable if you think about it. You just feel that you wasted what? 40 hours doing tasks 3 more times while you can be spending that time making progress on a RPG. Making the use of everything would make matters a lot more mundane and would remove whatever challenge was left. In combat, I usually achieved the required score in one round. If you look at the bright side, only 1% of the game owners have these trophies.

 

 

I know I probably whined about AA's combat challenges a lot, but at least they left me with a sense of accomplishment. AC made me do all of them three times, and that doesn't account for any repeats within the campaigns (if there were any?). The custom challenges were a complete and utter waste of time as well... I basically just used increased health with the armour/weapon penetration ability and got them done in two or three rounds. If the knock-out batarangs were available, I would spend the final round(s) spamming those.

 

Takedown Projectiles were actually fun to use on both types of challenges. That change from time to time brings a little life into the challenges. Sadly, that was probably the only handicap that brought life.

 

The one thing I would specifically criticise about combat challenges is the blade attack that can be done by knife wielding enemies. It just feels out of place with the rest of the game... I can be in the middle of a huge combo, I see a knife guy coming at me so I attempt a disarm and destroy, but it's like the game just completely ignores my command -- knife guy has precedence, always. Even if I try to jump to the side to avoid him, he's able to simply change direction mid-lunge, and attack me anyway. I wouldn't mind them so much if the only possible counter-attack wasn't so slow and boring. Shielded enemies are as annoying when they randomly lunge at you with their red invincibility markers.

 

I have only had that lunging problem with Robin and possibly Nightwing. I had trouble pulling off that knife counter takedown for a while, but I don't really find it boring. I always made it a priority whenever it was coming at me so I had no problems. There was also bonus to it. 100 free points and if that is the last move in your combo, that is a Combo counter x 100 which gives you a shit ton of points but the problem is that it is pure luck to do that last.

 

The Riddler is the other disappointment I share with you, a disappointment that also lives on from AA. It's not the quantity of his challenges that bothers me, it's just how stupid his "riddles" are. They were slightly better than AA this time, but for the most part, they were still lame. What's funny is that the only times he gives you actual riddles are when he also gives you the enigma machine which tells you the answers anyway. >_>

 

I would not mind his riddles if his dialog was funny 90% of the time.

 

Take for example:

 

"You do not have the smarts to outwit this room boy. I'll be sure to tell the Dark Knight that his little helper died here tonight".

 

"What, really? No one will miss him. All you've done is tell me you're here." +1 when the enemies don't bother going to their buddies' body.

 

Those are funny.

 

"So the primitive monkey has failed. How utterly, utterly expected."

 

"Did Batman teach you that move"

 

"Has your primitive brain given up..."

 

You get the point. He was just annoying and poorly insulting.

 

Overall, I do think AC is a great game but I just think it tried to do too much and didn't make me feel how I imagined it would be to play freely as Batman in a big open city. In fact, you know what kills that the most? Saving the base jumper trophy until last, only to find out that you can't actually glide over the city from the tower. Why the hell would they even put in a trophy that requires a whole minute of bouncing off of an invisible boundary?? :confused:

 

I definitely preferred the linear and more simple nature of AA.

 

I believe they did try to make the game last longer, but there is a limit until it gets unnecessary, boring, and repetitive.

 

As for that gliding trophy, I want to say it was suppose to have something to do with Dive Bombing but now that I reread the description, it is odd. I do not understand why they wanted us to do that.

 

I definitely prefer AA more than this. It felt more epic and deep. The soundtrack was better than this game too IMO.

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I agree the combat was way too easy, as an Asylum veteran who platinumed it for myself and two brothers I was very disappointed that they were so easy in comparison. The predators were better this time round for me. They felt a little slow at times but you know.

 

The story of AC for me was very good, however I found it a bit too easy on all difficulties. But the story was strong and solid for me. Catwoman was a waste of time and I really wish they hadn't bothered putting her in the game.

 

AC and AA are amongst the few games that I enjoyed getting the collectibles for, can't understand how people can find them a chore tbh.

