1st Impression:
This game is fun! It's like a mini version of modern Batman games. You have this cool (but silly) story being told via comic art in the Batman universe, and then you go around kicking butt, solving puzzles, and sneaking about in a creepy, underground setting. What more do you want?
Though I can see why some didn't like it. One, the combat system is a bit complex. Two,1st Impression:
This game is fun! It's like a mini version of modern Batman games. You have this cool (but silly) story being told via comic art in the Batman universe, and then you go around kicking butt, solving puzzles, and sneaking about in a creepy, underground setting. What more do you want?
Though I can see why some didn't like it. One, the combat system is a bit complex. Two, sometimes you get stuck, because you don't know what to do, and as a player you are over-reliant on your detective vision. Meaning, you have to scan the area before you can progress. Also, yeah, the story's not too deep, or complex, but it works. The art, and music is rad though.
Overall, I find the game is well constructed. It uses almost all the capabilities of the 3DS to immerse you in Batman's universe. It's "2.5D" meaning it doesn't feel flat. It has an open-world feel, and you change angles a lot, and get to see in different perspectives.
Sometimes you crawl through air-shafts, and you are put in a first person view. Other times, you are perched on a ledge, looking down at your attackers. And they have slow motion, dramatic camera footage for when you finish beating up the final bad guy in a scene.
Another thing they have is hacking, and while it isn't deep, it adds a bit of fun by letting you use the system's motion-sensor. You can level up too, find secret areas, collect new weapons, and meet all the baddies you'd expect to see in the Batman-verse. Off the top my head, there's the Penguin, the Joker, and the luscious Catwoman.
Though technically this isn't as huge as the "regular" Batman games there's much to enjoy. All the little touches make this fun. And by the way the 3D looks great.
Criticisms:
After playing this game a lot more, I can see this game has problems.
- Spikes = Annoying!
- There's a bug when you rescue the Warden. You go into the bathroom, and try to open the door, the game freezes. This doesn't break the game though. You can return to your last checkpoint, and do it again.
- In the south-east industrial area, you climb up to this secret area, and drop down, and the game freezes.
- 3rd bug. If you return to where you already rescued the hostages it counts down again, and since there's nobody to rescue, you die.
- You do these weird tasks but get no reward. I exploded all of Joker's chattering teeth, and got nothing.
- Some slowdown in game, and slow but bearable loading times.
- When you're playing the game you can't adjust the map on the touch screen to zoom in, and out, or move it around. Why? There's also no active compass to tell you where to go.
- We have no quick travel feature to exit to go onto the next mission. You have to do a lot of backtracking, which isn't enjoyable at all. I don't wanna run around for 20 minutes.
- Levels are barren, and boring after you've killed the enemies. The enemies should reappear after a certain amount of time, and should be weaker, too, just so people don't feel frustrated having to fight enemies again, but this would also give them something to do.
- More baddies wouldn't have hurt actually. If it was my choice, I would've added in some weaker enemies just for Batman to beat up for fun. Guys you can knock out with 1 or 2 hits.
- Upgrading is such a chore. It takes too long to upgrade. The game designers have used upgrades as a way to stretch out gameplay, and make gamers explore. I don't think it's a great idea. It shouldn't this hard to upgrade. If you wanna stretch out gameplay, and make players explore, then have something else they can collect but ignore if they want. Maybe if you collect enough of "X" item you will get artwork, and videos to watch, etc. Or maybe you can change the look of your costume.
- The upgrade system should be like in RPGs. The more baddies you beat up the higher your level goes.
- The weapons you have should do more. Why can't I hit enemies with my Batarang? Why can't I stun them with the explosive gel? How about using the Batclaw to pull in enemies, and throw them?
- It would be nice if there was a stronger stealth element to this game. One idea I thought of, using the Batarang to knock out the lights, leaving the enemies in the dark. Then you can turn on your "night vision" and take them out when they're stumbling around in the darkness.
- When Batman jumps he almost always struggles. 99% of the time he barely makes it, and has to hang onto a ledge, and pull himself up. He's Batman. C'mon.
- Sometimes Catwoman gives Batman advice, but we can't listen to it again. Why not? Or am I mistaken?
- A few more boss battles would've been nice. It didn't feel like there were many bosses.
- Letting us replay the game as other characters would've been cool. How about playing as Catwoman?
- I didn't like the anticlimactic ending.
And that's all I have to say! This is still a fun game!… Expand
Batman: Arkham Origins BlackgateYour Score0 out of 10User Score