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Catwoman was a waste of time and I really wish they hadn't bothered putting her in the game.

 

Everybody keeps saying this, but no one says why. She's her own character and has a play style of her own.

 

AC and AA are amongst the few games that I enjoyed getting the collectibles for, can't understand how people can find them a chore tbh.

 

There's nothing wrong with the collectables, but the fact that it is overdone that makes it boring which makes it a chore. There's no effort required in nearly all of them.

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Everybody keeps saying this, but no one says why. She's her own character and has a play style of her own.

 

 

 

There's nothing wrong with the collectables, but the fact that it is overdone that makes it boring which makes it a chore. There's no effort required in nearly all of them.

 

 

Catwoman's combat was brilliant, loved her movement, the visuals, the voice, but her 5 minute story parts were simply dull. If you're going to put in a huge character like Ms. Kyle, at least give her screen time. They made it seem like she'd play a huge part in the game when the announced her as well. Two face was equally as saddening with his little cameo. Then, because her story is so small, when it does come back to her time it just felt inconvenient as something big happened in the Batman storyline. So, to me, we could have done without her really.

 

I can see how the collectibles are excessive and if you're not in love with flying around the city post game, it's certainly not something that would have people who didn't enjoy the game as much as I did, wanting to go back for 400+ things.

 

Don't know if you've playing Assassin's Creed 2 or Darksiders 2, now those collectibles will have you wanting to shop someones bullsack off and put them in it.

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Catwoman's combat was brilliant, loved her movement, the visuals, the voice, but her 5 minute story parts were simply dull. If you're going to put in a huge character like Ms. Kyle, at least give her screen time. They made it seem like she'd play a huge part in the game when the announced her as well. Two face was equally as saddening with his little cameo. Then, because her story is so small, when it does come back to her time it just felt inconvenient as something big happened in the Batman storyline. So, to me, we could have done without her really.

 

I agree that I was disappointed with Two-Face's role, but he is irrelevant to this. Catwoman's story may have been short, but really, the story itself was short so I find this acceptable and besides, she's extra. Like the side missions, Harley DLC etc. She played her own role. Except in the ending in episode 3 when she had to make her choice which got her to be "involved", I don't think she did anything, but I may not remember that correctly. I will see again during my NG+ playthrough.

 

I can see how the collectibles are excessive and if you're not in love with flying around the city post game, it's certainly not something that would have people who didn't enjoy the game as much as I did, wanting to go back for 400+ things.

 

But see, we have to fly all around the city for side missions. I've flew around all over the city for that and when you add the riddles, that will bore the experience. I don't know how you enjoyed that all the way through.

 

Don't know if you've playing Assassin's Creed 2 or Darksiders 2, now those collectibles will have you wanting to shop someones bullsack off and put them in it.

 

I've yet to play Darksiders 2, but I have played Assassin's Creed 2. AC2 only had 100 Feathers to collect and those were not difficult to be honest. I think it also had flags but I am sure it did not total 400 in collectables. Maybe 200-250, dunno been over 3 years since I have played it.

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... Well you're still rewarded trophies if you think about it, but there's very little feeling of relief and that sense that you were able to pull off something you needed to put effort to complete. Since these are bronze trophies, this is acceptable if you think about it. You just feel that you wasted what? 40 hours doing tasks 3 more times while you can be spending that time making progress on a RPG. Making the use of everything would make matters a lot more mundane and would remove whatever challenge was left. In combat, I usually achieved the required score in one round. If you look at the bright side, only 1% of the game owners have these trophies. ...

 

I didn't word that part correctly. You're right about trophies etc., I just meant that the points system in combat should be constructed so that complex combos are greatly more rewarded (with more points) than basic combos.

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I didn't word that part correctly. You're right about trophies etc., I just meant that the points system in combat should be constructed so that complex combos are greatly more rewarded (with more points) than basic combos.

 

Well, that would make the game an even greater joke with the current system it has. The combat system at this point requires little effort to achieve scores like 100k playing simple. If complex combos were greatly rewarded, you would probably get 200k.

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Well, that would make the game an even greater joke with the current system it has. The combat system at this point requires little effort to achieve scores like 100k playing simple. If complex combos were greatly rewarded, you would probably get 200k.

 

Yeah so just make simple combos reap less rewards. Even if they just made the combat as strict as AA was, where every button press had to very well timed (so you can't basically just mash square), I think that would bring it back to a reasonable level of difficulty.

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Yeah so just make simple combos reap less rewards. Even if they just made the combat as strict as AA was, where every button press had to very well timed (so you can't basically just mash square), I think that would bring it back to a reasonable level of difficulty.

 

Asylum's button presses had to be very well timed? Explain a bit. I recall being able to press the strike button during a dodge and it would go through. Counter also had some issues where it would rarely act like Batman had no one to counter when someone was trying to hit him...

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  • 3 weeks later...

really? In my opinion this game is far superior to the Arkham Asylum. The end of this game is just too EPIC and it got great references to the majority of the villains, what was really cool. The only bad thing i have to say is that the trophies for the robin and nightwing dlc´s suck!

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really? In my opinion this game is far superior to the Arkham Asylum. The end of this game is just too EPIC and it got great references to the majority of the villains, what was really cool. The only bad thing i have to say is that the trophies for the robin and nightwing dlc´s suck!

 

The ending was cheesy. It was good for comedy, I will give it that.

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Yeah combat are way too easy, the only one that is difficult in anyway is joker's carnival dlc map I like the predator missions though, it doesn't feel the same when using different characters even when it's the same map because of the unique medals and moves and the robin maps aren't changing except for the ones with the explode gel medals, those 2 were annoying they were more luck based though I have no idea how people can do a map like that in 30 seconds...

 

As for the riddler trophies I liked them for the most part, I found the riddles in the world map to be annoying though because you have no idea what they are talking about and the clues are useless you just stumble on something you think might be an answer or wait for it to show up on your map and I think there were too many easy ones, like times where you just have to hack open a force field there were like 10 of those and it's just stupid... but overall it was fine

Edited by Stalemate666
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Yeah combat are way too easy, the only one that is difficulty in anyway is joker's carnival dlc map I like the predator missions though, it doesn't feel the same when using different characters even when it's the same map because of the unique medals and moves and the robin maps aren't changing except for the ones with the explode gel medals, those 2 were annoying they were more luck based though I have no idea how people can do a map like that in 30 seconds...

 

Robin's Explosive Gel challenges were actually easy. The only tricky part was overkilling and not having enough enemies to do the other medals or escaping/setting up too soon/late.

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Robin's Explosive Gel challenges were actually easy. The only tricky part was overkilling and not having enough enemies to do the other medals or escaping/setting up too soon/late.

 

I didn't find them easy at all but I tend to finish the missions in under 5 minutes 5 minutes being a long one so waiting for enemies to get in place was really annoying

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Okay I'm gonna be the weird one here.. I could not for the life of me triple medal the combat challenges, I can't do it I have tried and tried but I just can't do almost any of the extremes. But here's the kicker Arkham Asylum.. First try on every challenge! except shock and Awe extreme that took me a second try.. Why is this? AA was completely try free for me but AC is like impossible..

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Okay I'm gonna be the weird one here.. I could not for the life of me triple medal the combat challenges, I can't do it I have tried and tried but I just can't do almost any of the extremes. But here's the kicker Arkham Asylum.. First try on every challenge! except shock and Awe extreme that took me a second try.. Why is this? AA was completely try free for me but AC is like impossible..

 

Did you develop a server medical condition which effects your hand eye coordination or reflexes or something in the time between playing the games? Only other thing I can think of is you are just trying too hard

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You know what to me it seems ground pounds are the key to Arkham Asylum and will just F*C* you over in Arkham city after watching some videos (thanks for the platinum inspiration guys) and you may be right Stalemate666 (not about the server medical condition dick :D ) but maybe I am trying to hard. Later I'm going to take on the challenges again, and Predator maps are easy to my point of view so no worry their.

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